I applied through an employee referral. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Microsoft in Jan 2010
Interview
The interview process was very straightforward. I went in on an employee referral, so since I had already worked very closely with Microsoft consultants before on major projects for the federal government they already knew what I brought to the table. Since I'm the security side of technology I interviewed with a total of 7 people, one person that holds patents for encryption, another gentleman that is the lead security engineer for windows in Redmond. So needless to say that they were intense. Questions went from nuts and bolts all the way up to well what's the big picture. If you know what you are talking about and have the confidence then it shouldn't be a problem. One thing is, don't say you know something and then try to dance around the question if you don't know it then just say you don't know. They only reason I would say that finals day is difficult is because of how long a day it is when they say all day they mean 9-5!
I went through three rounds of interview and was informed by a director that he wanted to hire me. Never got the off letter reach back out to the recruiter ghosted.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How do you deal with adversity and the Microsoft culture tree
I applied online. I interviewed at Microsoft (Rome)
Interview
1st step with HR: current status and motivation to change
2nd step technical: real case problem to manager and showcase of a personal project
3rd step hiring manager - software skills oriented
It was quite difficult and entailed many steps in the process. I was asked a lot of practical questions and theoreticals. I was asked to describe my background quite briefly before thet moved on