How to survive Microsoft Interviews
A few weeks ago, I had 2nd round interviews for an Internship at Microsoft and many asked me how it went and what they asked. In an effort to help people prepare for their interviews, here are a few tips I found useful:
1. Relax, you already went through the first round of interviews, you can go through another round easily! They know you have what it takes.
2. Be passionate. Talk about your past projects, ask your peers and your interviewers about their work, show a lot of interest, you’ll learn a lot.
3. Get to know others with whom you interview! It’ll make your day more enjoyable, help you relax and you might make great friends!
4. Ask a LOT of questions during the interviews, don’t assume anything! This can save a lot of time and often the interviewer will give you a lot of tips without you even asking for them!
5. Talk through what you’re thinking about doing, this will help the interviewer help you if you’re moving away from the solutions.
6. Prepare. Read cracking the coding interview. I’ve read that book more than 5 times, and it really helps you, I’ve had problems similar to the ones in the book or even the problems straight from the book during some of my interviews!
7. If you don’t get the answer to a problem, don’t desperate, you have more than one interview in your day! Problems are supposed to be hard, just talked about where you struggled, why, and what you think you could’ve done better.
Lastly, Enjoy. Interviews are stressful, but try to have fun, if you get an offer congratulations, if you don’t, it doesn’t mean you won’t ever get one! I went through 2nd round interviews 4 times and got rejected the first two times and ended up interning there later!
Those are only a few general tips, but I really think they will help you land a job there! If you haven’t read it already, Cracking the Coding Interview is a great way to prepare for the interviews!
If you have any questions, comments, don’t hesitate, i’ll be glad to help!
