A seminar on Microsoft Technologies was arranged at National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences, FAST, Islamabd Campus today. Seminar was delivered by Adnan Hashmi and Salma Nisar, both from Microsoft Corporation. Seminar was all about Visual Studio 2005. Although due to some important appoinments I could not attend the whole seminar, but overall it was great and informative.

Microsoft is interviewing candidates from all over the world . We are coming to Dubai  in May 2006. We are seeking out for professional/students with deep passion and interest in technology and software development positions here in the USA at our corporate headquarters working on our major products. 

If you know of anyone that might be interested, or a bulletin board where it would be appropriate to post this, please forward this email.  There are multiple positions open and candidates will be in competition with themselves, not each other.

Please send your updated cv in word (preferred)  to pakcv@microsoft.com

 

Who is a qualified candidate?

* Someone who has (or will be completing this year) a bachelor’s (four year or more) degree in Computer Science or a related field

* Someone that has very strong abilities to write code in C/C++

* Someone that is very driven and passionate about technology, desiring to make software products that will go all over the world

* Someone with fluent English speaking skills

 

WHATEVER YOU DO, DO IT AT MICROSOFT !!

The reason so many people from various disciplines come to Microsoft is because we provide the most exciting challenges in the industry. Since our inception in 1975, Microsoft’s mission has been to create software for the personal computer that empowers and enriches people in the workplace, at school and at home. Microsoft’s early vision of a computer on every desk and in every home is coupled today with a strong commitment to Internet -related technologies that expand the power and reach of the PC and its users. You can help shape the industry in nearly countless ways, all while gaining invaluable experience. Our casual environment lends itself to freer thinking and therefore, creative problem-solving. However, the coolest part of all is the diversity of jobs. You’re guaranteed not to be bored.

We invite you to join us as we move toward the .NET age, the next generation of our products. You could create a world of change in one of these pivotal, Redmond, Washington USA area positions in the Microsoft product groups.  Here is a list of the core positions we will be looking to fill.

 

Software Design Engineer in Development

Design and implement various new components of the next release of the Windows operating system, Office, Visual Studio, .NET, MSN, SQL Server or other key Microsoft Products. Specific areas of expertise include COM/DCOM, ActiveX, Java, Graphics, Networking, and Base/Kernel. The candidate should have BS or MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Informatics, Physics or Mathematics.  Strong C/C++ skills, sound knowledge of operating system fundamentals and server development, and preferably more than 3 years of programming experience.  

 

Software Design Engineer in Test

Design and develop test plans/test suites to test various components of one of our primary products- Windows, Office, Visual Studio, .NET, etc.  Work closely with the developers and other test team members to isolate and resolve problems.  The candidate should have BS or MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Informatics, Physics or Mathematics.  Strong C/C++ skills, sound knowledge of operating system fundamentals and server development and preferably more than 3 years of programming experience.

 

There are multiple positions open, so please share the information with someone as good as you are. All positions are at our corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington, USA.  We do require functional level English language skills, written and spoken.

 

Please ask your friends, or any eligible candidate to email their CV in word format in English to pakcv@microsoft.com 

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer.

After recieving job offer, I recieved another email from Priya, my recruiter at Microsoft announcing her next trip to Dubai in May and asked me to publish this news as much as possible. I forwarded this email to all of my friends and published at famous places for Pakistan's IT jobs. Now many of my friends who applied there, are getting calls for telephonic interview and calling me for consultancy. Five people have talked to me today about details of the interview, so I am just acting like a Microsoft Interview Consultant these days 

 

I am ready to help anybody about genearl information like, how to prepare for the interview and how to appear in the interview? But please do not ask specifically about the questions.

 

Best of luck to all those who are appearing in MS Interview.

I appeared in interviews for a position in Microsoft last month. I would also like to share my experience with those who are planning to apply or appearing in Microsoft Interviews—it might be helpful for them.

Whether you are lucky enough to find a place in MS or not, if you have passions for programming; you must apply. Microsoft Interview itself is a great challenge; rather I would say it is one of the most challenging experiences in one's career. Few months ago I received a forwarded email about positions in Microsoft. I thought to try my skills and luck and sent my resume. After a long challenging process, I was able to make it and now I have received and accepted for an SDET position in Microsoft.

Here are few tips which I learnt from my experience. (I assume that person appearing in interview is a good programmer and have full command over at least one of these languages C/++, java or C# or some other popular language, but having grip in C/C++ is a plus in my opinion)

1. Although preparation for the interviews does not matter too much, because you will be facing variety of questions from vast subjects of Computer Science and general one. But still should go through major/core subjects of computer science quickly (I did not go through, but luckily I felt during the interview that I have a good memory, but it could be better if I had gone through some subjects quickly). In my opinion just quickly go through basics of OOP, OS, Databases, Data Structures and Algorithms.

2. Before appearing in Interview, do some practice on puzzles/riddles. Although I knew it, but I could not prepare for it due to busy schedule on my job before the interview and I was asked few such questions. I think that it is very low probability that you will face some seen question, but still it will help you in methodology to solve such problems (in my opinion even if you hear a question which you have already seen, it is your ethical responsibility to tell it to the interviewer).

3. Must follow good programming practices while writing the code. You will write fair amount of code during your interview so be prepared for it.

4. Whenever a problem is given to you, do not jump to its solution immediately. Generally questions are not very clear at first time. So ask questions from the interviewer to understand the problem completely. Do not make your own assumptions, ask from interviewer about any assumptions if you want to make. Before thinking about the solution, make sure that you have understood the problem fully. For programming questions, once problem is fully clear start with the simplest solution. And identify the problems, complexities (time and space) in this solution and then try to improve your solution. Once you have developed an efficient solution (Data Structure and Algorithm) and interviewer is satisfied with it then start writing code.

5. Think aloud while designing the solution or writing the code. This will help the interviewer to evaluate your solution much quickly and your way of thinking. For most of the programming problems, you must have out of box thinking approach.

6. While writing code, do not miss boundary/error conditions and handle them neatly.

7. Be sure that you are good in software testing. You will be testing almost all of your solutions once you have developed them during your interview. Read something about software testing before going for interview, it is very important. I faced many questions related to testing. You might be asked to test any thing around the interviewer, not necessarily your program or some software. The most interesting and most challenging question during my all of interviews was a problem related to testing, and believe me it was not about testing of some software or some program.

8. Like all of the interviews, you must be very confident and speak clearly and loudly while answering the questions.

9. For some problem, if you are not getting to the solution. Keep trying to solve it, and think aloud, interviews also evaluate your way of tackling problem. Do not simply leave the question by saying "SORRY", must keep using all parts of your brain till interviewer asks you to stop and move to the next problem (It did not happen to me, although I was stuck at many places for some time, but ultimately I reached at the solution.) All of the interviewers are very friendly and some times may give you a hint to get to the correct solution, so pay attention on all of their comments while you are thinking.

10. One last but not least, have a good sleep at night before your interview. Interviews last for a long time; it may take more than 4/5 hrs so your mind must be fresh. After each of the interview have some coffee, juice or some other snack, it will help you in maintaining your sugar level.

I will come with another posting if some other important and useful tip came in my mind.