Microsoft Data Analyst Interview

Interviewed Sep 2009 in Redmond, WA (took 2 days)

The staffing agency called me and asked me if I was interested in a Data Analyst position. I said okay - thinking something is better than nothing. I usually work in the Bi space as a functional analyst / project manager.

I was called and spent .5 hour with the lead report developer. He asked general questions about my resume and concentrated on my last two assignments. The lead then called my staffing agency to schedule a two hour interview. The two hour interview consisted of a one hour overview of the system. I had a chance to ask question about their data and reports. Then I had a more technical interview with the DBA. I was asked all kinds of questions about large tables, best way to access, how to determine rowcount, cluster indexes ... etc. I didn't know all the answers... Then I sat down with a lady that acutally does the data analyst job. She was nice -- she asked a technical question or two. Told me about the type of work she does in the group. All in all nice people, but I did not get the job because they wanted someone really technical.