This morning I had a 30-minute on-campus interview with Microsoft. My interviewer, Winnie, is a very nice lady from China. She has been working in Microsoft for nearly 15 years and had experienced several positions as program managers, developers, test engineer etc.
The interview process is unlike other interviews that I had before. In the whole process, Winnie spent time looking into my resume and my job application form. Although I intended to apply for a program manger position, she suggested me to start with a test engineer for the reason that 1) non-native speaker do have some disadvantage in a management position; 2) many Ph.D.s are trained to have great logical thinking and excel in a test engineer position.
To evaluate my programming skill, she asked me to write a breadth first search algorithm, in which I failed. Based on her evaluation, I am more suitable for an internship position, which has lower entrance bar. An internship is a great opportunity for me to understand if that position fits my passion, as well as for the company to know if I am a proper full-time candidate.
In addition, based on her own experience, she suggested me to look for jobs in a small company, or even a start-up, so that I can explore different perspectives of a company. Latter, if I want to, I can move to a larger company so that I can know how to scale a business. Big companies are good for those who has expertise and depth in a specific area, and since I am good at nothing (know little bit about something), a small company should be a better fit.
Overall, it is always good to have career advises for experienced people. I really treasure this interview experience and hope that I can clear up my mind about what I want to do for my next step very soon.
Finally, if I really want to apply to a software company, significant practice on one type of programming language is inevitable. In that way, I will be able to write code when being asked a question, rather than just expressing my logic flow.
Wow~! It really a wonderful interview. Even, it’s maybe not a good result. But, you really understand what step you want.
Last week, I went to 陽明山 hike with ppk. He told me something that I never think. Let me know some other industry also need engineer which has TFT-LCD experience. I think I would find my next step after next Chinese New Year.
Great experience for ya! Thanks for sharing. Those comments you received from Winnie are really valuable.