Tips To Negotiate Software Engineer Salary At Microsoft
Negotiating oneâs salary can seem daunting at first, and many candidates are uncomfortable doing it in fear of spoiling their chance of getting selected. Here are a few pointers you can keep in mind while negotiating your package:
- Do not share your current compensation with your interviewer.
- You are not obligated to share the compensation you are expecting.
- Build a good rapport with the hiring manager.
- Do not insist on receiving offers in writing.
- Check with your recruiter and ask for a relocation package if it applies to your case.
- Remember to compare your offer with publicly available data.
Salary negotiation is a must-have skill for any role. Read The Ultimate Guide to Salary Negotiation at FAANG for Software Engineersto hone your negotiation skills and get an offer that matches your value.
How Long Does Apple Hiring Last
After completing Apples hiring process, you will be contacted and granted your long awaited job.
There is no specific time to receive a call from Apple. However, it does not take up to a month but just a few weeks to hear from them.
Note: Only selected applicants who successfully passed the interview will be employed.
Apple Interview Process Overview
Apples software engineer interview process differs from other larger tech companies, like , due to the number of interviews they hold and their on-site process.
If you are asked to interview at Apple, the process generally looks like this:
-
Prescreen with Recruiter: It will take about a week from resume submission to first contact. A recruiter will usually reach out over LinkedIn or email to set up a time for a phone call. This phone screen will last from 15-30 minutes, and the questions will not be overly technical. You could expect questions like Why do you want to work for Apple? or Whats your favorite Apple product or service?
-
Technical phone interview: Usually a week later, they will schedule your next technical phone interview. There will be one or two technical phone screens with questions about your resume and a coding question on data structures and algorithms. The coding interviews are about 45-60 minutes, with 30 minutes to complete the challenge.
-
On-site interview: The onsite interview will last about 6 hours. Youll meet with 8-12 Apple employees, and interviews will be a mix of behavioral, domain knowledge, and coding challenges. Each interview is about 45 minutes to an hour where you will be posed with technical problems. Behavioral questions are also very important for hiring managers.
Recommended Reading: What To Ask A Cfo In An Interview
What Exactly Does Microsoft Look For In Software Engineers
Whether you are interviewing for the position of a Software Engineer, Software Developer, or a senior role like an Engineering Manager or a Senior Software Engineer, some core value expectations from you will remain the same.
Microsoft is looking for software engineers who will bring more to the table than just coding skills. Microsoft believes in finding excellence in simplicity, and therefore looks for the following two qualities in their hires:
If Theres One Thing Apple Is Known For Other Than Its Wildly Popular Products Its Secrecy
Even internally, employees on different teams dont ask about each others work and some staffers report being forbidden to discuss projects with their spouse.
Its no surprise, therefore, that Apple also keeps its hiring process hush-hush, and employees rarely speak about what its like to work there, even anonymously on Glassdoor.
Back in 1977 when Apple was a one-building startup, there was a sign in the lobby that reportedly read: Loose lips sink ships.
As the worlds second-largest tech company by market valuation, Apple has its pick of illustrious candidates. The tech giants Join Us. Be You. promotional recruitment video calls on those unfamiliar with convention, unmoved by rules and reborn with every new discovery to join its ranks.
With an average salary of $124,000, according to PayScale, reimbursements of up to $52,000 a year for continuing education, and the chance to work with some of the brightest minds in tech, Apples allure as an employer is undeniable. If you’re a hiring manager at Apple, your biggest problem is volume: choosing between so many talented candidates to invite for a phone interview can be brutally hard.
Don’t Miss: Design Interview Preparation
Important Points To Keep In Mind
Major Apple Jobs And Careers Available
The jobs and careers that can be practiced at Apple are numerous, but here are some of the most significant positions to occupy:
- Hardware design engineer
- Product manager
- Product marketer
As a technology company, some of these professions/jobs are very instrumental to the growth and proper function of the establishment.
Recommended Reading: What To Ask A Cfo In An Interview
Of The Hardest Questions Apple Will Ask In A Job Interview
These are a few of the tougher non-technical questions Apple asks during its interview process. How many could you answer?
- Apple
- posts on Glassdoor
Apple is one of the most prestigious companies in the world, so it’s not surprising to learn that getting a job there isn’t easy.
Apple asks both technical interview questions, based on your past work experience, and some mind-boggling puzzles.
And if you’re interviewing to work at Apple’s retail stores, you’ll be asked a lot of questions about how you’d handle an angry customer.
We combed through posts on Glassdoor to find some of the toughest interview questions candidates have been asked when interviewing for a job at Apple.
Some require solving tricky math problems, while others are simple but vague enough to keep you on your toes.
Lisa Eadicicco, Nathan McAlone, and Maya Kosoff contributed to an earlier version of this story.
“We have a cup of hot coffee and a small cold milk out of the fridge. The room temperature is in between these two. When should we add milk to coffee to get the coolest combination earliest ?” Product Design Engineer candidate
“How much does the Empire State Building weigh?” Solutions Consultant candidate
“How do you check if a binary tree is a mirror image on left and right sub-trees?” – Research scientist candidate
“What superhero would you be and why?” – Retail candidate
“Explain what RAM is to a five year old.” Apple Genius candidate
Are you smart? Build Engineer candidate
Craft Your Answer To The Introduce Yourself Question
Tell me about yourself is a guaranteed question in nearly every interview. Prepare for it by crafting a 1-2min story of the key points in your professional life.
One of the videos I recommend to people is the one about answering the question “Tell us about yourself”: If you’re being interviewed by 4-5 people total, then you need to have a well-prepared and, yes, rehearsed answer ready. You need to treat it like an elevator pitch. Boil your story down to the key points . Use these points to craft a 1-2min max description of yourself and practice it every day in front of the mirror. – Anna , Junior Software Engineer at Novatec GmbH
You May Like: What Should Females Wear To A Job Interview
What People Are Saying About Apple’s Interview
Here are some positive snippets from interview reviews from Glassdoor:
- “definitely harder than my more standard interviews at other big companies . seemed more specific and hard to prepare for. interviewers knew their stuff and questions were specific to the role I interviewed for.”
- “A pleasant process, but long interview with 6 people. The interview staff were friendly, but the interview was by no means easy. The whole interview took about 6 hours, and was quite exhausting”
- “The onsite was a little tiring with ~6hrs of interviews but everyone was really nice and it didn’t seem like any of them wanted to stump me.”
And here are some negative snippets from interview reviews from Glassdoor:
- “Mostly coding interview questions. Surprisingly, the people are very nice to me. The questions are standard — you can find on topcoder, geeksforgeeks, and leetcode. However, I did not like the place at all, there is even a place to sit before the interview. But the recruiter is a very nice person and helped me very well throughout the process. Anyway, after seeing the working place, I have decided to not to try for Apple in near future.”
- “Some engineer called me. For a 1 hour coding round started with some basic questions. Then kept asking about networking internals, file system internals, network packet details, protocol details. This is especially confusing since the position requirements don’t list them. So it ended with no coding and in 30 minutes.”
Want more coding interview help?
Experience And Skill Levels
Hiring managers evaluate how relevant your skills and work experience are to the role youâre interviewing for.
Key areas of evaluation are:
- Your problem-solving abilities
- Your ability to apply programming concepts to different problems
- Your ability to find multiple solutions to a problem and identify the most optimal one
Also Check: Interview Attire Womens
Preparing For The Software Engineer Interview
What can you expect for your interview? Depending on the company, the interview process can include different steps in various orders. But generally, itll look something like this:
Initial phone screen: youll speak with a recruiter who will discuss the details of the role and determine if you might be a good fit. Likely a 15-30 minute conversation.
Technical phone/video screens: these will be discussions with the hiring manager where youll be given coding challenges. You may be given a couple of problems to solve throughout the call, which will typically be 45 minutes to an hour.
Onsite interviews: youll be meeting with potential managers and teammates for a technical portion, a couple of behavioral sessions, and possibly a cultural fit interview. These generally include a system design interview and whiteboarding, where youre presented with a problem to solve in real-time. These can last between three to four hours.
With that rough idea of the process, lets get into interview preparation. Heres your 8-step checklist:
How To Prepare For Technical Interview Questions At Databricks
The technical interview questions at Databricks focus on two verticals:
- Technical algorithms related to the data structure, memory utilization, and interface in the language of computer science.
- Coding assessment with a focus on problem-solving skills.
Besides giving the right answer, you also have to focus on the question from the perspective of solving a problem in a realistic environment.
To prepare for interview questions at Databricks for technical algorithms, focus on:
- Design
- Code structure
- Debugging
There will be questions on the framework on which you do not have experience. However, these are to analyze your ability to read documents and solve complex problems from practical experience.
Topics for coding assessment at Databricks are as follows:
- Web communication â Http, authentication, WebSockets.
- Browser fundamentals â Js event handling and caching.
- API + data handling.
- Data modeling.
Read Also: What To Ask A Cfo In An Interview
Microsoft Software Engineer Interview Questions And Practice Problems
In this section, we have listed some of the frequently asked questions at Microsoft Software Engineer interviews.
Microsoft Software Engineer Phone Interview Questions:
Microsoft Software Engineer Coding Interview Questions:
Related read:
Understanding Amazon’s Software Development Engineer Hiring Criteria
Amazon has an interesting âraise the barâ criteria for evaluating candidates. For each competency that interviewers test, they ask that you be at least as good as, or better than, the average Amazon SDE. Here are a few competencies that form the basis for hiring at Amazon:
Technical Competencies:
Recommended Reading: Women’s Outfit For Job Interview
Technical Face To Face Round
Apple Firmware Engineer Interview Questions
169,539.0
Anonymous Interview Candidate in Cupertino, CA
Application
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Apple in Sep 2021
Interview
I applied online to a general role w/ no referral. Got a call from a recruiter and we discussed possible roles and locations, then my resume got sent out to specific teams.1st round – about 1 hr. Second – 6 sessions of 45 mins each and was given a few breaks throughout. Most people didn’t do any behavioural, started by asking me about stuff on my resume and to explain metrics and then went into a coding challenge. Overall, everyone was super nice! Whenever I got stuck, they always offered hints and help along the way.
Interview Questions
Read Also: Interview Attire Women
What Is Your Favorite Apple Product And Why
While this question is fairly straightforward on the surface, it accomplishes more than you might think. Along with giving the hiring manager a chance to discover your level of familiarity with Apple products, it also lets them gauge your enthusiasm for your favorite.
But its also an exceptional opportunity for you. Along with showcasing your passion for a product, you can showcase relevant skills or traits if you approach it properly.
Plus, you can adjust your answer to align with the job you want to land, which may make you look like a stronger candidate.
EXAMPLE ANSWER:
While Im a fan of several Apple products, Id have to say my favorite is the Apple Watch. It enables me to be more efficient both in my personal and professional lives. The ability to stay apprised of incoming messages and respond to them without having to dig out another device lets me work faster. Plus, receiving calendar reminders through the watch is great for time management, ensuring I stay on target even on the busiest days.
