Strategies to get an Interview Call — Software Engineer at Microsoft

As, someone who has gone through the interview grind. I am completely aware of the struggles many of us go through to get interview calls and to successfully crack them.

In this article I will share with you my strategies which helped me in getting interview calls as well as converting them. I will also, share with you my journey at Qualcomm and why I decided to start interviewing.

A little background about me, I am a software developer with 7 years of experience. Currently, I am working at Microsoft and previously had an experience of 3 years at Qualcomm.

If you want to learn more about my interview experience at Qualcomm, here is the link.

Initially when I joined Qualcomm I thought that this is where I belong. The day to day work entailed applying my field of studies i.e. Electronics and Communication Engineering and my passion Software and Computer Engineering.

However, shifting to a new city is not easy. Initially I struggled a lot to adjust in Hyderabad. But, as time passed things became better, I made some great friends who made the experience of office even better. We were a group of women who were trying to navigate through the struggles of a field which was mostly governed by men. As most of the women in my group were my seniors, they always helped me in debugging my issues, giving me advice on how to prepare for appraisals, they even shared any feedback which they received from the peers about me so that I could improve accordingly. Things were going great, but after working for 2.5 years there I slowly started feeling comfortable.

Good times with ladies @Qualcomm

Now you would ask ‘Comfortable’ is good right? What is the problem with ‘Comfort’?

The philosophy which I intend to follow is that “Innovation never thrives in comfort but challenge.” And, knowing that I was not feeling challenged at work was enough for me. I decided I had to leave.

I had been rusty with my preparation so I took the following steps:

1. I took up a Data structures and Algorithm course from Geeks for Geeks and started studying.
2. I started revising my C++ concepts
3. Practicing diligently from Leetcode and even attending the weekly contests.

In the meantime, for getting interview calls I took the following steps:

1. Improved my LinkedIn profile by adding profile section, keywords, skills and explaining important projects done in the job description. I also added the awards I received and certificates of relevant courses done. Also, I added “open to work” in my profile to inform hiring managers and recruiters that I am open to new roles.
2. Got ready with my resume. Some important tips while updating your resume include adding only the most impactful details and fitting everything into a 1 pager.
3. Applied for job through multiple portals including LinkedIn, Instahyre, Hirist, Naukri and Indeed.

Now, some of us follow the strategy of only applying for the interviews once they are confident about their preparation. However, I followed the strategy where I started applying as soon as I started preparing. Whenever, I would get an interview call, I would contemplate on whether I wanted to really join it or not and that decision was based on multiple factors, some of which are initially unknown.

I would consider the following factors while making a decision:

1. Glassdoor company reviews to evaluate based on my requirements of good culture, promoting innovation and work life balance.
2. Job description
3. Expected CTC based on recent Leetcode compensation articles.
4. cool-off period in case I was unsuccessful in my interview.

Based, on all these factors I would decide if I had to take more time from HR or I could go ahead with the interview for my own practice.

2020, was a great time to apply for new jobs as a lot of companies were on a hiring spree. I started getting multiple calls only after few weeks. Considering, most of the calls were coming through LinkedIn, I focused more on my LinkedIn profile and applied the following methods to get more calls:

1. In LinkedIn, search for hiring managers or keywords like ‘hiring for software developers’, ‘hiring in Microsoft’. This way you can know whom to follow or connect.
2. Create a good message which should be brief but still be able to answer the questions: ‘on which job you are talking about’, ‘how are you fit for this job’, ‘how can the hiring manager help you’. This message can be used to get referrals. Back, then ChatGPT was still not available but now that it is at your disposal use it to write a template for you. Something like this should work the charm.

3. Create filters to automatically get the notification with lists of jobs for which you are a great fit.

Initially, I failed a lot of interviews. But, instead of getting my morale down I would evaluate what went wrong and started preparing for the next interview.

Feeling positive about yourself and knowing how to navigate forward is the recipe for success.

All, these strategies helped me in getting both an interview call from Microsoft, Google, Adobe, Amazon and also passing the interview at Microsoft and Adobe.

I hope my strategies can help you if you are too preparing for interviews.

In the next article, I will be discussing about how I landed my job at Microsoft.

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