This was completely unexpected news, even for me

[nyankoframe]

Hello nyankoframe,

I would like to thank you for your interest in opportunities at Microsoft and for taking the time to speak with us recently. We were impressed with your skills and background. I am happy to share with you that the results from your phone interview were successful and you will soon be formally invited to our interviews in Hong Kong the week of October 23rd. We are currently working on the travel arrangements, and will contact you with more details as soon as we have the arrangements confirmed. Thank you for your patience.

It will be interesting for me to travel to Hong Kong. I don't think I've ever been there before. :P

I'm not going to be over-confident and say that I'll definitely get through this round of in-person interviews. I need to prepare a lot more than I did for the phone interview, and prepare myself mentally too for the stress of having so many rounds of interviews and facing a lot of challenging questions. In a way, it's like Worlds or AUDC though, at least in terms of maintaining energy level. ^_^;

*buries self in laptop*

Comments

[itsacz.livejournal.com]

Congrats!! See, I told you not to worry. Good luck and have fun in Hong Kong. :)

[nyankoframe.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :)

I will definitely go sightseeing in Hong Kong as well. I already asked lavalyn about some of the places where I could go to. :P

[pengie.livejournal.com]

YAYAYAYAYAYAY :D I knewww itttttt ♥

[nyankoframe.livejournal.com]

Thanks :D *steals your ♥ and returns it three-fold*

I'm excited about it and looking forward. :)

♥♥♥~~~

Congrats

[donky.livejournal.com]

Take it one step at a time don't worry. How many rounds do you actually need to go through? LOL.

Besides doing the technical stuff, I would guess
(1) Read up about the company (its famous enough already of course), but some of its company culture and the likes.
(2) Understand the job scope and what is expected of you and use that to illustrate how you can contribute.
(3) Knowing who your interviewer will be and the position he is holding in the company will give you an advantage.

And of course, just be yourself during the in-person interview and enjoy your trip to HK!

Re: Congrats

[nyankoframe.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how many rounds there are but I heard it can be over 2 days of interviews, so perhaps 3 rounds (plus lunch interview) per day?

Thanks for the advice. :) I'll be sure to enjoy the trip as well!

Re: Congrats

[donky.livejournal.com]

Well, the fact they are flying you over there means they would be putting you through all of the interviews. But likely, you arent the only candidate, they might be flying all the potential candidates around the region to a centralized area to facilitate the interviews.

But either way, hey you got a free holiday (from certain aspects). Haha. They should pay for your expenses man (including food, and transport bills). In short, nothing should come out of your own poket.. :P

Re: Congrats

[nyankoframe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they mentioned that on the MS Jobs blog. It will be centralized for different regions.

Hehehe. I'll wait and see what arrangements they come up with first though. :P

[relsqui.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! :D No matter what happens now, it's pretty awesome that they recognized your coolth enough to take you this far. Tons of luck in the next round, and here's hoping you'll be near enough to come to Con 4. ; )

[nyankoframe.livejournal.com]

Yep, it is made of awesome. :) Thankies! ^_^

I hope I'll be able to go for any Con at all, even the June ZiRCon which I missed this year.

[antineo.livejournal.com]

If I remember correctly, some of Microsoft's test questions get kind of weird; they ask you things like how you would design a counting system in base _negative_ two and "how you would move mount fiji" (a helpful book, too) and such.

Good luck! :)

[nyankoframe.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think they're starting to move away from those kinds of questions:

Leave Mount Fuji where it is (http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/archive/2004/11/18/266012.aspx)

But thank you for your advice in any case. :)

[kawaiicat.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

[nyankoframe.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :) I really hope that I'll make it. Then I can meet all the wonderful people who I've been longing to meet. :P