
Hi, my name is Gian Edmondson and I’m a Technical Recruiter for Volt in Bothell, WA. Click on the Run arrow below to hear me describe a Programmer/Editor position. You can reach me at gedmondson@volt.com. (more…)
August 16th, 2008
I was observing a job interview at Microsoft a couple of weeks ago. The position the candidate was interviewing for was a Software Test Engineer job. Almost all technical positions at Microsoft require some knowledge of SQL. This particular candidate had more SQL knowledge than most test engineers, and so the Microsoft hiring manager kept drilling into more and more detailed questions. Remember, a hiring manager gets very little information when you answer an interview question correctly, and because the manager wants (more…)
August 15th, 2008
Just about every job position at technical companies like Microsoft and Google requires some degree of knowledge of SQL. A fairly common SQL-related interview question runs something like, “What is database normalization?” This is a pretty good interview question because it tends to separate SQL beginners from intermediate/advanced SQL level people. Additionally, the question is very broad so the interviewer will learn (more…)
August 11th, 2008
Almost all engineers working at Microsoft are expected to have a basic understanding of ASP.NET technology. A fairly common interview question at Microsoft runs along the lines of, “What is the difference between ASP.NET and classic ASP?” This question is somewhat surprisingly difficult to answer concisely and without rambling. One good way to approach the problem is to (more…)
August 1st, 2008

Hi, my name is Scott Sannes and I’m a technical recruiter for Volt in Redmond, WA. Click on the Run arrow below to hear me describe a .NET Developer position. You can reach me at ssannes@volt.com. (more…)
July 27th, 2008
A very common interview question at Microsoft runs along the lines of, “Write a function which returns the middle value of a linked list.” Linked list questions make great interview questions for several reasons — they reveal a lot about a job candidate, and linked lists questions are simple to state but contain a surprising amount of complexity. The first thing you’d have to do is figure out (more…)
July 25th, 2008

Hi, my name is Matthew Shoop and I’m a technical recruiter for Volt in Redmond, WA. Click on the Run arrow below to hear me describe a Web Developer position. You can reach me at mshoop@volt.com Team: (more…)
July 19th, 2008
Basic SQL knowledge is required for just about every technical position at Microsoft. One of the more common SQL-related interview questions runs along the lines of, “What is a SQL self-join?” This question usually comes at you right after you’ve been asked about inner and outer joins. Hiring managers like the self-join question because self-join are rare in practice. If you know about self-joins, the hiring manager gets (more…)
July 18th, 2008
The field of software engineering is still very young, and is developing faster than any other field I can think of. This means that there are new programming languages, technologies, and techniques being developed constantly. If you intend to work for a technology company like Microsoft or Google, you must continuously update your technical skills. By continuously, I really mean you should spend part of every week learning something new, otherwise you will be rendered obsolete in the job market very quickly. Yesterday I was teaching a class on “Introduction to SQL Server 2008″ to some Volt engineers who work at Microsoft. (See http://www.vteOnline.com for information about Volt training classes). SQL Server hasn’t even been released yet so why learn it now? At Microsoft, (more…)
July 13th, 2008
A very, very, common interview question for most technical positions (developer, tester, manager, etc.) at companies like Microsoft and Google, runs something like, “How would you test a (blank)?” For example, “How would you test a vending machine?” Or, after you’d written a function in the interview, “OK, (more…)
July 5th, 2008
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