[ccdev]

Usually I have considered internal recruiters from larger companies to be more serious than the typical messages from third party agencies who don't even disclose the name of the company you represent. I didn't know they do the same "spray-and-pray" tactics, but if that is true, that is rather disappointing to know, that they have gotten as flaky as agency recruiters.

What's interesting to me, though is that I've had far better experiences with Amazon's recruiting staff. They were very responsive, usually replying to my questions in the same day, and have gotten in the running for interviews twice with them. I have been as far as being selected for the on-site interview round, but made the mistake of saying I am not yet prepared to travel there at the time.

MSFT did not set me up with a programming test, just something to fill out. The pre-screening document was a questionnaire asking various background-related things like, what is your expected salary, have you worked for mS before, what project or accomplishment are you most proud of, etc. I guess they just didn't like my answers, and am more likely to be considered by Amazon than MS. In any case, I become a "cold" candidate very quickly in the MS recruiting radar.

[sosilkj]

by the way, i can sympathize with your experience. i have been through wonky recruiting/interview pipelines myself. hang in there.