Interview Tips – A personal Perspective

 I’ve been employed with Microsoft for almost 12 years now and one the things I do to give back to the company is conduct interviews for the TAM (a.k.a. Technical Account Manager) role. I’ve done well over 100 interviews during my time here and really enjoy meeting and talking to new people, learning about them, their background, knowledge and experiences, and just getting to know them on a professional level. I’ve had some great discussions with folks, and some other ones that were, well, not quite as good. What makes a good interview and a not-so-good interview? Every interview has its own unique characteristics, but I thought I’d share a few common tips that might help someone interviewing for a role at Microsoft (or at least the TAM role!).

1. Relax. I know, easy for me to say, I already have a job at Microsoft! But seriously, I try to make candidates understand that an interview is really an opportunity for me to get to know them better, understand their skills and experiences, and gain an understanding of their fit for the role. Think of it as 2 people going for a cup of coffee and having a friendly chat as opposed to some sort of ritualistic hazing.
2. Don’t apologize for your response. Unless you’ve really (really) made a blunder, please don’t worry about hurting my feelings or offending me. This is an interview, not a court appearance – I want to get to know the real you, so fire away with your answers!
3. Be honest. I can’t stress this enough. Nothing will get you in trouble more than making up an answer. “I’m sorry, I don’t know the answer to that question” is a perfectly acceptable answer and will get you much further than attempting to make something up. If you’re willing to make something up when talking to me, I must assume you’d do something similar in front of a customer, and that my friends is absolutely unacceptable.
4. Please don’t respond to the question with “that’s a great question Kevin!”. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I’m fairly confident it’s a good question – that’s why I asked it! Often this can mean I’ve asked a question that you may not know the answer to. If that’s the case, see point 3 above. If you’re complementing me on my ability to ask good questions, while I appreciate that, we only have a finite amount of time together so don’t spend a bunch of it on me!
5. Be mindful of letting your answer go down a rat hole. Often, I find that candidates in their passion for answering the question as comprehensively as they possibly can find themselves going down a dark road only to find that at the end of that road they’ve not only not answered my question but forgot what the question was in the first place.
6. I often ask behavior-based or situational-based questions in an interview. I do this because I want to understand how you respond to certain issues or situations and more importantly your thought process as you work through it. Sometimes candidates get nervous because they’re trying to answer the question “correctly” (i.e. how Kevin would handle it). While I have my thoughts about how the situation could be handled, I’m far more interested in hearing how you would handle it. I don’t know everything, and I sure don’t profess to have the best answer to every situation. Moral of the story: go to town and show me your best problem-solving skills and abilities – there’s almost always more than one way to solve a problem!
7. Be prepared. Cliché I know, but you’d be shocked at the number of people that show up for an interview completely unprepared. Examples include not having any idea what the role is you’re interviewing for, not having a quiet place to talk, not having a good communication device so I can hear you, etc. etc. My personal favorite is not knowing anything about Microsoft (last time I checked we were the largest software company on the planet – how on earth could you not know something about us?).
8. Please don’t tell me you have interviews scheduled with other companies, especially ones Microsoft competes against in the market. What possible value could be derived from sharing this with me? This could be perceived as trying to convince me that you’re being solicited by other top companies (which is fantastic) which could then be further perceived as attempting to persuade me that I should really (really) hire you. If it’ the former, you’re mistaken (I cannot be bribed) and if it’s the latter, see my earlier comment (what possible value could be derived from sharing this with me?)
9. I always leave time at the end of the interview for the candidate to ask me questions – a bit of a role-reversal if you will. Please take advantage of this! While I don’t expect you to have hundreds of questions or problems for me to solve I do expect that you have something you want to know. Surely you have something you want to ask? If you don’t, it’s not a show-stopper for me but it does make me question how interested you really are in working for the company...
10. Microsoft is looking for top talent, and clearly you’ve made it to the interview process so don’t sell yourself short! Remember, we want to impress you as much as you want to impress us – it’s a two-way street. So be honest, genuine, show us the real you, and leave it all out there. Regardless of the outcome, you’ll always know you gave it everything you had and didn’t leave anything in the tank.

I hope these tips help you out should you land an interview with Microsoft, however I think many of these ideas could be used in an interview with just about anyone. Regardless of who you interview with, I wish you the best of luck!