I had a telephone interview with Microsoft for the Software Development Placement position. It lasted for about 30 minutes and had two parts: one with motivation questions and one with competency-based questions.

The motivation questions included:

• Why Microsoft?
• What do you know about Microsoft?
• What do you know about our products?

The competency-based questions included:

• Give an example of a time when a team member was unhappy, and you changed that. How did you do it?
• Give an example of a time when you were confident.

And the omnipresent question:

• Do you have any questions?

The interview was conducted by AlexMann, a firm that provides services for selection and assessment.

The most difficult question, on which I had to prepare a lot, was:

Give a situation when you managed to have influence over a member of staff or one of your superiors.