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