I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Microsoft (Bengaluru) in Sep 2021
Interview
I was initially interviewed for the Senior Program Manager position and after the first round, there was no response for a week, when I reached out to the recruiter, they said you will now be interviewed for the Program Manager-2 position. The first interview for Program Manager-2 was pretty standard and straightforward. After the meeting I didn't hear back from them for 3 weeks, I obviously thought I was not selected and let go of it. After 3 weeks, the recruiter calls and says are you ready to interview for the 2nd round tomorrow.
Well, I was irritated, but ok, and proceeded with the next round. The next round was very similar to the first round. But this time the interviewer was so much better and friendly, for me, the interview went really well and I thought it was the same from the interviewer's end.
After 2 weeks of the interview, I checked in with the recruiter and they said that all candidates have been put on hold by the hiring manager.
The whole experience with Microsoft has been really bad. Didn't expect this from Microsoft. Every time I as a candidate had to either wait or assume or reach out to the recruiter. It felt like there was no communication. There is not enough explanation for anything with the recruiter. Even if you ask what to expect in the interview, there are a random set of words thrown at you. You expect Mircosoft to be a little more professional, but unfortunately no. I have a feeling that this happened because it was MS India and the same thing wouldn't fly in other countries. Why do Indian companies act like you're doing a favor is something I don't understand.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
1. If you have to improve an ott platform, what and why would you improve?
2. What would you change in outlook?
3. If you're the PM for a food delivery app how would you introduce a chat-bot there
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft in Apr 2021
Interview
Microsoft in India, manages their hiring process quite terribly. India hiring is managed by 3rd party vendors, and trust me, they are not justifying the brand name of Microsoft at all.
They have reached out to me for this role, stating me that, I am a good fit for this role, and then they have initiated the Interview process.
First Round, directly from Redmond, HQ with a very senior level executive. I have to agree, the US counterparts at Microsoft are very good to work with as compared to India. Interviewer was fantastic and made me comfortable for the Interview. Interview went well, and had received very positive feedback from the Interviewer. Questions around my Product Management experience as well as early experience.
Second Round, here things got quite messy. Interviewer was from Hyderabad India, and was associated with Microsoft India since long. Since the Interviewer was purely from Technical background, he started asking me only technical questions, with a flavor of coding. Surprisingly, he grilled me only on my coding skills (which I left 8 years ago), and not my Product Management skills. I was quite surprised, as the Job Description for this role, was not in sync with what the Interviewer was expecting from me. In the feedback, Interviewer told me that they are looking for much more versatile person with excellent coding skills. I was quite surprised, why they have convinced me earlier, as they said I was a good fit for this role, being a Product Manager.
Request to hiring team: Review the JDs before sharing it with candidates, they are ambiguous. Set clear expectations from the candidates as well.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
First Round: Product Management questions, Questions around past experiences, How I managed different situations, etc.
Second Round: Find a word from dictionary using linked-list and array.
I applied online. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Microsoft (Hyderabad) in Mar 2021
Interview
Was good , cleared all 4 rounds and even submitted the salary documents but did not receive any offer letter...Despite constant following up !
Later read up that Microsoft does that most of the candidates where they keep interviewing for positions and don't provide offers for most candidates
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Product questions on existing products around us today(Ola, Uber) and discussed in detail about scope for improvement.
Hiring manager asked in addition Behavioral questions.