How I Got a Senior Product Manager Offer at Microsoft
Preamble
First, I want to focus on the topic of interviewing and negotiating for roles in the European and American markets.
I’ll share my own experience — specific cases, differences compared to the job market in Eastern Europe, and what really stood out.
When I started going through interviews, I had already been living in Portugal for about six months. Down south, in sunny Portimão. Someone once told me that the Algarve has more than 300 days of sunshine a year. I never counted, but it certainly feels true. Days start early, finish late. In winter you can walk outside in just a tracksuit, and in summer your skin turns the color of milk chocolate within a month.
The ocean stays cold most of the year. But the wetsuit I bought during my first month there does the job. The waves are fantastic — you could surf every single day. I didn’t overdo it, but I treated myself once or twice a week.
Half a year in Portugal was more than enough to figure out how life really works there. I got all the paperwork sorted, a driver’s license in hand, signed a three-year lease… basically, the fundamentals were in place.
Once all that was done — no more document stress, new connections made, and the country itself starting to feel familiar — it was time for the next quantum leap.
That’s what my friend and I call a radical career move: a big jump in rate, new responsibilities, sometimes even a completely new industry. It usually means a ton of stress, but also huge growth and new challenges. For me, staying too long in a comfort zone — or worse, when daily tasks turn predictable and routine — is a clear signal that growth has stalled and it’s time to shake things up.
A leap like this always takes serious time, focus, and sometimes nerves, so I prefer to do it when there are no other external distractions. And at that point, the timing was perfect.
This wasn’t my first time interviewing with European and U.S. companies. I’d done it before “for fun,” mostly to test myself, without being emotionally or strategically invested. But this time was different — I was serious, and so was my approach.
Friends had shared their own stories, so I set a few criteria and ground rules for myself before even starting:
- Must be an English-speaking team/product
- Strict compensation bar (no “discounts”)
- Contract role (I’m not a fan of Europe’s default full-time employment model)
- Fully remote, no hybrids
- Flexibility in payment (my chosen bank account or ideally crypto)
- Lead or Head-level position
- A dynamic company that’s open to change, where I’d have real decision-making power
- I don’t settle for less than my target comp
- I’m not in a rush
- The process will take time
- I’ll reject many offers
- Many companies will reject me
- Focus on the process, not the outcome — the right result will come eventually
It may sound basic, but these rules helped me stay centered on the goal with clear boundaries. I didn’t stress over “dream companies,” rejections, or long waiting times. With the rules in place, I felt completely at ease — every interview felt like being on my own turf.
If you’re curious, here are a few of my other pieces on product management and IT:
- Quantitative research and sample error
- What Makes a Great Product Owner — And How to Hire One
- Get More Offers: How to Craft a CV That Helps You Ace Interviews
Btw, on my Telegram channel I post more often, but those posts are usually shorter and less in-depth than what I share here. If product topics are your thing, you might want to check it out — it’s a good place to catch content in real time.
Where I Got My Leads
I picked three main sources of leads for myself. Sure, there are many others, and plenty of good ones too, but I didn’t want to spread myself too thin like a humidifier in the corner of the room. So here’s my shortlist:
I’ve got around 8,000 connections there, including a big share of international colleagues. So the traffic was already good, but I added some initiative on top of the organic flow.
That’s it. A 30-minute daily routine.
Glassdoor
They’ve got a massive amount of job postings on the platform. But some things were pretty annoying. Still, the sheer volume of opportunities kept me hooked.
A few quirks worth mentioning:
- Weird filters: you can’t pick, say, the whole of Europe. Only single countries. Bad UX if you’re looking for remote roles.
- Custom forms: companies add their own multi-step forms with different validations. No way to fully automate with templates — painful.
- After submitting, they push you to subscribe to newsletters. Fine, but at least make them relevant. Don’t blast me with random jobs.
- Some roles force you to attach a Cover Letter. Honestly, who reads them? I just uploaded my CV — looked better than a brand-new iPhone anyway.
- Many postings don’t have quick-apply forms. You get redirected to the company’s own custom site instead.
Despite the pain points, the number of postings made it worth it.
- Fill out the profile properly (I actually enjoy doing this).
- Prepare a Cover Letter in PDF once and stick to it — no customizations.
- Scan through all European and US markets upfront, filter out irrelevant countries.
- Bookmark the filters for:
- Open bookmarks daily and apply to at least 5 jobs per country.
Initial setup took me half a day. After that, ~30–40 minutes daily for applications.
Angel (Wellfound)
I really like this platform. Clean interface, all the filters you need, and tons of exclusive roles you won’t see elsewhere. They even let you filter by companies offering stock options or profit share. Respect.
99% of jobs don’t require leaving the platform. One template, one form, submit. Easy.
Summary
1–2 days upfront to refresh CV, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and Angel profiles, set filters/bookmarks, and prep the Cover Letter. After that — pure routine: a couple hours of setup and ~20 minutes daily submitting apps, usually with a TV show or techno in the background.
Lead Management
From the start, I set my expectations: the whole process would take a lot of time, and I’d have to talk to a lot of companies. Sure, maybe the first one would turn out to be “the one,” we’d shake hands and move on — but I knew that was unlikely.
A true manager knows the golden saying: “the more paperwork, the cleaner your ass.”
So I prepped a simple CRM for myself in Notes, where I tracked all contacts. That way I wouldn’t lose my mind digging through emails and DMs later, trying to remember things like:
CRM Setup
It looked something like this:
Inside the Leads folder, I had four subfolders with a simple logic:
- Cold — Initial communication. Usually just a recruiter or HR reaching out. At this stage, I didn’t know if the company had budget, if I was interested, or if the conversation would even move forward. Leads stayed here until after the first screening call.
- Hot — Leads that moved past screening into tech interviews. They stayed here until one of three things happened: I lost interest, they lost interest, or I got an offer.
- Rejected — Anyone who turned me down at any stage.
- Doesn’t Fit — Anyone I turned down myself.
- Offer — All offers went here. Yes, even ones I wasn’t going to accept. Why? Because I like looking at them and reminding myself I’m a badass. They deserved their own shelf.
Lead “Card” Setup
Here’s roughly how each lead card looked:
The card was always split into four sections, same template every time. That way I could scan it in seconds instead of wasting minutes digging for info (keep in mind, at the peak I was juggling over 15 companies at once — too much to keep in your head).
- Title — Company name, country, work format, and the rate I quoted.
- Brief — Core details about the lead: who I’m talking to, where the convo started, company website, and source of the lead.
- Notes — Key info about the role, tasks, product, team, ecosystem. The content always varied, but I had a prepared checklist of questions on the points that mattered most to me. (One day I can share which questions are worth asking, which aren’t, and how to handle interviews to both position yourself right and extract max value.)
- Process — The stages I’d already cleared and what was left. This kept me aware of my position in the pipeline. It’s especially handy when:
In the end, it was a simple but effective CRM: it structured the chaos, freed my head from clutter, and gave me plenty of ways to use the data to my advantage.
European & US Market Specifics
Back in the CIS market, things were simple: companies were almost always ready to grab you right away. No CRM, no polished profiles, no endless search needed. It’s like fishing in a pond — a closed space, packed with fish. You throw in the rod, and the float starts dancing instantly. All that’s left is to reel it in.
The rhythm, timing, motivation, cultural code — all familiar and predictable. Competition is relatively low.
Europe and the US? Totally different story.
First thing
From the moment you hit “submit” to the moment someone finally writes, “Hey, saw you in our spam, let’s maybe chat one day” — weeks can pass. Sometimes even months. On average: a couple of weeks.
So the risk that you’ll submit 30 applications on Monday and by Wednesday half of them will reply, leaving you overwhelmed with interviews — is basically zero.
Even when they do reply, the pace is slow. Nobody’s rushing. You can easily take 2–3 days to answer back, and no one will read it as “ghosting” or “not serious.” That’s just the culture. The trick is to let go and take it all philosophically.
Second Thing
From my experience, most companies in Europe/US follow a pretty standard interview process.
The exceptions are startups — where you might be chatting with the CEO like he’s your buddy. He could be eating a burger mid-call, riding a bike (yes, that happened), or casually talking about life, politics, travel, or even fishing.
But on average, the flow looks like this:
- Screening interview
- One week later → interview with Manager
- Another week → Manager’s Manager
- Another week → Manager’s Manager’s Manager
- Final chat with HR: “How are you feeling? How’s the team? Here’s the offer, take your time to think.”
Microsoft still holds the record with six rounds.
Third Nice Thing
Everyone’s usually super friendly and easy-going. They don’t mind repeating themselves if you miss the Irish accent, and they talk to you as equals — no corporate arrogance.
Maybe I just got lucky before, but compared to CIS it feels way lighter. Back there, people tend to act “serious and important,” throw a hundred pointless questions at you — and hate it when you ask them anything back.
Three Months Later. Microsoft. Why I Said No
By a month and a half into the search, I was juggling ~15 companies at different interview stages.
Some had already dropped me, some I’d dropped myself, and a couple of offers didn’t fit. Most insisted on full-time employment with office presence — which I wasn’t looking for. But a few matched my criteria, so I kept the conversations going.
That’s when Microsoft appeared on the horizon.
Funny thing — it started with my friend. A couple months earlier, he spammed their career portal with a script that auto-applied to 100+ Product Manager / Owner / Program Manager roles. Two months later, they finally replied. By then, he was already happily employed elsewhere. So he pinged me: “Want me to pass along your CV?”
We laughed about it — because we have this long-running joke: any half-broken, clunky product is “basically Microsoft.” Our mascot for that is Skype — the gold standard of bad product experience.
So of course we joked: “Watch you end up working on Skype.” Still, I was curious. Testing myself at that scale of company sounded like fun.
A few days later, Microsoft reached out.
Fast-forward: I got the offer by late August — 5 weeks after the first touchpoint.
An 8-page contract with all the details, benefits, timelines. (I won’t share it here for obvious reasons.)
3 Months Later. Microsoft. Why I Turned It Down.
About a month and a half into the process, I already had around 15 companies in parallel at different interview stages.
By then, I’d received a couple of offers that didn’t match my criteria, got rejected by some, and rejected others myself.
Most companies pushed for full employment contracts with partial office presence — which was a dealbreaker for me from the start. Still, a few companies fit my criteria, and with them, I kept moving forward.
That’s when Microsoft reached out.
Funny enough, the story started with a friend of mine. Two months earlier, he spammed their careers site by sending out hundreds of applications for Product Manager / Lead, Product Owner / Lead, and Program Manager roles. Eventually, he landed elsewhere, but about two months later Microsoft finally got back to him. Since he knew I was still in the market, he forwarded them my CV.
We even had an inside joke: for years we called every buggy product “Microsoft level,” with Skype being the ultimate symbol of bad UX. So when the interview came through, we laughed that I might actually end up working on Skype.
Still, it was a unique chance to test myself at a company of this scale, so I agreed.
Fast forward five weeks — that’s how long the whole process took — I had the offer on the table. The actual offer letter was eight pages long, outlining every benefit, relocation condition, and bonus.
The Interview Process at Microsoft
- Screening interview
- Interview with the Head of Product, European unit
- Interview with the Head of Product, U.S. unit
- Interview with the Head of Product, Asian unit
- Interview with the Global Head of Product (the manager of all three above)
- Interview with a Program Manager
And finally, a call with the recruiter, where they extended the offer and gave me time to decide.
All three “Head of Product” interviews followed the exact same playbook: same questions, same evaluation criteria. That’s how big corporations operate — standardized processes, structured questions, and very clear checklists.
Fun detail: each Head interviewed me from a massive conference room, sitting at the far end of a long table with giant displays and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking a park. It felt like I was negotiating a merger, not a job.
And the global Head of Product turned out to be Ukrainian — that was a pleasant surprise.
Summary
- 3 months of active search
- ~350 CVs sent out
- ~60 interviews in total
- 4 solid offers that matched my criteria
- Turned down Microsoft
- Chose a startup-like product with full freedom and creativity
If you enjoyed the case and story — leave a comment or drop a reaction.
And if there’s a sub-topic you’d like me to dive deeper into — just ask in the comments. Happy to share.