The Interview
Alright.
Thank GOD ALMIGHTY I got through that somewhat unscathed.
The Micro.soft Interview wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The 30 minute time slot is extremely short, but I think I might prefer it that way. Of course the ultimate measuring of success would be an email/phone call about a second round, but first impression, it wasn’t bad.
Questions were not quite typical of a regular interview. They didn’t really ask about me, they were more interested in how creative I was or how knowledgeable I was about the position I was applying for.
First question was why I wanted to be a Program Manager.
I explained that I initially found out about the position at the National Society of Black Engineers convention earlier this year in Pittsburg. I was a little discouraged as a lot of the companies there were catering to the engineering students which makes sense. Microsoft however was not specific to any major. I spoke with a represenatives about my skills and interests and she suggested that the Program Management position would be a good fit.
Throughout the summer, I researched the role by looking at different websites and blogs and talking to PMs themselves. Through my exploration I became more and more convinced that this was the job for me.
Next was what is your favorite application? What don’t you like about it?
I said Word because it is so versatile. I use for things like writing blog entries or notes, to writing surveys and proposals. I also mentioned that it’s an application I use daily for long periods of time. As far as what I didn’t like was that it wasn’t very good for formatting websites. While it is possible to create a website in Word, when looking at the code, one can see that the Word formatting doesn’t translate well to HTML.
Design a remote control.
First it needs a locater as everyone always loses their remote controls. I would steamline the design so that it naturally fits into a person’s hand (similar to the way a Xbox controller naturally fits) and make it adjustable to fit a child as well as an adult. I would position the most used buttons in a place where your fingers naturally fall. The controller would be universal and self programming in that it would have the ability to program itself to different appliances with minimal interaction. (Even the code search controllers can be complicated.) As far as the features of the controller, it would have enough to cater to the more technical people, but not be so technical that people who simply want something to change stations adjust the volume wouldn’t be able to figure out. It could be used in every climate from Antarctica to Death Valley without any adjustment.
Him: How would you make one for a blind person?
Me: Blind people watch TV?
Him: Exactly, lol.
Then I just asked questions like what the career progression for someone with my skill set would be and how technical PM’s are. I also got the lowdown on the new version of Windows, but it’s a se-cer-ret. ; )
Overall though, I think it went pretty well. My interviewer was very conversational and friendly, and once I realized there wouldn’t be any coding questions, I wasn’t nervous at all.
We’ll see in a few weeks how it turns out!
