Before Microsoft Interview (Getting Ready)

You might want to read the previous post Road To Microsoft.

Good Communication skills, Good Communication skills, Good Communication skills.. That's one of the most important things that u need when u talk with any interviewer, remember, u r going to be their team mate, so u must know how to communicate with them. Interviewers are normal people like u and me; So dont be afraid from them, act normal, be urself, smile, it's very important to smile. Yes ofcourse u must be technically ready before any of this, and even more important is being smart and show how smart and creative u r.


Before the live interview, I started reading about how MS interviews go, reading others' blogs, I started to ask my friends whom had interviews with MS before, I wanted to know how the interviewers talk, how they act, how they ask, where do u guys sit, what does the rooms look like, what they care about, what they stress about, everything, and I mean everything. I even read what to wear and what colors should we wear.

I started to look for Microsoft interview questions on google, I asked meshref and yasser what questions they have been asked in their previous interview, how they thought about it, how they were interacting with the interviewer. I was almost very calm before the interview, don't know why!.

Anyway, The interview was being held in the "4 Seasons hotel", they sent me all the information and asked if I need a plane or train ticket to go to the interview, and they asked me to keep any receipt that I'll spend to go to the interview so that they could be able to pay me back, they asked me to scan the passport and a transcript of my college degree even before the interview and send it to them.

The interviews were going to be held in two successive days, Thursday and Friday, my interview was scheduled to be on Thursday at 8:00am to 1:00pm (First group). They hold 2 interview groups in each day, where each group contains about 5, 6 or even 7 interviewees, the second group start at 2:00pm and also takes almost about 5 hours(If u r lucky enough to pass all).

I went to the interview almost at 7:45am, as a normal person I asked where are Microsoft's interviews being held, I remember they told me its on the third floor and they gave me 4 room numbers, I went to the rooms where I saw no one, I was heading back again to the lobby to ask again, that's when I saw an interviewer, he asked me "Microsoft Interview?", I answered yes, "First room on the right" he said, "Thanks" I answered smiling.

I was the 4th person arriving, I already knew that 2 of my group interviewing with me are friends of mine whom I know (A boy and a girl), both have been offered a position as professors assistants in my college. The problem is, this boy, was actually the supervisor assistant on my graduation project and he's very smart, and he was a team member in the team winning the 4th position in the 2004 ACM ICPC contest over Middle East and North Africa.

A HR welcomed us and started telling us the rules, we were not allowed to talk in Arabic in the whole interview process (even between interviews), and ofcourse we were not allowed to talk to each other about questions we have been asked.

Five interviewers all wearing casual came to the room, each had a CV and other papers in his hand, and each called for one of us. And there it was my first interview was about to start. He took me to another room, we sat on a small table facing each other and a labtop infront of him, there were some papers and a pen on the table too. He introduced himself, I didn't really understand and his English was not very clear, but as I understood, he developed something concerning the TCP/IP in the windows OS. After that he started reading my CV and then asked me my first question... Next Post.

Next: First Interview

Harf..!!

Ofcourse u 'll all remember a previous post about Harf, and how angry I was from the management there. Well, here is what happened from this last post, I thought I 'd stay the next few months in Harf, and since I'm leaving anyway, I should be cool about anything. Untill another day I had a fight with the project manager, then I thought that's it.. I 'm leaving. Today, the most sudden and unexpected decision has been made by Harf's management... The management hierarchal has been changed!!.


Yes, Harf management hierarchal has been changed and the projects manager has resigned from her position!!.. None expected that this 'd happen. What happened?!.. Don't know, no one does!!.. The new hierarchy stats that every department now has its own manager, and he is responsible for his department from A-Z. So now my new manager is Eng. Wael Al Ghool, He is a very respectfull and honorable man, very strong developer and software engineer.

Another weird thing that I want to talk about is, yes I might have had some problems with the management, but still, till now, I'm part of Harf's team, yes I fight for my right in there, but I don't like anyone to be sarcastic about Harf. I find that weird, but its not, its just like when we crictise Egypt, but believe me u wont even hold urself if any foreigner talked about Egypt in a bad way infront of u, and the least is that U 'll be truly offended. God bless Harf and help all the department managers in their job, Because Harf really contains many of the best developers that I have ever worked with, and ofcourse what matters the most is, Harf delivers many Islamic information and applications that help the whole Islamic society in a way not found in any company in the world.

that's it.. Probably in the next post, I 'll start to write again about my Microsoft interview experience. c u all.

Graduation ceremony

Yesterday evening.. We were all gathered again, me and all my friends from college (except for yasser, meshref and neri)..First of all, Mabroooook le m7mood w hebaaaaaaaa... (F)(F)(F)(F)(F).. w 32bal ya rab ma nfra7 be awladko ya raaaaaaab... back to the ceremony, actually I wont mention alot about it but when I was going home, I started thinking..

How didnt I notice that this might be the last time I see some of u!!.. could this be true!!.. Howcome we didnt spend more time together!!!.. how did we even dare to leave each other!!.. dont we know that we wont c eachother for quite a while!!!!.. I started thinking.. how will I be able to leave u and go to MS?!.. how will I live there without u all?!.. ur faces keeps on coming to my head.. I remember everyone.. I read ur comments in the year book.. I love u ya shbab.. here is a memory that we 'll all never forget... do u remember last day we all went to the bowling center together?.. :) how we all cried?!.. do u remember how touching this moment was?.. do u remember the best 4 years of our life together?.. can anyone imagine how fast it went?.. could any one of us have imagined that everybody else is a pearl to him.. and that he really cant forget him?.. did we ever imagine that everyone of us touched other's lifes?!.. I hope I have touched ur heart.. I hope that we 'll always be close even if I know that this could hardly happen.. I want u all, to start thinking about all of us, appreciate the moments, but don't forget to appreciate the moments that u r living now too.. coz it wont last just like college days... Enjoy it while it lasts.. Miss u all.. now spend the next 10 min dreaming about our moments together and try to hold ur tears, coz when u really think about it, we really might not c eachother for a long time...