MS Cloud Solution Architect Interview

philz1982

Hey folks,

Haven't been on in a while work has me working 12-14 hour days lately. Curious, have any of you interviewed at Microsoft for the Cloud Solution Architect role? If so, what was the interview like? What were you asked?

Thanks

gespenstern

How did you get your interview? I had been applying to positions on their careers web-site for around 3 years and never heard back. There were like 2 or 3 positions that ideally, really ideally fit my background, but still nothing.

I worked with MS tech support and PFEs a lot during my career and, at least from my PoV, many of them were dumber than me but still, somehow they worked at MS and I didn't. I'm probably not that smart as Russinovich is, but still.

So I got totally frustrated and gave up on them. Especially considering the fact that they probably won't pay that much as I make these days...

Good luck on this.

philz1982

Had a guy reach out to me on LinkedIn, they are doing massive hiring of CSA's to build out Azure's SA team. I did a phone screening, and an online timed essay on CSA related stuff. Now I have an in person in 2 weeks. Not sure what I am walking into interview wise as there is almost nothing on the net around CSA interviews.

All together it sounds interesting as cloud seems to be the future.

gespenstern

What's CSA. Cloud security alliance certs? Chief Software Architect?

PS sorry, I'm dumb lol, topic name says it all. Now I know why they didn't hire me, lol

philz1982

Cloud Solution Architect

philz1982

For those who are interested, after some digging I found a few interview questions for Azure Cloud Solution Architects.

Azure interview Questions
https://systemadminguide.wordpress.com/2015/05/14/azure-cloud-based-interview-questions-part-i/
http://beyondrelational.com/modules/17/interview-questions/252/azure-interview-questions-and-answers.aspx
Windows Azure Cloud Services Interview Questions and Answers | OOPSConcepts.com
.NET Architecture: Basic and architecture Windows and SQL Azure interview questions and answers...

Cyberscum

philz1982 wrote: »

Hey folks,

Haven't been on in a while work has me working 12-14 hour days lately. Curious, have any of you interviewed at Microsoft for the Cloud Solution Architect role? If so, what was the interview like? What were you asked?

Thanks

No idea, but sounds like an awesome opportunity!

GJ!

fuz1on

Hope you pwn the interview, Phil! Good luck!!!

philz1982

I think so, I have a buddy from my MSIA program and he is a CSA at MS and loves it. I mean the things you can do with the Azure platform are crazy. Its ridiculous how many capabilities are in the platform. It will be interesting to see how the interview is and what they ask.

philz1982

Thanks Fuzion, I'm gonna work through the Powershell in 30 lunches book, cloud design patterns, and the Azure 532 and 533 books over the next couple days.

fuz1on

[h=1]The sys admins’ compendium of **** sheets, quick reference cards and one-pagers
The sys admins[/h]

NetworkNewb

I have no useful info, but best of luck!!

dustervoice

Show up to the interview with 5 books, 2 bags, an extra suit, all your certs, 19 copies of your resume and 7 Pens. This will intimidate the interviewer and he wont ask much questions. Good luck mate let us know the end results we are all routing for you!

gncsmith

Good luck and let us know how things went!

philz1982

Well, had the interview, can't go into to many specifics due to the NDA you sign. It consisted of three people.

The first interview was with the Director of Sales (hiring manager), asked me about my background, told me about the role, and asked me if I was ready for the technical portion of the interview. I thought that was odd, so I was like, um, ya... (I mean who says no to that question). He said many people think they are ready and they bomb so he asks that. He said he realizes not everyone knows azure and as long as you have the technical aptitude they can send you to a boot-camp for the rest.

I had the first technical interview with a CSA, he asked me about 6-7 technical questions, then I voluntarily drew an architecture I've built he asked me some questions about that. Then he asked if I had any questions, I asked him about his role, and then we awkwardly sat there for a minute and I asked if there was anything else I could answer, and he said I gave him good answers and that was all he needed. and left. So that was weird, 20 minutes of an hour, either really good or really bad. I double checked my answers at home and I got them all right, after all I work with this stuff.

Then the third guy took me through a bunch of architectures, asking me a lot of questions as to why I chose this feature, and why I did it that way or this way. He said I gave him good answers and I was a people person which I guess was good. I made the guy laugh when he asked how I would architect a on-premisis solution in the cloud and I asked do you want the lazy way or do you want me to architect it. He asked what the lazy way was and I said, well I could just use the pre-packaged solution you have built in Azure... That was worth a few laughs. I mixed up a load-balancer and a traffic manager b/c I was rushing, I fixed my mistake and he said it was good to see I knew what a traffic manager was. I got hung up on one topic that I wasn't to familiar with.

In retrospect I need to separate my architectures by function, I drew a full blown architecture and it looked like chicken scratch. Next time I will separate out authentication, UI, Business logic, and storage.

Then the HR person came in said they were getting together Monday to review and that I would know something at the latest on Wednesday.

So, I guess it depends on what the other candidates were like. I know one left half-way through b/c the technical was to hard for him. The walls were paper thin and you could hear everything.

Overall awesome experience, great company, good people.

gespenstern

Thanks for sharing!

pinkydapimp

Congrats. Sounds like you nailed it.