Terrible Interview Experience-MSFT Principal Eng Manager Interview Experience
I feel compelled to share my recent experiences with Microsoft's hiring process, particularly about the consistency of feedback and decision-making within the same team and with the same hiring manager. In May 2022, I underwent a series of interviews with Microsoft and was informed that I didn't receive an offer because I wasn't the right fit for the role. Fast forward to my recent interview experience with the same team and hiring manager, where I received eerily similar feedback despite technically acing all the interviews and embodying what one would expect from a Microsoft employee, given that these roles are in the cleared space and require a TS/SCI or above. Finding people with that skill set in the cleared space is incredibly challenging. I don't understand why the hiring manager interviewed me again. It's disheartening to note that despite possessing the requisite skills and qualities, I was once again denied an offer, with the same vague reasoning of not being the right fit. This begs the question: what exactly constitutes the "right fit," especially when the candidate meets or exceeds the technical requirements and embodies the company's values? Upon reflection, it's apparent that underlying biases or ulterior motives may influence the hiring manager's decisions. The lack of transparency and consistency in feedback raises concerns about the hiring process's integrity and the evaluations' fairness. Allegedly, the job requisition has been open for four months, during which the manager shortlisted only four candidates. Regrettably, three of them were rejected after failing the interview. I was the fourth candidate, and despite successfully clearing all rounds, I was also denied the position. The recruiter who handled my case resigned due to the inability to place any candidate in the past four months. This is because internal hires or candidates referred by managers seem to be preferred. Consequently, I received detailed feedback from each round in the last two full loops. It appears that the hiring manager, and possibly others, are conducting interviews merely to fulfill formalities for audit purposes. My intention in sharing this is not to seek validation for my failure but to highlight the unfairness of these hiring practices. Microsoft must address these issues and ensure their hiring practices are unbiased, transparent, and merit-based. Candidates invest significant time and effort into the interview process and deserve a fair and objective evaluation of their qualifications. Here is the Position link as well https://jobs.careers.microsoft.com/global/en/job/1694956 Interview Process: Recruiter Screen Hiring Manager Screen - he asked me some technical / sys design questions and 2 Leetcode medium problems. Full Loop: 1- Problem-Solving, Leetcode medium hard 2- System Design 3- System Design 4- Managerial 5- Managerial 6- Director- Mostly Strategy & Execution #engineering #software #swe #microsoft #msft #recruiting
At that level bias in the hiring process is heavy in most companies unfortunately.
why because I'm brown??
Huh? You realize bias != racism right?
“ especially when the candidate meets or exceeds the technical requirements and embodies the company's values” I am sure you did great but how you know you exceeded their expectations?
I gathered feedback from my sources,
Long post, but absolutely no details on how it went. Your reflection led you to assume they might have a bias, and you think there is no possibility of you actually not meeting a criteria they want? At principal levels technical skill is just one part of what is expected. Leadership, behavioral etc matter more.
go ahead, I updated my interiew
? It just says the feedback was that you are not the right “fit” . This could mean anything. Usually companies dont provide exact feedback. And they probably interviewed you again because whatever it is they thought isnt right is fixable and not a big red flag. So my suggestion would be to reflect on the details and see what could have gone wrong.
It sounds like the interview experience was fine. You just didn't like the outcome and the feedback. I get what you're saying though. It feels like the purpose of interviews are to find excuses to not hire people. If you're really a good fit, it makes you wonder about the person they're going to hire.
This is the second time that I have heard the same thing from the hiring manager. Do you understand what I am trying to say? Again, I cleared all the interviews but couldn't be offered a role. It doesn't make any sense unfortunately!!!!
Not sure why you feel entitled to the job and are so dead set on viewing it as a great injustice. Just move on. I just went through full loops with 7 companies and a few of them ended up rejecting me. It happens
Maybe there were problems with the 2 SDs or the 3 behavioral ? These are notably difficult to self-judge by the interviewee
Another recruiter I spoke to looked into 2 Full Loop feedbacks and said you did well in both loops. The 1st one went to an internal hire, and the second one looks the same. The hiring manager may have an internal candidate or his own referral
I have had similar experience with MSFT. Great interviews, good direct feedback in the HM round itself and then a reject with no explanation.
I’ve interviewed many folks who were technically sound but just didn’t match the team from a personality or specific experience we were looking for, don’t take it personally and move on from that team. At L65-67 we need much more than technical chops and need to see leadership, empathy and proven skills to get things done across many organizations despite the walls
I have been an L6 at Amazon for about five years and a manager for about 9 years. I don't understand how I cleared your loops if I lack leadership, empathy, and mentoring. I don't know how I will survive at AWS as an L6 if I lack all those you mentioned.
The relies you made in this post had proven clearly you lack empathy, and you are an arrogant, easily agitated, hostile and toxic person, that’s why they deemed you not a fit.
This manager knows how to use ChatGPT.
You definitely sound like an Amazon manager.
While I'm emphasizing a very important thing of bad hiring practices, instead of understanding it, rather focusing on trivial things is very annoying and hence I replied to you that way, hope you understand
Interviews are a crap shoot and depend on a lot of things outside of your control. Acing the requirements is great, but the reality is you're dealing with people and people are unreliable and unpredictable. Could have been the interviewers had a bad day, just didn't like you for some petty reason, temperature in the room coulda been off, company is running interviews for shareholder optics - who knows, and I've found most companies will not provide useful feedback to help you either. You obviously have the skills, so just keep applying and interviewing - nothing else we can do.
Thanks for your explanation and concern, but we are working in a corporate environment and should make decisions based on performance/ talent not based on emotional biases and emotional instincts. If that's the way these hiring managers are, then I better not interview and waste my time and efforts
"I hope all is well. I wanted to follow up after your interview. I spoke with the Hiring Manager and he let me know that you are a strong candidate and someone that would be a great fit for Microsoft but your skills and background did not align with his team needs at this time" Twice the same feedback
Your responses here show why you failed the behavioral portion, twice. Do some self reflection and perhaps you'll be lucky the third time.
"I hope all is well. I wanted to follow up after your interview. I spoke with the Hiring Manager and he let me know that you are a strong candidate and someone that would be a great fit for Microsoft but your skills and background did not align with his team needs at this time" If I failed the behavioral then how did I get this feedback???
This is standard HR speak OP
Are you L6 at Amzn?
Yes I'm
Is this the L67 level that you are interviewing for?