I applied in-person. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Seattle, WA) in Jul 2013
Interview
Submitted my resume directly to the hiring manager. After one round of phone interview with hiring manager, I got invited to the onsite interview. In the beginning of the day, HR gave me a list of only three interviewers, all principal engineers. It was very friendly, mostly about my previous industry and PhD work and then some domain specific questions to test my knowledge in different corners in this field. After three rounds, if they don't like you, they may let you go immediately. For me, I have extra four more rounds. One is with a younger engineer who asked more about programming questions followed by another very senior person who asked pretty advanced questions in the field. And then one round with hiring manger who is very technical and asked questions from high level to low level in the field. The last round was a long long time interview with manager's manager. He basically introduced their projects and talk generally to me in different areas. It lasted two and half hours. I finished at 7:00PM.
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