As part of our new series of interviews “Narad- Milap” ,We’ll bring a tete-a- tete with some of the achievers and who’s who of the corporate world. Here’s introducing to you Sumit Malhotra, an employee of Microsoft on preparation, luck, life and beyond Microsoft.
Hey Sumit, tell us a little about yourself.
Hi. I am Sumit Malhotra. Did my engineering from NSIT in IT in 2006. I have been working since then in Microsoft for almost two years now. I got a campus placement in Microsoft as SDET (S/w development engineer in Test). Microsoft is a great place to work. And it becomes very difficult to leave Microsoft for any better company. You are not able to find anything better or equivalent to what facilities they provide.
Before my B.E., I studied in Delhi ( DAV School, Dayanand Vihar). Born and brought up in Delhi, I always scored decent enough, neither too high nor too low. Around 83% in class 10 and 12. And have topped once in my lifetime in 2nd class half yearly exam 
. That’s one thing I’ll never forget.
Was MicroSoft your Dream Destination or you just got in.
Microsoft is any aspiring engineer’s dream company. I never expected myself to get in there. I didn’t even qualify for the percentage criteria for written exam for MS in campus. As, I wasn’t among top 20 students of my class of 60 J.
So, it just happened that I got through written and then three rounds of elimination interviews. I have tried interviews after I joined MS in last two years but haven’t got any success. So, I think it was my day.
How did you prepare for the test and the interview.
There’s no basic preparation, like for IIT or something. There’s no syllabus. It just that if you are passionate about computers and good at problem solving- you have got high chances that you will get through. You should work hard on algorithms, problem solving, analyze problems before you try to find solution. They look for solutions and not answers. They look for your approach to solve the problem.
Any special thing which you would like to share which happened during the written test or interview.
I said before, I was not qualified to write exam for MS, I talked to the HR that, I think I can clear the exam and I missed the percentage by a whisker, though, I missed by almost 2-3 % J. So, I sat and then in my interviews I told them, that I was not qualified to sit, but still they went ahead and took my interviews and finally selected me. Then after interviews they took us to Radisson Hotel for celebration, and it was first of my five star experiencesJ. Then, our first fifteen days in office were stay in Taj hotel and we can eat food anywhere and get it reimbursed. It was fun. ( But I think now they have enough guest houses so no Taj stay anymore 
).
How has been the life at Microsoft?
Life is good. The overall compensation is really nice. SDET profile is something people should look out for. If you have a very high penchant for coding, you should think again before taking this offer. There is enough growth inside MS for SDET profile, but outside MS, people do not pay this high for SDET profile guys and switching to Dev side after long time becomes difficult. Otherwise overall, I rate Microsoft as really THE PLACE to work.
What’s the best and not-so-great thing about life at MicroSoft?
I will reiterate what I have already written.
Great things
The overall compensation is really nice.
Facilities like, basketball, lawn tennis, volleyball, football courts and then concierge services etc are big
Not so great things
SDET profile is something people should look out for. If you have a very high penchant for coding, you should think again before taking this offer.
Being big, there are processes across the company but there is always an attempt to make them easier.
Any advice for aspiring students?
You should understand your potential and try to find job accordingly. If you have a management aptitude and try looking for software developer job, even if you find one, you may not succeed there. So , just try out and don’t give up ( you may have to give tens of interviews), you will find job suitable to you. There’s no way other than trying out. Tech tips, I think I have covered in previous questions already.
Thanks Sumit and All the Best!!
The views are the personal opinion of the individual and in no way represent the company's policies.