I applied through an employee referral. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Microsoft (Seattle, WA) in Jan 2014
Interview
The hiring process is haphazard. If your resume gets selected, you'll get a call from the recruiter. The recruiter will try to qualify you based on some canned questions. Your answers will be 'supposedly' reviewed by the hiring manager ( you'll never know unless you get a call for a phone interview with the hiring manager). The hiring manager will ask enough questions to see if it is worth to have you fly for an onsite. The onsite interview is the most comical process I've ever seen. You will be put through several rounds of interview with each round qualifying for the next. Everyone will input 'thumbs up or thumbs down' in the system. Consider yourself lucky if a senior person interviews you first and gives you a thumbs up because the rest of the buffoons will likely follow suit. Final interview with the executive is check the box type.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA) in May 2013
Interview
The interview process was streamlined. Referral through an existing Microsoft employee lead to a Microsoft recruiter reaching out on linked in. Followed by a phone screening interview and then an onsite interview loop which had 4 sessions. The onsite loop interview was getting more difficult as you pass one interview and move on to the next. The last interview session will only happen if all of your previous 3 interviewers gave you a recommendation to hire. The lunch interview is meant to be less formal, but have a healthy and hearty breakfast since you wouldn't be able to eat while the interviewer continues to ask questions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me why you are the best candidate for this role?
I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA) in Feb 2016
Interview
I had a phone screen via Skype and then a whole day of interviewing with principal program managers. I received a lot of technical questions on payment processing from 4 principal program managers. The problem was that I lacked technical experience and the role was too senior for me, they said that I would be a good fit for the company though this position was not a good fit for my skill set.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
A lot of technical questions on payment processing.