Interviewing with Forbes Ranked No. 2 World's Most Powerful Brands
- Charell Adagala
- Dec 12, 2017
- 9 min read
What goes into the interviewing process for a $54.7billion dollar, number one consumer perception ranked company? The world is full of labels. Some labels can be intimidating but just like any other interview process out there, its practice and you will end up where you belong. But nonetheless know some of you cannot wait to read on and know exactly what my experience was like interviewing with Microsoft so without further ado:
08/28/17
It’s a sunny, warm day and my first day of classes is tomorrow. This is my senior year and I cannot wait to graduate and enter "the real world" whatever that may be. Should I be looking for jobs now? Should I wait until further down the road? These are questions no one answers for you when you are nearing the end of your college experience.
I look in my inbox, as I do every day, only today is not like every day. There is an email in my inbox from microsoft@yello.co there today.
My first thought: spam. So I ignore this and continue getting ready for the second to last semester of my 4 years at the University of Maryland. It's going to be a great semester!
08/31/17
I changed my mind. I am not ready for this whole school thing after all. Can we press snooze on the school year and go back to summer? No? Okay, I guess I have to go to my classes again. It’s only the second day of classes for this semester and I am wiped. Whose ingenious idea was it to have all my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays anyways? Oh, yeah that was my brilliant idea! If only we could go back in time and tell ourselves not to make dumb mistakes. *sigh*.
I am sitting in the library in between classes and checking my email. It becomes a daily habit since I have entered college. It becomes so much of a daily habit that I feel uncomfortably lonely during the summer when my email is no longer being flooded by my professors. What a sad reality.
So I am checking my email, as I always do, and what do you know, there’s another microsoft@yello.co email. This time I open it.
“Is this spam?” I ask myself? Possibly so, but I am on the schools computer so what would it hurt to open a potential malware containing link and unleash hacker technology throughout the university? The worst that happens is we are all out of computers for a while. The way I see it, no computers, no school. Dare I say it’s a win-win?
So I open it, I give this microsoft@yello.co person all my personal information including, and not limited to, my Skype Id and my resume. What could it hurt? I submit my scheduling request and I wait. And sure enough, within a few minutes I get a conformation email. My interview has been set for September 6, 2017 at 1:00PM. Now there’s nothing left to do except wait.
09/06/17
You may not remember this day but I do. It’s the day before that huge hurricane is rumored to hit Florida. I have friends in Florida and I am completely preoccupied. Do I remember that I have a meeting with Microsoft? No I do not! Not until I receive a phone call around 4PM and instantly know why. 4PM you may be confused, just like I was. But remember the time zone difference. My meeting was scheduled for 1:00PM PDT. I explain how I am largely concerned with everything going on in Florida and ask to reschedule. Would you think that a No. 2 Forbes ranked World's Most Powerful Brand Company would reschedule? Let us think to ourselves.
To both of our shock and delight my interview was rescheduled.
09/21/17
Its 11:45AM EST and I am interviewing with someone who just woke up a few hours ago on the other side of the United States. Things always sound really weird when you put them in perspective. The interview was challenging. There were some tough questions and some easy questions. I would love to share the questions but I have been asked specifically not to. The interview lasted a few minutes over an hour and let’s just say that I thought that was the end of that opportunity.
09/26/17
I get a congratulations email from another microsoft@yello.co email saying I have made it to the final-round of interviews. I actually did not check my email this day. Shocking, I know. Let’s just say I was busy and my phone was running low. Not to mention it was a school day and things can get lost fast in the chaotic realm of a college student’s email!
Later that day, I get two calls, back to back, during an exam. You know that uncomfortable feeling you get when you swear that you are the only student making noise during an exam? When the Buzz of your phone seems so excruciatingly loud and all eyes are boring into the back of your head, waiting for you to silence your device? But you can’t take out your phone or you will most definitely look like a cheater! So what do you do? Move it to a soft surface so that the Bzzz will not disturb the silence.
Unfortunately for me, mystery caller is calling again. This is now 3 times. I get out of the room and I briefly glance at the number that called me continuously and because all of my brain juices were used up with the exam, I only see 4XX-XXX-XXXX. Because I live in Maryland, that quickly was assumed to be 410-XXX-XXXX. I did have a doctor appointment the next day so I immediately assumed my doctor had called me since she was the only unsaved 410-XXX-XXXX number I knew. I called her and apologized for missing her call 3 times. I told her to call me back and I would be sure to answer her call this time.
That night she gave me a call. It’s now 8pm and she tells me that she did not call me and whoever called me must have needed to talk since they called so many times. “You should call them back,” she advises. I immediately hang up the phone and trace my missed calls back to this mystery number. It’s a 425-XXX-XXXX. I still have no idea what number that is.
Ring Ring Ring
“Hello?” I say skeptically.
“Hi Char, it’s Richard!” Says an excited voice on the other side.
“I am sorry, I do not know a Richard.” I say apologetically.
“From Microsoft!”
“Ohhhhhh! Hi Richard how are you?”
This goes on and on as he tells me that there is an email about a 3 day event in Seattle that I am being invited to and I have not responded to yet. I explain that I may not be able to go to the event and he explains that it is a very important event and I should not miss it.
With much hesitation I say, “Ok, I will do whatever it takes to be there.”
That response is met with much excitement and while I still worry about the amount of class I will be missing and whether there will be an exam that day, I am excited that I made it to the final round!
10/03/17
I get an email about not confirming my attendance to the Seattle event. You see, I am still not sure about going all the way across the United States for an interview. I do not know where I belong or what I would be doing. Do I want to move across the country? Should I attend this event at all? My skeptical nature almost caused me to miss what was going to be the best trip of my life.
10/04/17
I registered for the event. The next step was for Microsoft to book my flight, hotel, and car. If you have ever been on an all-expense paid trip, you know how cool that is. I asked them to extend my flight until Monday even though we were scheduled to fly back Thursday. We shall wait and see.
10/24/17
I have not heard anything from Microsoft in a while. They send me my itinerary. I am flying Delta, window seat all the way, coming the 14th and leaving the 20th. I am staying in the Westin Bellevue, a 4.5 star rated hotel. They rented me a car for 4 days. I am not even old enough to rent a rental car myself! I am excited.
11/13/17
Today they send me information about my interview. Excited is an understatement. I fly out tomorrow.
11/14/17
I am scheduled to register for my spring semester classes at 9:30am and my flight is boarding at 9:35am. I am registering my classes, wheeling my luggage and walking down the jetway all at the same time. It’s lovely. I get on my flight, load my carry on and get seated. I have movies, cookies, and soda, coffee, a blanket and super friendly flight attendants all courtesy of Delta Airlines. I have a layover on the way there in Michigan and on the way back in Minneapolis. The flight was smooth and I squeezed two movies and a few games in before we landed.
I get off my last flight at 2PM. I pick up the rental car. Hot wheels! Lets just say I am terrified I might wreck this car. Just make it to the hotel I keep telling myself. But the view as I drive is breathtaking. I get to go across a floating bridge. Yes, you heard me correctly! The bridge floats on the water!
I get to the hotel around 3. I am exhausted. At check-in they tell me I have a $150 credit.
"There must be some mistake. I am only there for 2 nights." I say.
"Microsoft has already paid for it so you might as well use it," they tell me.
Use it I will. I take the elevator up to my room. The first thing I do is gawk at my view from the 14th floor! Then I run a nice bath and sit in the tub and eat MnMs. I know. Classy!
After a long hot bath I buckle down and start studying. I research everything there is to know about the company and about the interview process. I can’t just go in there uninformed tomorrow! After hours of studying, I order room service and call it a night. Tomorrow is the big day!
11/15/17
I arrive with an assigned parking spot right out front. I get welcomed inside with a name tag, free pens, coffee, nice staff, interviewees from all over the country and the beauty of the Redmond Microsoft campus. This is going to be awesome! We get welcomed with brunch initially and it is an amazing brunch, let me tell you.
The brunch doubles as a networking event where I meet employees and ask questions like what they love about the company and how their transition moving across the country went. Not to anyone’s surprise, they loved the company and even those who had to move across the country adored it. Voila! One of my worries was soothed.
After brunch we were assigned rooms for our 4 interviews. We stayed in those rooms and a different interviewer came to us every hour. I obviously can’t include my interview questions but let’s just say they were challenging but engaging. I was stumped for a few and that was a good thing. They wanted to see how we thought not what we knew.
After 4 hours of grueling interviews we were told to go live up the night with a $75 dollar dinner. Paid for, of course. We had $150 to blow after all. $100 for me because I had spent $50 on room service the night before, Shhh. I left there feeling pretty good and not hungry at all because, without saying, Microsoft supplied more food and snacks than I had seen in a life time.
That night, I bumped into interviewees at the bar in the hotel’s restaurant and we hung out and had a blast. What happens in Bellevue, stays in Bellevue. We were having so much fun that we didn't retire to our rooms until the early morning. Later that morning we would all go our separate ways.
11/16/17
Breakfast buffet at 10am. Checkout at noon. While it was nice to escape reality, I had homework to do. I camped out in the business center for 2 hours finishing homework due at 2pm. There was only one problem, I had forgotten about the time zone difference! One of my teachers understood and gave me an exception. The other, we will not speak about him. In those hours I finished all my homework due up until Tuesday so that I could enjoy the rest of my time in Seattle stress free. And enjoy my time I did.
I guess the moral of this article is don’t let skepticism slow you down in life and just say yes to every opportunity that comes your way. As for me, I am still awaiting the results of my interview. I was told 12/01/17 that there was a delay in getting my results. Either way, all is well that ends well. Practice makes perfect!
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