It's pretty hilarious as to how I came to know about this opportunity. To be entirely honest, I didn't apply for this role per se (the job wasn't listed on the MSFT on-line career portal). What happened was: I had applied for a similar role (but with a different business unit). I had mistakenly sent some additional particulars to another recruiter who just happened to be recruiting for this role. I guess luck was on my side. ;-) He (the recruiter) asked if I would be interested in this opportunity. And needless to say, things just went from there. NOTE: Since this was a conflict, I had to go through some red-tape bureaucracy so to speak (MSFT has a strict policy of not recruiting a candidate for multiple roles -- in other words, ONLY ONE MSFT recruiter can deal with you at a particular time). After that was cleared up, things went smoothly then-on. Anyway, so this is how the process went (for me at least): - Recruiter contacted me; - Recruiter filters candidates and runs a brief synopsis of a candidate's skill-sets, experiences, etc. with the hiring team; - If you get the green light, you progress to the next step; - Recruiter then set-up a brief 30 min telephone "get to know" with the recruiter himself; - Then the recruiter shares his notes with the members of the hiring team; - If you get the green light, you proceed to the next step; - Recruiter scheduled a brief 30-minute phone interview with a member of the hiring team; - If you get the green light, you advance to the next step; - Recruiter then scheduled another 30 min with another member of the hiring team; this chat was more intense (i.e. it was more akin to a courtroom cross-examination grilling session) that lasted for over an hour; - If you get the green light, you advance to the face-to-face round of interviews @ MSFT's corporate HQ in Redmond, WA; - Recruiter then calls you to deliver the somewhat good news that you're in for the face-to-face group interview rounds; - Someone else from MSFT then schedules your trip to Redmond; - MSFT treats you very well -- e.g. they fly you to Seattle, WA, house you at a 5-star Hilton hotel, that includes room service meals, and various other perks (e.g. .rental car, extra days to see around Seattle, WA, etc); - The full day of interviews was about four 1:1 interviews (a cozy room with a whiteboard, telephone, chocolates/candies, coffee/beverages, etc); - You then break for lunch (a delicious lunch is provided by MSFT); - Then I had had a group panel interview; - My last interview was with the hiring manager (GM/Vice-President), who was a really nice fellow just like everyone else that had interviewed me. - Recruiter then contacts you with feedback; and - An informal verbal offer was extended to be within a week, shortly followed by a formal offer, welcome package, etc. Overall, I will admit that the process was a bit nerve-wrecking and brutally intense, but also quite challenging and fun as well. If you are confident of your skill-sets, experiences, personality, and success abilities, then you should just do fine. One thing I will caution about is -- MSFT (culturally and historically) doesn't give much preference or credence to 'image' or those wildly elusive ‘prestige’ factors (e.g. school you went or where you worked). Well, they might, but it plays a very small part. I went to a top Ivy League school for my undergrad, law degree (JD), and business school (MBA), and all my career I worked at the top investment banks, consulting firms, and large cap F500 large tech companies, but during the interviews, it seemed as though that no one really cared much about those; they were way more interested in as to what I could deliver and how. I have interviewed with other large tech companies such as CSCO, GOOG, INTC, HPQ, ORCL, SAP, etc. and they seem to be hung up on all this prestige nonsense -- but MSFT plays a completely different ballgame. Also, I think I might have gotten a preference -- or even an edge -- over the other candidates simply because I spent the first half of my professional career in "hands-on" tech roles (such as engineering, application development, systems integration, implementation, etc). That said, however, it’s all speculative conjecture on my part. Overall, if you can put on a great show and demonstrate to the team that you can shake-up the status quo, then will go far -- and they seem to like that very much so. Final note -- I’ve had my share of disappointments, setbacks, rejections, denials, and my litany of turn-downs by companies was endless. In my opinion, the whole interview and candidate selection process is brutally arbitrary. Sad but true. But if you are persistent and have vested faith in your abilities, you can get that dream job of yours! Hey, if a self-admitted "serial reject" like me can do it, so can any of you! :-) Good luck to everyone!