 |
So recently completing my own interview experience with Avanade, one of the most difficult things about interviewing was the lack of information out there about the process and so forth! Having completed the written job offer process, I have been assured that the process is not confidential and so would like to take the opportunity to share my own experience interviewing for a System Engineer opening for the Western Region... The process is both standard and unique as such things go, offering a classic hiring process but with a high degree of openness and flexibility. The process itself went something like this for me: I was already working full time as an IBM contractor however had left my resume as public on monster.com and updated it recently as my normal quarterly update procedure. To this point, I had already recieved numerous emails and calls about positions elsewhere in colorado however I dismissed every single one due to a variety of career related reasons in combination with the fact that I very much liked my work at IBM. Out of the blue one evening, I logged onto my email per my post-workday ritual and interestingly enough, an email from an Avanade Corporate Recruiter caught my eye. During the course of the email, I did some research on the company and decided that it was something I was interested in pursuing and thus responded with my resume and an emphatic email that I was indeed interested in the System Engineer position. The interview process began. The initial interview was a review with the corporate recruiter of my career goals, a little bit of an explanation about myself and why I was interested, and answering a series of fairly standard questions about what my past experience has been and where my career focus is. The interview was conducted via phone, very professional, and relatively quick and to the point. I had little in the way of questions at this point however had a few general ones relating to the position description and the travel based work. These were answered easily and the interview concluded. Within a couple days, I had a technical interview request with a System Engineer I at Avanade. I confirmed availibility and asked who I would be interviewing with and what they did to assist with my own preparation, and recieved this information. 4 days after my initial interview, I was engaged in a phone technical interview in which, to be honest, I feel I got pummeled. The simple fact of the matter is that my preparation for the technical interview was not good enough. I was easily able to answer and explain queries related to server function, application installations, general networking, and operation of a large environment however absolutely bombed the active directory portion of the interview and outright admitted lack of experience with ISA and SQL Server. I simply had not reviewed a broad enough base of material before the interview, particularly given that AD is a weakness that I have because my last several positions have dealt with AD only in context of interoperability and integration into other systems, the primary exception being cluster implementation. Following the technical Q+A, the interview moved into a detailed and candid Q+A session with the System Engineer, where I was armed with the what-its-really like version of the position. Despite my failing Active Directory in some of the more detailed questions, I recieved an email a few days later explaining that I had impressed the interviewer and Avanade was interested in a final interview to be conducted in-person at the Denver office. This interview would be composed of two parts; a second, in-person technical interview and an HR interview with a senior HR manager. After confirming availibility, I was determined not to make the same mistake a second time. That evening, I obtained Microsoft Press resources on SQL Server, Exchange Server, Active Directory, and pulled out some of my old texts from Microsoft Server 2003. While the HR team took some time to get schedules together and confirm interview times, I was hitting the books every night after work to ensure that I would not be tripped up again without at least conversant knowledge of the systems with which I have worked. When the day came, I felt myself ready. Armed with my refereshed exposure to the internals of various microsoft technologies, I went into my final interview. The first interview was with a systems engineer, answering a litany of questions from an interview questions list relating to application integrations and troubleshooting. I was confident, explained my answers the best that I could. I missed a couple of questions as would be expected in any broad-based exposure interview. It was time to wait for the senior manager interview. The senior manager in question turned out to be a Director for consulting work in the western region. The interview covered quite a bit of ground, from a review of my experience, the strengths and weaknesses of past positions, the reasons I left various positions, where I see my own strengths and utility, to a detailed discussion in some of the recent technologies that I have worked with versus microsoft-supplied technologies. The Director in question told me point-blank that his job was to determine if I would fit with company culture, how I could best be used, what my role would be in a team, and what level I would be hired on at if they decided to make a hire decision. The process was exciting but it is never easy to dissect your career and ambitions in front of someone who could potentially be a manager two or three levels up in the near future. About a week later, the interview process culminated in a verbal job offer which after discussion with the wife, I accepted. I have been consistently impressed with the candor and openness of the process. My research would lead me to believe that Avanade is a great place to work if you are committed to being a Microsoft technologist, have an interest in specialization, and can handle the unique and sometimes stressful demands that a high travel position can place upon an IT consultant. If you are looking at possibly pursuing an opportunity at Avanade, I have to say thus far I am impressed and after reading and communicating with some of the Avanade bloggers out on the internet right now, I look forward to a great future with the company. In the case that you are reading this because you are interested in Avanade for a posted System Engineer position, I would encourage you to email Robert Choe, one of the Avanade Corporate Recruiters. For the moment, however, the orange crush appears to have claimed another microsoft technologist into its System Engineering corps... PS: Pronounced Av-uh-nod. Dont make the mistake of calling it Av-uh-naid.
|
|
