I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA) in Jan 2013
Interview
The process started from a recruiting company which found me and thought I had a good skill set from linkedIn. Two interviews with recruiters and then two phone interviews with Microsoft internal. Each about a week apart. Full onsite interview was scheduled for a few weeks later. The entire day lasted 8-9 hours at the headquarters in Redmond. 6 individual interviews all were one on one. Good mix of technical questions and program management questions. Many repeating questions on how to deal with other groups that need to interact with. Lots of program management technique questions. A lot of examples asked and make sure to have plenty of detail to give. Most of the folks dig into things until they get what they want. Some questions will last 20 minutes. Know your technical area that you are trying for. Even if it is a management position you will be expected to know quite a bit about the technical piece. The day went very well overall. I got to the last interview which was not scheduled. I was told it went well and felt the same way. Left feeling like an offer would come. Never heard from them again so it was very strange. I felt like I nailed most of the interview and knew the areas very well. I have no idea what else they could have been looking for. I would love to have understood what drove that decision.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Asked about scenario's in terms of tests failing in production and how to handle it with lots of revenue on the line and also how to communicate to team and to senior executives about the issue.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Microsoft (New Delhi) in Mar 2022
Interview
4 rounds with a mix of peers and ++ level employees from the team's ecosystem. All interviews focused on a mix of behavorial questions, and system and user thinking problems.
I was interviewing for the role in Canada sitting out of India so conversations were scheduled late in the night. Interviewers were friendly and accommodating of this time difference.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
- Tell about a time you solved a complex problem for the company
- Build a 'follow' feature for Microsoft Start
- Any new-age technology that interests you? Structure a product based on that technology.
- How will you respond to feedback on content on your product - if management told you that 'objectionable' content is passing through the feed, how would you resolve this situation?
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA)
Interview
Went onsite and talked to some low level PMs about their work. Was left guessing about what the context and content was about the role they were hiring for as they seemed to be waiting for me to pitch a STAR story FANGstyle tailored to the role that was not described.
It seemed like this was gatekeeping for someone who was not me. I've had principal offers at MS before.
The principal interview was interesting as all people who've been at the firm for twenty years are. They were the only one that was at all engaging. It was unclear what they were looking for in our chat, but that was expected from suave executives who deal with skip and LCA continually.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about my projects that aren't public information. Tell me about how much you've stalked me in prep for this interview.
Lots of standard boring behavioral interview questions.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Microsoft in Nov 2021
Interview
Among all the companies I spoke to (and got offers from all of them), Microsoft interviews were the most humane. All people were nice, respectful, engaged, and I felt like I was sold the product more than asked to sell myself.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Mostly behavioral questions about working with engineers & questions on product design.
Principal Program Manager applicants have rated the interview process at Microsoft with 2.9 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 50% positive. To compare, the company-average is 66.4% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Principal Program Manager roles take an average of 42 days to get hired, when considering 16 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Microsoft overall takes an average of 30 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Microsoft as a Principal Program Manager according to 16 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 29%
One on one interview: 29%
Group panel interview: 17%
Presentation: 10%
Drug test: 7%
Skills test: 7%
Background check: 2%
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