I applied for a summer internship as an SDET with Microsoft before my senior year in college. After a fairly brief technical phone screen, I was asked to interview on-site in Redmond.

Before I left, they sent me a form to select departments I would be most interested in working with. I chose anything I would be remotely interested in, and in retrospect, I think I spread myself too thin.

When I got to Redmond, all five of my interviews were with people who worked on the MSN Money website, which, given the choice, is not something I would personally decide to work on.

They started with standard programming questions:

• Implement a function that finds whether a point is inside a rectangle.
• A conceptual puzzle involving a modified calendar.

Some of the people I spoke with were friendly, but I also got the impression they were a little insincere, especially when speaking about how much they liked their jobs and working for Microsoft.

I had lunch in the Microsoft food court, and it felt very similar to being in college, except the people were maybe ten years older and more predominantly male. It seemed like a high-stress environment, and the recruiter was definitely the warmest, most relaxed person I encountered during my visit.

During lunch, one interviewer asked me how I would test a pencil to prepare it for release.