2nd interview with Microsoft, any tips?

[Net]

Microsoft came to my college for a job fair in September. I spoke with one of the reps at the booth and they interviewed me their. It was casual, they went over my resume and asked me questions. Asked me about my research, no logical problem solving questions though.

I'm an undergraduate in Electrical Engineering. I expressed my interested in embedded systems and my research was in robot vision.

They sent me an email saying they are coming back to my school and want to setup another interview.

Can anyone who interviewed with Microsoft tell me what their experience was like? Types of questions, how to prepare, etc...

Update:

This is for an internship

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Is this for full time or co-op?

If for full time, what does your resume look like? Any real world experience via co-ops?

If for co-op, just be sure of yourself. Tell them you want real world experience as a co-op and learn about processes used in the work place.

 

[Net]

Thanks for the question. I made an update. I requested an Internship.

 

[imported_Dhaval00]

This will depend on your interviewer, but MS is big on "white-board" questions. Meaning, your interviewer, based on your resume, will have created a profile and he/she will come up with questions accordingly. Also, the goal in that case won't be on how beautiful your code is, if it is syntactically correct (that's what Intellisense is for), or if it solves the question - the goal will be to see if your approach is algorithmically correct. Don't be surprised if they end up asking you "write me so and so function that does so and so."

Overall, the whole thing is subjective for internships. All depends on how much you "sold" yourself for on your resume.

Ask lots of good questions (things like how can I become fulltime, team structure, etc.) and enjoy the free refreshments .

Edit: Don't forget to send your interviewer(s) a thank you email.

 

[JasonCoder]

Really depends on the team. For instance the consulting guys were pretty intense. They'd explore parts of your resume for things you weren't comfortable with just to see you get flustered. Makes sense I guess since out in the field customers no doubt bombard these poor folks with lots of questions.

I'd say remain calm and remember that it's not so much the answer that they care about but your approach to arrive at the answer.

 

[degibson]

If you're asked a question you don't know the answer to, don't make something up. Instead, say honestly that you don't know the answer to that, "but I would approach this problem like this...", etc. Interviewers can tell when they're being BS'd.

IHateMyJob2004 is right about confidence. Make THEM want YOU. Don't be a flaming jerk, though -- just smile consistently and genuinely, don't talk too fast, etc.

 

[evident]

Good luck! they are going to ask you some questions that make you think. they want to see how you approach the problem. for example, they asked me how i would design a fruit peeler. I also heard they asked questions like how can you tell how many gas stations there are in the us. there will be only one of those though. they will ask you lots of whiteboard questions related to algorithms/data structures to solve a problem

 

[KLin]

Err, why did this get moved from OT to programming?