I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Charlotte, NC) in Nov 2015
Interview
Relatively laid back and conversational for a high-profile company like Microsoft. They will fly you out to one of 4 locations (Redmond, Charlotte, Dallas, or Fargo) for a pre-event dinner the night before at a nice steakhouse. The food was great, but unfortunately you spend most of your time getting to know the other candidates and Microsoft employees so there isn't too much time to enjoy the buffet style food. This was very helpful and eased my nerves as everyone at Microsoft was friendly and easy to speak with. Left dinner around 9, went back to hotel to glance over my resume one last time and get a full night sleep before needing to be at the office for 4 hours of interviews at 7:30 the next morning.
You are interviewing for the Support Engineer OR Premier Field Engineer role, and it is my understanding that Microsoft will determine which role you would be a better fit for and extend you an offer for that role. From my understanding, the main difference is that Support Engineers need more technical depth while PFE's need more technical breadth and spend the majority of their working hours traveling and visiting customers on site.
As for the interview - Microsoft is genuinely interested in finding out if you will be a good fit for the company, so relax and be yourself. The 3 month MACH training program all PFE and SE new hires go through is apparently pretty tech-intensive and very thorough, so the interview seemed to be less technical and more behavioral as Microsoft believes it can teach any intelligent, driven individual how to succeed in the role.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
In reflecting upon your college career, name one way you failed, one way you succeeded, and one thing you did differently than others.
"Give me an example of some work you have done in *insert coding language here?" - only relevant if you have specifically listed that language on your resume. They won't ask you about a skill/language you don't claim to know.
The interview process consisted of 3 rounds, 2 technical, 1 Managerial round. Technical rounds focused on what you have mentioned in the resume, so be well prepared for it. Technical round was bit tough.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The interviewer focused more on the Windows OS stack.
After your resume is accepted, you will go through two individual interviews on the same day.
Each interview will be conducted online with one or two interviewers from the relevant department.
The first interview lasts 40 minutes and the second lasts 30 minutes.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
They often asked about my motivation for applying and my experiences working in a team.
I applied through a staffing agency. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Microsoft (Sydney) in Feb 2025
Interview
Interview was with 8 other people who all joined at the same time. During the interview, no other interviewers put on their cameras during the entire interview. Two additional people entered the Teams interview 20 minutes late.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What would you do when a senior IT manager was saying they are losing money every minute, how would you approach this issue?
