Practice 30 Microsoft Finance Internship interview questions covering Excel modeling, financial analysis, and behavioral scenarios.
Question 16 of 30
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Kevin Downey has an extensive background in business management, recruiting, branding and marketing. He's volunteered his career coaching services at job fairs, lecturing on interview techniques and crafting winning resumes and cover letters.
"While onboarding at my last job, they trained me on the general methods previous employees in my position used to tackle their work. I soaked it up and spent my time evaluating those systems for getting the work done. I changed or reinvented them in ways that made more sense to me. I'm all about increasing productivity only where it doesn't sacrifice the quality of my work. Sometimes I hit the mark, and sometimes it's close but not perfect, and when that's the case, I learn what I can. Well, at that point the head of our division visited our department and evaluated our workflow. They challenged us to increase our department's productivity within the next month. At my first opportunity, I showed my team leader the system's approach I developed for my work, in case they'd want to get ideas for how'd they'd meet this challenge. They loved what I'd done so much that they had me form a team on how to adopt these systems to the rest of the department in a way where these systems could be modified to each and everyone's unique personality and work style. Once everyone was up to speed, our productivity increased and we met this challenge. We increased our department's productivity, exceeding the goals they challenged us with. Even better, a few months later, everyone in our department received a bonus. So, I'd call that one of my greatest work-related accomplishments."

Kevin Downey has an extensive background in business management, recruiting, branding and marketing. He's volunteered his career coaching services at job fairs, lecturing on interview techniques and crafting winning resumes and cover letters.
This question evaluates your standard for putting your all in, and seeks to answer how you approach managing your projects, but also evaluates your communication skills. Even more so, they want to ascertain whether you are an overachiever. It also clues them into your values, your personality, and your motivators, providing insights as to how you'd contribute.

Kevin Downey has an extensive background in business management, recruiting, branding and marketing. He's volunteered his career coaching services at job fairs, lecturing on interview techniques and crafting winning resumes and cover letters.
Remember, the road to self-improvement is never-ending. So frame your experience as a milestone towards your future goals. Offer what milestones you hope to accomplish next, building off of your previous accomplishments. Evaluate what they are looking for in their ideal candidate based on how they've advertised their position, and frame yourself as an above-average fit in how you deliver your example.

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Master technical finance questions that Microsoft recruiters use to select interns.
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Written by Kevin Downey
30 Questions & Answers • Microsoft

By Kevin

By Kevin