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I've been interviewing for two days now

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Late last week I was asked if I would be interested in interviewing Monday and Tuesday in Vancouver.  For whatever reason I decided to fly... it's a choice I won't make again. I really don't know why I choose to fly. I was bumped off of one flight and just missed making an earlier flight on the way back, but this is getting off-topic.

It was a really cool albeit fast-paced and tiring adventure.  Forty-five minute, almost sprint like, interviews followed by 15 minute de-briefs and straight into another 45 minute interview... rinse repeat, rinse repeat, etc for two days. 

Thankfully I was on the side of the interviewer rather than the interviewee. I found this style actually refreshing compared to the normal, on campus, interviews.  Each candidate would meet with 3 of the 5 interviewers.  We ran 5 candidates in the morning and 5 in the afternoon.  After each interview the group would meet as a team to chart and discuss the plusses and minuses of each candidate, look for trends, and decide on a strategy for the next interviewer. 

The candidates received real time feedback from the recruiting staff at the end of their interviews and in the two days we've actually had some of candidates that were given offers accept on the spot! 

Working interviews this fast with a consistent group was also good because you really began to understand what one persons bar for saying "+test" really means and the having two people in the group not talk to the person, but listen and read notes also helped bring an outside view to the decision being made.  

All in all it was a lot of fun and I thought the recruiters did a great job finding talented people and getting them pre-screened for us.  Unfortunatly I didn't get to benifit from the people we were hiring since my group didn't have any openings.  But the Team System groups will be getting some great hires when the folks graduate this spring.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 09, 2006
    Yeah Canada traditionally sends its programmers to the U.S. because that's the Canadian way.  But seeing this morning's newspaper, some changes are in order.  Canada needs to start sending its criminals to the U.S. instead, because that's the American way.

  • Anonymous
    November 13, 2006
    This sounds like a great way to interview. Do you feel that the hiring decisions made were better than the typical on campus loops? Is this a new way of interviewing student candidates, or is this method being applied across all the schools that Microsoft recruits from?

  • Anonymous
    November 14, 2006
    James: The method is typically used for international recruiting trips, but the college team says they are doing more of this style state-side as well. I thought the descisions where more consistent because after the first couple of discussion rounds you started to understand everyones bar and what they mean when they say something about a canidate.  So, for that, I'd say that the descisions where better than the average loop that I'd been on.   The bad part, I think, is that the canidates don't get to see the MSFT campus or get a real sense of the encironment here. Thus, I think it might make them harder to sell if they have reservations.