A senior hiring manager contacted me, having read my profile. They encouraged me to apply to a few teams that matched my background and interests. After a phone screen, I was told to apply for a Senior position within one of these organizations.

I was reluctant, as I was aiming for a lower-level position, but they insisted it wouldn't be a problem. That was a mistake.

The day of the interview came and went. I felt I hadn't performed particularly well and wasn't expecting a callback. I was surprised, however, when their recruiter called to offer me a position!

It wasn't the level I had applied for, naturally, but I was still happy to accept. The recruiter mentioned a hiring manager would be in touch soon.

Three days passed with no word from them. I emailed the recruiter to inquire about the status, only to receive an automated reply stating she had left the company. I immediately tried calling the hiring manager I had spoken with earlier, but her phone line was disconnected.

In a panic, I reached out to several recruiters within Microsoft, hoping for assistance. Finally, someone responded. Later that day, the new recruiter assigned to my case contacted me. While things seemed to be back on track, my confidence in the process had diminished.

Two more days went by. I emailed the new recruiter for a status update. She called me back to inform me that the team had decided to proceed with other candidates, as I "wasn't a good fit for the senior position."

In summary:

• I was encouraged to apply for a position I was not a good fit for, despite expressing my concerns.
• I was left in hiring limbo without notification that my points of contact had changed.
• Ultimately, I was not extended an offer because, unsurprisingly, I was not a good fit for the level I applied for.

This whole experience feels like a bad joke.

Typical big company computer science questions. There's more of a focus on distributed systems and multi-threading than at other places. I'm not going to bother writing them down.