M$ Interview

I like giving interviews .. simply because they keep me updated of latest techs and to put it bluntly my contemporary cost. But I was at M$ for a different reason .. to know if M$ is really as bad as the open source community claim.

This was an "only IITians" walkin at pune. The first day, I went there wearing a "Got Linux" t-shirt and ppl there didn't seem to mind it. The HRrahulpc@microsoft.com) welcomed me and showed me a room make myself comfortable.

My first interviewer was wearing a pink shirt with "Microsoft" imprinted on the collar. He started of asking my work and then started asking me some stupid questions which he called "puzzles". They included all kind of questions like "what is a link list" and "how can you make it circular". Finally he convinced himself that i wasn't probably as stupid as i look and gave me some more questions. He demanded some "tight code" for -

1. Reverse a link list
2. Sort a given string.

This reminded me of my worst prof ever "Hon. Dr. P. K. Das" of IIT Guwahati. I still respect that man ... coz he did teach me one thing - "There would always be one person, much more stupid than you and yet sitting on your head if not making more money than you."

I asked this interviewer again .. if i was being interviwed for a Q.A job, but he told me that i was being considered for a R&D job for the mobile computing group. For the second question I tried to use "String Tries", but very soon came to know that i am crossing my interviewers intelligence level.

Anyways this interview got over and I met this guy dressed smartly and looking at my t-shirt .. as if some stupid has entered the room. He gave me a lecture about "Enterprise Software Development" and how Linux lacks it.

Rest of the interview was as stupid as the previous one .. write a code, find mistakes in it and write test cases. I tried to suggest that probably .. asking me some analytical questions should be better. But i guess i was taken for a fool.

Next day i decided not to go for an interview .. but the HR gave me a call that I should come as my interviews were going *very good*. And stupid of me that i again went there.

But, this was a good day. I met the manager of "mobile computing group". I tried explainig him that i wasn't been tested me for my skill sets. He gave me a puzzle which was similiar to the Chinese Postman problem. I liked it.

And then asked me a mix of good and stupid questions like -
1. What is the common filesystem on linux.
i said .. ext2
2. which company makes it.
well ... it can be the guy next door also.
3. Whats the max path length in ext2
4096 ( he must be googling ;-)
4. How are acls or xattrs organized on disk in ext2.
There are common blocks on the disk and different inodes point to same.
5. How is OS security integrated with filesystem security.
6. Does filesystem security depend upon support from processor.
yes.

anyways he made me an offer (some 8+ lakh annum).. and i told him frankly that if the work is going to me same as the skillsets i have been tested upon, I would not be happy doing it and he can hire a person half the cost as mine to do the same. I walked out.

Thoughout the interview i could feel that these guys dont know anything ouside M$ and they are anything but IITians.

Then HR requested me to meet one of the directors of technology, this guy was smart. He was ready to listen .. i showed him my blog and told him what veritas tested me for. He gave me to design a scheduler and then tested me on a graph problem.

All went well and he talked to me about a position in the Windows Server group and asked me to Hyd for some more interviews.

And then in next few days ... I faced the might of HR. I got a call from Vijaya (Vijaya Talluri v-vijtal@microsoft.com) from Microsoft asking me to join them in Hyd for an interview. I told them my apprehentions about taking a leave .. but she insisted me to take one. Then finally i decided to take a leave .. and she sent me details of flight and accomodations. I recieved a little under a dozen more ppl for the same.

I planned o fly on a friday at 5:30 and about 10 AM same day i get a call from her saying the position i was looking for i filled so she would .. help me get in touch with another HR person.

This is idiotic new character in the story .. calls me at 3PM asking me to prepare for an interview at 6PM. I told her .. that even if I want to I can't take calls during a flight. And then she quite easily says .. that i should drop the idea about flight and take a leave the following week. This fumed me .. and i blasted off .. and to my utter surprise she simply dropped the phone over me.

Next i get a call from Rahul apologizin for the same and told me that I recieved a 5 star "must hire rating" from that director and thats the reason M$ wants to take me in... Finally that stupid HR again called up acting as if nothing has happened.

This time ... i dropped the phone. Thrice.

And, they never spammed again.