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Thread: SDE Intern Position Phone Interview (didn't get in, advice needed)

kaimen

SDE Intern Position Phone Interview (didn't get in, advice needed) Posted: Friday, May 02, 2008 6:15 AM (UMST) I live in the US. I had a technical phone interview last Friday. I interviewed for SDE with applications and webapps as my areas of interest. Today I got a rejection...below are the questions and my answers. The interviewer had a medium accent and I'm not a native English speaker, so I had much trouble understanding him. I often asked him to repeat...He started by asking me a challenge I had with past projects. I prepared two answers for this question beforehand: one was implementing a novel-ish feature in JavaScript/CSS, involving differences in team opinions, technical difficulties, and cross-browser compatibility; the other challenge was with a subtle threading bug that caused lots of grief. I thought MS would like the second type of answer more since they are mainly a desktop shop, so I described the project, the bug and how we resolved it. It was maybe a bit tedious and complex and I wasn't sure he got it...he didn't say anything. Next he had me open up Live Meeting and write code to shuffle an array of cards, represented by integers. I was nervous with that, since I was also speaking on the phone. I couldn't really think...I described the naive algorithm then wrote code while explaining. I was nervous and changed the few lines and moved things around probably a bit too much. I think he sort of hinted that I was going in the right direction. Finally I re-examined the solution and told him it's not the most efficient, but it works, and that I could try to think of better ones if he'd like. He said no. In retrospect, I maybe jumped in a bit too fast and coded without thinking through. I was just REALLY nervous. He then asked what my fav MS product is and how I would add to/change it. I told him my prepared answer, the lack of menus in Live Messenger. I always fail to find the add contact button. He got off the phone and asked someone on that team...he said there is a way to display the menu (a tiny button next to min/maximize), but it's not very visible. I agreed and said we should make sure users don't get frustrated finding it, even at the expense of the UI looking a bit worse. I thought I answered well and mentioned importance of users. Then, after much trouble understanding him, he seemed to want me to describe a new feature. The night before, I pondered this question to no avail...I must admit I'm not very creative. I thought of one about Media Player but they already had it. My friend suggested adding password protection to folders, I liked it as an answer but then forgot about it because it wasn't what I thought of, and I do have an interest in Messenger. Anyway, he had started talking more than me after he talked to the MSN guys. Somewhere there, maybe as a hint, he mentioned adding Live Meeting-like features. Well, I said it was a good idea..he said that would make Messenger more dimensional instead of just a messaging program, I said yes, and that it would benefit it because as a messaging program it is already pretty good. Then something struck me and I suggested adding sharing a folder by right clicking. It would be very convenient to share pictures that way. He kinda liked it I guess. He mentioned they have sharing, but inside Messenger only, which I am aware of. I again stressed visibility to users (inside MSN hard to notice). I think I pulled it off... Lastly he asked me if I had questions. I asked three prepared ones: 1. I am going to have a mentor as described in the internship listing. How is that going to work out? 2. What products/areas does MS focus on? 3. What languages/technologies should I be familiar with? He answered them in great detail, which was truly valuable, especially the last question. I thanked him and that was it. I thought the fact that he talked so much about things was a good sign (not that I talked little), and he seemed okay with my code (not 100% sure). He could have ended it way sooner (took 45 min) if that part was unsatisfactory. But all this is second-guessing now. I'm very confused. Where might I have screwed up? 1. Most likely coding. Just after the interview I found I left out a statement to update the hash set, though the algorithm was clear. And basically what I mentioned, my lack of "elegance" and command throughout the coding process. 2. Not totally good answers to the challenge/feature questions. I really couldn't quite help. I was already much more at ease talking than usual. Would they, though unlikely, let me know the reason for rejection if asked? I'm not too sad about not getting the job, just doubting my abilities..and where I can improve. I think I have a strong resume (college junior in a good-ish state Uni, CS major, made a medium-sized website for a company, 4.07 GPA good academics). I would think I could get a second round interview even with a non-perfect phone one. Perhaps that's not enough. My weaknesses I think are that I'm not a fast problem solver nor terribly creative. Possible minuses are that I don't know C#/ASP/Windows-centric type stuff (unlikely I know). I also did not emphasize the team enough with the job experience, though I was being honest. I later changed my resume to play down my part in that. I hope this is helpful to someone. Also, would people in the know give me some pointers, particularly with what I could work on? I'm really disillusioned with the contrast between high GPA and rejection in first round, although I truly emphasize practice more than theory from the heart. Thanks!