What does it take to get a job at Microsoft, Google, Facebook, or any big company? What is it like to interview at these companies?
I work at Microsoft and have been there for several years.Microsoft has a reputation for hiring smart people. I used to think that this was just a public-relations thing, something that they did to make themselves look good, but I didn't have to work there for very long before I realized that it is very true. Sometimes I am surprised that they let me in.When I was in school, there were always 2-3 people in every class who stood out as the smartest kids in the class. These are the kinds of people that Microsoft interviews. Not all of them get hired.Most of the people who succeed at Microsoft also have very good social skills, because teams at Microsoft are often very large. Getting work done usually requires communicating with a lot of people, and those conversations are often challenging due to the different goals and challenges that different people have to work with. This is getting much better since the new review system started, since people are now rewarded for teamwork, but interacting with co-workers is still just as much work as actually writing software.Two of the most common pathways for people to get into Microsoft are contracting and interning. The bar to get into these roles is lower, because the company's commitment is lower - the default assumption is that you'll be gone in a few months. But if you do great work, the people you work with will either find a position for you on their team, or will tell friends on other teams that they found a good candidate. Either way, you end up with a good reference and and interview. (Maybe not right away, because it takes some luck, but eventually.)Interviews last roughly 5 hours. For entry-level positions the interviews focus a lot on coding skills, and for higher-level positions the interviews will have some coding and a lot of talk about what you've done, what challenges you have overcome, and how you overcame them. If you do well with the first three or four people you get interviewed by the "as appropriate" (meaning, only if the first few people approved) interviewer. This person will usually be your new manager's manager. If you get this far, there's a good chance you'll be hired, but it's not certain. If you get hired, you were almost certainly one of the smartest kids in most of your classes. Now, you're probably average. It is humbling. And it is also very exciting to be surrounded by your own kind. And you'll meet people who are spectacularly smart. That's also humbling, and also exciting.
How do I get a job at Microsoft India?
Other guys have already answered , here my answer related to the Skill Stuff :These all skill items have level starting from 0 to anytime, everything on a high demand, but again the exceptional demand is for skill, means that can solve business problem, because only business problem can give you the money. Go to Microsoft's website and see the jobs, and compare with the skills you have. so go there and see type of openings in the different departments of microsoft, that ill give you an idea what to start from any of these :Added some example :Front end - Pick specific javascript and HTML5 start from there,Back end - Java Stack or Ruby Stack or PHP stack ..you choose,Web designing - UI are you talking about ?, Are you passionate on it ?PythonUI/UXDjango, JSJavaNetworking - Talking here TCP/IP ?Machine learning...Research workIf you are sure to your thoughts then go for it, Above I just told you the way to select the best for you. But you still want that I should suggest you something then go for :Example ?1- Front - End - be the father of javascript, Ajax, HTML5 - and be a Visual designer expert or UI expert.Do not fall in general skill category candidates, where they will continue to negotiate your coding , algorithmic skills, have something different.Will you accept my advice, may be no. because you will verify it again ?,That's it for now :-)Hope you would have received some idea for what to do next.
Why do big companies like Google and Microsoft hire people who are good at competitive programming? Do they hire these people even if they are not good at software development or they don't find it interesting?
One big reason to hire such people is this is a good way to identify “diamonds in the rough”. Many top-notch programmers can’t attend world-class universities for numerous reasons related to their life path or personal environment, but competitive programming contests are open to anyone with an Internet connection.And while it’s true that skill in competitive programming doesn’t mean you’re going to be a successful programmer in a commercial environment, there is at least some correlation, and once you’ve interned, the company will have some clue about whether you can “walk the walk” as a commercial programmer.Your next high-flyer programmer may be toiling away in Georgia or Moldova or Cameroon or Uzbekistan, and a not unreasonable way to find them is to have a contest and hope they show up.It’s basically like an Open Tryout would be for a professional sports league.
I'm 35 years old. Am I too old to join Google, Facebook, Microsoft or Apple as a software engineer?
Of course you’re too old to join those companies. You think they’re going to hire you walking in with grey hair, a cane and asking when nap time is? You think they want to be around someone who has to go to the bathroom more than twice a day? Dude, you’re a fossil. It’s time to think about retirement. Coding skillz begins to drop around 35. How are you going to work 12 hour days and weekends with your wife and kids?? Bro, you know no one at FB, MSFT, Google and Apple even have kids right? If you do they lay you off (its part of the agreement when they hire you). You think anyone there will want to hear about your family and your boring life when what you should be doing is coding, partying and traveling the world to find your zen. Code, curls and girls === life. And what about all the free food and soda that you can’t take advantage of because you have to eat healthy due to your age? You’ll be a social outcast if you don’t live on chips, ramen, chocolate, soda, protein drinks and Soylent. Do you drink brah? Do you even play binary beer pong?? How are you going to chug back those beers with your 35 year old liver? I bet that organ is on life support at such an old age. You also can’t even drink 10 red bulls a day since you probably have diabetes. Even if you did get hired I doubt you’d have the respect of your colleagues (who will be, at oldest, 29). How are you even going to communicate with them unless you have Whatsapp, Snapchat and an Instagram account? You think they’ll accept you and your outdated Facebook account? Btw, you do have a Tesla right? Can’t drive into work without one of those. Don’t set yourself up to be a loser. Stand aside and let the 23 year olds code hard and code often while you go 127.0.0.1.Ignore the above paragraph.No you are not too old to work at those places at 35. You’ll be fine at 35. You’ll probably be fine all the way to 60 working at those companies. You can work anywhere at anytime at any age (though you may have to deal with some ageism). Just stay healthy, learn stuff and find someone to settle down with. That’s pretty much life. FYI, I’m in my earlier 30’s and still a software engineer at MSFT.
Which programming language should you learn if you want a job at Google, Amazon, Facebook or any big software company?
I currently work at Google. Before that I worked at Amazon.The typical way to get hired as a developer at these companies is as follows:1 - Get an interview - If you’re already established in industry their recruiters are likely already pinging you if you’re on LinkedIn or other job site. Otherwise referrals are a good way to do this.2 - Pass the interview - to do this you need the following:a - Be a good coder in a widely used industry language. Java is a very good choice in that regard. Most interviews will let you choose the language as long as it’s one of the commonly used industry languages (Remember the interviewer does need to be able to assess you!).b - (Probably most important). Be able to solve tough problems using data structures and algorithms. The book Cracking the Coding interview is a great resource for this.c - (For more senior candidates) - be able to answer design questions. Also domain specific questions based on your experience / the job description - such as distributed systems or networking.3 - Act like someone that other people want to work with. Communicate clearly. Show passion. Be confident AND respectful. I can’t tell you how many good coders fail at this.Final note. If you’re strong enough to work for these companies, then programming languages selection is not that important. You will be using multiple languages in your day to day job and will be expected to pick up new ones as needed. If you’re still thinking about language selection than I would say you’re probably not ready. Focus on the problem solving and the language selection will become a detail.
Should Microsoft Office be included as a skill on your resume?
If the job description specifically mentions that you need to know Office/Word/Excel/etc. then include it. If you don’t, then the resume parser may reject your application before a person ever views at it because it doesn’t see those magic words that it’s looking for. There are still plenty of jobs out there where lazily programmed applicant tracking systems or out-of-touch hiring managers can torpedo applications that don’t have things that anyone with half a brain would know to be painfully obvious.