Microsoft Offer with No Interviews

Raytheon
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Go to company page Raytheon

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Feb 11 23 Comments

I have an interview with Azure ML next week. A hiring manager said he will offer me a role for Azure Redis without an interview loop (after completing a technical screen), but he said I have to decide before my interview with the ML team. Both roles would pay the same.

I’d much prefer the ML role, but I’m worried I might fail the interviews and get no offer at all.

Will I be burning bridges?
What would you do?

TC πŸ’―

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TOP 23 Comments
  • Rule of thumb - the value of something in hand is greater than something not in hand. Take this role if you do not like it transfer internally.
    Feb 11 2
    • Aetna / Data
      irnman42

      Go to company page Aetna Data

      PRE
      Physicians Mutual
      irnman42
      But it is coming easy, easy will go away soon
      Feb 11
    • Meta
      richhea

      Go to company page Meta

      richhea
      Microsoft internal transfers are PITA. On the other hand, no interview hires are super unusual and most likely will require some sort of fake interviews. Just based on that, I’d stay away from that manager.
      Feb 11
  • Citadel
    amigo7

    Go to company page Citadel

    PRE
    Citadel
    amigo7
    That hiring manager sounds like a huge red flag and just put you in a horrible position. Tell the recruiter
    Feb 11 2
  • Amazon
    bemyguest

    Go to company page Amazon

    bemyguest
    Azure redis probably isn't a great place to be in
    Feb 11 3
  • Apple
    nozark

    Go to company page Apple

    nozark
    I will provide a different perspective here since others mentioned usual suspects.

    Desperation could mean that the team has a big budget that they afford hiring many members in the team. This could be a sign that the team has big growth potential which means easier promotion (especially important at Microsoft since the levels are granular).

    At Microsoft, it is not good if the team already has members who have worked for many years. They would have domain knowledge and you will need many months to just catch up. If the team is starting a new project, it will be a great opportunity for you to become a manager in near future. New feature implementation always trumps other work at Microsoft.

    Another factor is that teams with common tech stacks or leading tech tend to lose engineers often. Azure storage and Document DB for instance lost a lot to Google cloud a few years ago. These were hot and the recruiters at Google and Amazon knew what they were (especially Google). To my surprise, Bing also lost a lot because there are not many engineers working in search area. Many went to Google.

    I think Redis would use common tech stacks and the engineers would be a target for poaching. Whereas ML teams tend to use their own stacks. They may look popular but the skills may not translate much in other companies. Azure ML provides infrastructure. That means there is little chance you will actually learn about ML. If you think about switching a job in the future, consider more on the infra level, not another ML work.
    Feb 12 2
    • Raytheon
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      Go to company page Raytheon

      πŸ¦ΎπŸ˜Άβ€πŸŒ«οΈπŸ€³πŸΏ
      OP
      Great reply! Thank you!
      Feb 12
    • Yes Apple provided some excellent points for OP to consider. I used to work in AzureML team, and while I loved my experience, and I can confirm that there won't be too much ML work, it's mostly just engineering work. Maybe sometimes you might help out the scientists with some superficial experimentation work, but you won't have too much opportunities to develop in that direction. If you want ML+engineering work, that would be the Applied Scientist role (not SDE), but then the interviews will drill very deep into your ML knowledge. Furthermore, AML is a (somewhat) matured service, even though they still have impactful projects, it won't be nearly as exciting as building something from the ground up, which it looks like what Azure Redis is doing. However, if you want more structure and less pressure, it may make sense to go to a more established team like in AML. The culture there is pretty good, they have a large budget, so you get lots of small perks like slightly faster promotion, better hardware/subscriptions access, more morale events, etc. Compared to some other orgs i've worked in, where literally something as simple as ordering a new workstation is like pulling teeth.
      Feb 12
  • Citadel
    pkunfjzkts

    Go to company page Citadel

    pkunfjzkts
    It might make you feel like you didn't deserve the role if you don't interview for a few months after joining, so factor that in as well
    Feb 11 1