A couple weeks back, I wrote about my resume submission and mobile phone screen experiences. Today, I’ll write about the morning of my in-person interviews.
I phone screened with a recruiter in early March and then found out the results of that interview in mid-March. Jacki (my recruiter) indicated that a Recruiting Coordinator would contact me about scheduling my interview and that another recruiter (Michelle) would be my onsite contact.
A few days later,
Office 2010 Product Key, my Recruiting Coordinator (RC) contacted me. I can’t remember her name now (it’s been five years), but she was really good. She asked me for specific dates that worked the best for me, and I requested a Friday. Since I didn’t have class on Thursdays,
Office 2010 Download, it was convenient for me to fly out to Seattle that day and just miss class on Friday. I also told her that I didn’t want to stay through the weekend (Microsoft lets you stay a day past your interviews to sightsee), since I had already seen Seattle and was anxious to get back home.
So my interviews were scheduled for Friday, April 14. I opted to take a taxi from the airport because 1) I remembered navigating your way from the airport to I-405 was confusing (and I think it still is) and 2) driving in drizzly rain scares the crap out of me (and it still does). Microsoft booked me at the Marriott Residence Inn at the Redmond Town Center. Little did I know at the time that the Redmond Town Center would become one of my favorite places to visit when I have a little money in my pocket or just want to relax and people-watch. (But honestly, who builds an outdoor mall in Seattle?? Love it though.) Cucina Cucina (a local restaurant chain) delivered to the hotel so I ordered chicken parmesan and a bottle of Evian and vegged within the hotel room all night.
The next morning, I was up bright and early. My internal clock was set on central time so I naturally awoke about 6:00 am. I was due in Building 100 at 9:00 am so that gave me plenty of time to take extra long getting ready, eat a good breakfast from the hotel’s continental offering, and watch the Today show. I opted to wear black pants and a pink sweater. Nothing too fancy and nothing too casual.
I was advised (wisely) not to arrive at the interviews too early (all you do is sit and wait anyway) so I arranged for my cab to pick me up at the hotel at 8:30, and I arrived at the front door of Building 100 at 8:45. Perfect!
My first interview was with my recruiter, Michelle. Michelle seemed rather chipper for 9:00 in the morning, and as she led me back to her office, she told me about how the RC really wanted to meet me but she was out that day. Bummer.
Once in Michelle’s office (which was decorated with a big cardboard anime character, as I recall), she prepped me for the interview with a few “softball” questions and gave me the names of my four interviewers. She then asked me if I had any questions.
At the time, Microsoft interviews equated to puzzle questions, and I loved them. But at the same time,
Windows 7 Enterprise Key, I was really scared of them. Back again at school, my friends and I would spend Friday nights drinking and asking each other the fabled Microsoft puzzle questions (yes, I was a nerd ... even then), and I could usually get them right (with some help),
Office 2007 Professional Plus Key, but a couple of (like the 3 light switches question) just blew my mind. So I was hoping I’d get some puzzle questions, but at the same time, I was scared as hell.
So I asked Michelle to walk me through the list of interviewers and tell me the likelihood of each asking a puzzle question. Pretty good question for a recruiter candidate to ask when I think back again on it. But at the time, I was just more concerned with who was going to ask what. Michelle proceeded to walk me through the list and tell me each interviewer’s style. Way cool.
With that, I was off to Building 19. 19 is where the technical recruiters work, and I was ready to go!
Next time … the interviews,
Office 2007 Activation Key! (And that will be the last post on this topic… I swear!)
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Office 2010 Product Key blog how-i-got-to-microsof
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