I had an interview on campus in Fall 2014 for an internship. They emailed me back and told me that while the interview went well, they didn't have any positions available at the time. I thought it was just a really nice way of saying "thanks, but no thanks."

Fast forward to Fall 2015, when my recruiter emailed me and asked if I would like to go to Redmond for interviews, since the on-campus interview went well the previous year. I went, and I must say that I was very impressed with Microsoft. They even drove us potential University Recruits to their campus in a limo!

The interview process consisted of four 45-minute interviews in a row, with a 15-minute break between each one.

I was surprised that I was being interviewed for a group that did higher-level programming, even though I have studied more low-level programming in recent years because I am a Computer Engineering student. I think some of the other interviewees who were looking for higher-level jobs were confused too, because they interviewed most of them for the operating systems track. I'm not sure if there was a mix-up or not!

The interviews themselves were very engaging, and the interviewers presented challenging questions. I strongly suspect that one of the interviewers was texting while I had my back turned and was talking through a problem on the whiteboard, but the rest of it went pretty well. I didn't get an offer, but I'm glad I went.

What would keep you from coming to Microsoft?