I applied online through my career site. I also attended a resume building session and dropped off my resume, never expecting to get an interview.

I flew to Seattle, and everything was taken care of: hotel, rental car, and plane ticket. The first day there, I was able to explore Seattle. I was also invited to a recruiting event where they had rented out a bowling alley with an OPEN BAR for applicants to relax and get to know their recruiters. The applicant pool was quite intimidating. Everyone was from the top engineering schools in the US: MIT, Stanford, UChicago, Maryland, UCLA, Berkeley, GA Tech, just to name a few. And here I was from the University of Florida (lol).

I was able to meet some program managers and talk to them about what they do. The next morning, we were swept away in an MS shuttle into the interviewing room.

The interviews consisted of four 1:1 sessions for full-time and intern positions. All of my interviews were very technical. My first interview was with a PCB designer for Windows Phone, and coincidentally, my current internship involved PCB design for high-frequency applications. He asked me a lot of questions pertaining to my work and really made me think.

Ironically, my second interviewer was a lead designer for PC hardware, whom I had spoken with the night before at the intern event. We had a nice conversation, which then led into the technical questions. It was primarily based on Microprocessor applications, and I was able to work it out even though I had dropped the class that semester.

My third interview was with the Lead Xbox Designer, who had about 20 years of experience. He was a really nice guy, but this interview didn't go as well. He asked me a lot about PCB design, signal integrity, and PCB design again. I couldn't get the signal integrity question right, but he was able to help me work through it by applying easy-to-understand analogies and concepts. I felt pretty bad about this interview but kept my chin up.

My last interview was with another MS employee who was exceptionally bright in circuit design and programming. This individual grilled me so badly in circuit design. The interview consisted of two problems involving circuit analysis and op-amp transfer function derivation. I struggled a lot with these questions and felt that I bombed this last interview.

I was pretty depressed after the interviews as I felt they went horribly. After all the interviews, we were told to hang out in the library and eat lunch while the interviewers deliberated. One by one, the full-time applicants were pulled inside the office to be given their results. Finally, the interns were pulled in one by one. I was pulled in last and was not feeling very confident because of the 12 applicants there, only one had received a solid "yes." Two other applicants were given "maybes." I was the last to be pulled in and was extended an offer, which I accepted on the spot.

P.S. - To be honest, I answered a lot of questions wrong. But it's important to voice how you work out your problems aloud and show them what you're thinking. Also, there was no lack of talent in the applicant pool. What I did notice, however, was that some applicants were lacking social skills. I do not think I had the most intellectual prowess of the group, but I believe my prior work experience and social skills were able to boost my chances in the deliberation.

If you increase the width of a PCB trace, does it decrease or increase the trace impedance?

What factors control the impedance of a trace?

What happens to signal integrity as you increase length and when there is return current?

Derive the transfer function of a specific Op Amp configuration.

Find the collector current based on this configuration and voltages.