Microsoft Interviews -- Take Five

I'm currently interviewing with no less than 7 different firms, but lo and behold Microsoft has called me again about another position they have open (read this post for a little background on my experiences interviewing over at The Collective), so this will make interview number 5 that I've had with them over the past 4 years for a fulltime position. 

Just to recap:

1. Back in January '03 I screened for a level 2 support position in PSS (Product Support Services).  I was actually already 8 months into a 1 year contract position with MS, however they had a fulltime slot open up so 3 of us were chosen to screen for it.  I was still pretty fresh into my career and a bit uncertain (and also seriously lacking interview skills), so while I did excellent on the technical portion of the screen, I flopped a little during the HR portion; specifically on the "where do you see yourself in x years" questions.  I was later told that my uncertainty is what cost me an offer.
2. Fast forward to January of '05 and a buddy of mine hooked me up with an MCS (Microsoft Consulting Services) recruiter.  I made it about halfway through the screen before opting not to go any further.  I don't think I would have been a good fit at that time in my life, and was later told that it was probably better that I didn't join the MCS team (for reasons I won't go into here).
3. Later that summer I screened for a SQL Server Escalation Engineer position within PSS.  I made it through 2 phone screens, and 4 face to face screens (which is all of them for anyone keeping count, which I've been told is an accomplishment in itself) however once again I was lacking a particular necessary skillset...in this case they needed someone with strong C/C++ debugging and coding skills as the EE's are the guys who write QFE's (Quick Fix Engineering, aka Hotfixes) and SQL Server is mainly written in C (with a tiny portion written in Assembly believe it or not...the spinlock portion IIRC (it's outlined in this book which is a must read IMO)).  Passed over again.
4. A couple of months later I screened for a Technical Evangelist position out in Redmond for Vista and WinFX.  It would have been a dream position, except at this point my mother was starting to get seriously ill so the decision was pretty much made for me.  I made it through the phone screens and once again had to opt out due to bad timing.
5. Which brings us to now.  I was recently contacted about another position within PSS (one of MS's 3 PSS hubs is located in Charlotte), this time it's a PFE (Premier Field Engineer, formerly known as a ROSS (rapid onsite service) Engineer) for .Net Web Technologies (i.e. .Net/Asp.Net and IIS).  If a customer is having a critical issue that can't be solved by a Support Engineer or Escalation Engineer, the PFE's get brought into the loop.  They work closely with the EE's as well as the actual product teams out in Redmond to get severe issues resolved.  This is the most exciting position yet IMO, but of course the interview process for this group will make previous screens look like a walk in the park from what I've heard.  Needless to say I've been reading my ass off in preparation for it.

MS is extremely tough to get into for a fulltime position, but of course the end result is worth it.  I know guys who have screened for 5+ years before finally getting an offer.  Regardless I'm pretty excited about it and confidence is running high seeing as both .Net and IIS are technologies I've worked with on a daily basis for my entire career.  I'm brushing up on stuff but one thing I've learned about MS is that no matter what you read, they'll end up asking you questions about the stuff you didn't read (or forgot to read).

One really exciting caveat is that the studying process has finally made me jump head first into WinDbg which most of the hardcore PSS Engineers swear by over the VS IDE's.  So far I'm really diggin' it.  Anywho, more details as they present themselves, hopefully 5 times is a charm this go round.