胡大饭馆还有啥特色菜:微软研究院面试流程一览

Hello Prashanth, could you tell us a little bit about yourself

问：您好帕拉山，跟我们介绍一下自己吧。

I graduated from College of Engineering Guindy, Chennai with a B.E. in Computer Science. I went on to work for a couple of years at Microsoft Research (MSR) and then moved on to Amazon for a brief period. I am currently pursuing my PhD at University of California, Berkeley on how to improve energy in data centers, buildings using IT.

答：我毕业于钦奈库因帝工程学院，在那里获得了计算机科学工学学士。我曾在微软研究院工作过几年，随后去亚马逊公司工作了一段时间。现在我在加利福尼亚大学伯克利分校攻读博士学位，主攻方向是基于IT技术的建筑内数据中心能源的提升。

What’s the recruitment process of MSR

问：微软研究院是怎么进行招聘呢？

The recruiting style of MSR is a little different compared to other companies. They do their head-hunting mostly by word-of-mouth (or) referrals. Generally MSR employees refer other people.

答：和其他公司相比起来，微软研究院的招聘方式还是略有不同的。公司一般是通过口头进行招募或者经过安排介绍。一般来说微软研究院的雇员都是经人介绍的。

If you are a student, you have an excellent internship program – one of the best in the country! You can head over to MSR’s site and directly apply to the group he/she is interested in. They generally won’t advertise a lot and the onus is on you. You can know more details here

如果你是个学生的话，那么你的实习项目将会是相当的优秀的，优秀到全国拔尖的程度！你可以去微软研究院，也可以去任何一个你感兴趣的地方。一般不会有人过多的给你推荐，都是自己选。从这里（http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/jobs/intern/about_india.aspx）你可以得到更多的信息。

Is it a mandatory thing to have a poster/publication to get into MSR? How important is CGPA?

问：要进入微软研究院的话，一份自己的出版物是不是必须的？平均累积积分重要吗？

I don’t think it’s essential to have a publication before you apply, however having one definitely helps. When I was in college, I did not use the opportunity to contact my professors for interesting projects. I strongly urge the students to work with their professors on solving big problems. It definitely helps!

答：我觉得出版物没那么重要，当然有的话更好。我在读大学的时候就没向我导师要过什么有意义的的项目，所以我强烈建议学生们和他们的导师一起攻关一些重要的课题，很有用的。

They generally don’t focus much on your CGPA, however having a healthy CGPA is always good!

一般来说，公司倒不是很看中平均累积积分，但是有个好分数总还是好的！

I heard the interview process is very different from normal set of interviews conducted by other top tier companies. Could you give us an overview?

问：我听说面试过程和其他大公司的正常面试很不一样，能跟我们大体谈谈吗？

Yes, the interview process is pretty unconventional. You will be asked to talk about your project for an hour and people would then question you on that. Everyone in the group you apply to, no matter how senior/junior they are would interview you. There would be typically 8-10 interviews before you get into the company.

答：没错，面试过程确实有些不走寻常路。你首先要就你的项目进行一个小时的陈述，然后面试人员会就你的陈述进行提问。面试人员包括你所申请部门的所有人员，不论他们资历的深浅。进入公司前，一般会有8到10论面试。

Great! What would the interview questions be like?

问：不错！都有什么样的问题呢？

The questions would mostly be open-ended ones. For eg; what are the problems associated when 2 servers communicate with each other? There is typically nothing like a wrong answer to a question, even a sub-optimal answer would work fine. But, the important thing to concentrate is on how well you can articulate and provide a robust design to the problem.

答：一般都是些开放性的问题，比如说两台服务器交互时会产生哪些问题？没有什么错误的答案，就算是个次优答案也可以。不过，重要的是你的表达有多流畅，可不可以提供一个好的解决方案。

Design questions involve mostly drawing architecture diagrams. Was there a coding round also?

问：设计性的问题都会要求绘制构架图。面试里有需要设计代码的环节吗？

Yes! There will be software developers who will focus on Data Structures, Algorithms. There will be typically 1-2 interviews focusing on these areas. It’s a must that you possess good coding skills since once you get in, you would be required to frame a prototype of what you have done.

答：有的！面试里面有专门研究数据结构和算法的软件设计员。会有一到两轮面试是专门考察这方面的。受试者必须要有良好的编程技能，因为你一进入这几轮面试，面试官就会要求你做出一个框架，来呈现你所做工过的作。

Since the questions are open-ended, could you give some tips on how to proceed to solve the problem?

问：既然问题是开放性的，那么能不能给我们点提示，说说怎么着手来解决这些问题？

Essentially start off with a large pictures

Through the course of the interview, interviewer gives inputs over a specific scenario, much more easier for you to solve the problem

答：·一定要从宏观角度展开
       ·在面试的过程中，面试官会在特定的情境

What kind of preparation can one do to get into MSR?

问：要进入微软研究院应该进行什么样的准备呢？

I would suggest to go through the recent papers/publications in the area in which he/she is applying to. Brush up your basics about the group and have a good night sleep before the interview.

答：我建议受试者应该了解他所申请的领域近期的论文和出版物。对于申请部门所需要的知识，应夯实基础，还有就是面试前好好休息。

During the interview, try to start off with a large picture and grab the hints given by the interviewer and keep narrowing the scope down and nail the problem! Most importantly, it is important you tell the interviewer that you don’t know the answer to a particular question if you really don’t know – you would be interacting with Phd’s from top universities!

在面试时，首先要从宏观角度出发，抓住面试官给你的提示，然后缩小范围，把问题解决掉！如果对于一个问题你不会回答的话，那么一定要告诉你的考官你不会答，你是糊弄不过一流大学里的博士的！

Hows the work environment at MSR?

问：微软研究院的工作环境怎么样？

The work environment is quite different compared to what you would see in other MNC’s. You would generally read a lot of publications, identifying the problems in it (or) find ways of making it better. The work load increases multi-fold before the publication deadline.

答：跟你看到的其他跨国公司里的环境还是很不同的。你总是会读很多的出版物，发现里面的问题，然后想办法把它做得更好。在出版前，这项工作会成倍的增长。

The work is very exciting as you get an opportunity to come up with a technology that can change the world and make people’s life better. However, the atmosphere as such is pretty informal inspite of a lot of geeks around!.You get to refer everyone by their first name including the director!

这里的工作让人十分振奋，因为在这里你有机会利用你的技术能力改变世界，让人们的生活变得更加美好。尽管这里的人都是些极客，然而这里的工作氛围却是十分轻松的。你对每个人都可以直呼其名，就算是主管也不例外！

Thank you so much Prashanth for taking time for this interview. I am sure a lot of candidates would benefit with the information!

帕拉山，谢谢你接受我们的采访。我相信许多准备面试的人会从对您的采访里面受益的！