I'm going on site for an SDE 2 (Level 61) at Microsoft in a couple of weeks and I just got the info for the interview loop. Its 4 interviews, everyone is a Principal Program Manager or Senior Program Manager. Only 2 of them have ever been software engineers, one a sys admin previously, and the other a senior consultant previously. Wtf is going on here? The first interviewer is the same guy that did my phone interview and he was a REALLY great guy, but ofcourse his interview question was leetcode easy because these guys just aren't coding day to day, they're just not that technical. Can anyone shed some light? Also why is the lunch interview given an hour and a half of time? This is for Azure. I'm expecting the technical aspect of onsites to be a cake walk, like the phone interview was. I'm assuming a heavier behavioral focus than something at a company like Google. TC: 🥜
Never underestimate your interviewer. As they say "celebrate the past but don't predict the future". And of course TC or GTFO.
Yea I'm not underestimating them, I just did on sites at Google so that was my bar for preparation, I dont think I can under prepare for MSFT as a by product of that.
Azure what you need to be specific?
A big part of your job is also collaborating with others outside your discipline like PMs so the ones without SWE experience are prob there to make sure you’re not a prick too. Usually the interviewers are people you’re gonna be working with.
Yea they said they're trying to bring on SWEs for this org to change the culture from being largely PMs. I think I'm kinda the first in that transition, so this might just be the team that exists right now.
Sounds like you’ll be fine technically. If I were you, assuming what they said is true, I’d ask questions about what they don’t like about the current culture and how they think adding SWEs will change that for better and worse.
If there are no SWEs yet then I'm wondering there is some new product idea and they are recruiting folks to join them. But it's weird that they don't have any SWEs in the larger org that they can use for interviewing.
Haha that microsoft team is screwing with you
Your other question seems answered, except why lunch interview is of 90 minutes. First 30 minutes for lunch and rest one hour for interview with same person.
Ahh ok that makes much more sense. Thank you.
Most likely a bad team. Be very careful.
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Are you interviewing for a PM role? PMs at Microsoft are not particularly technical.
No like I said SWE2 level 61. My dad was level 67 at MSFT so I asked him and he kinda said the same thing that you did. The HM said that this org has been primarily PMs but they're trying to transition it to more SWE related.
it doesn't make sense that a SDE loop would be all PMs