I first received a tentative invitation from a Microsoft recruiter to attend a "hiring event." Several days later, I had a technical phone interview with an engineer who had a very heavy accent. Apparently, I passed because I was given a formal invitation to the hiring event in Redmond. Microsoft paid for my airfare, car rental, and hotel.

I arrived at Microsoft early to find the doors locked. Other interviewees and I stood outside until another interviewee, who happened to be already inside, opened the door for us. We slowly met the Microsoft recruiting staff. With one bright exception, they were dressed sloppily and had few answers. It was only then I learned the group with whom I would be interviewing; it was a group in which I had no interest. I would have rejected the interview outright had I known this information from the beginning. I seriously considered walking out.

The dozen of us were each ushered into small, very nice interview rooms, each with a table, two chairs, and a whiteboard. We all had four, 45-minute interviews with a 15-minute break between them. This bothered me because I'd been led to believe that this was a whole-day event and had made my schedule with this in mind.

It was very obvious that the first hiring manager had already made up his mind. He was a bit rude. He would ask questions and then try to interrupt me mid-sentence. When I didn't let him, he got upset. I don't remember his technical question, but it was absurd.

The next two interviews were interesting, though the third interview of the day was entirely about solving a problem with no other questions asked. I thought them extremely pointless. The last interview was one of the most interesting in my career. The manager was a fascinating man and spent his entire time asking me pointed questions in an attempt to see where I would fit in his organization. He explained what various teams did and made it clear that he didn't know where I would fit due to my skill set and experience—something I was wondering about myself. The questions helped me form my greatest skill in a different way, which I found very useful.

All in all, I found the process frustrating, pointless, and offensive. I failed to see how all but the last manager could determine anything. I found that the hiring staff and one hiring manager were very unprofessional. Above all, they acted like I was dying to work there. I was made to feel like a cog in a wheel, and I had no doubt that is what it would be like to be a Microsoft employee (that may not be true, but that is how I was made to feel).

To top it all off, despite reassurances otherwise, I wasn't told the results of my interview until I contacted the recruiter. His response was curt and entirely unhelpful.

I should add that I've never been to the Seattle area and found that I didn't like it. The traffic, especially, was bad.

Given a set of teams, which one would I be the most effective on, and which one would I enjoy being on?