I was shortlisted through Microsoft Engage 2021 for a summer internship at Microsoft in 2022 (more on that in this article) and received PPO after completing my internship (yay!)
Here are some things I learned and experienced that you can apply to your future internships:
This article explains what I did before starting my internship, stay tuned for part two!
You’ve received an offer, but what do you need to do in the arduous eight months until you start as an intern?
I was as perplexed as you.
I simply wanted to record what I had done prior to my joining date and how it had benefited me during my internship. Unexpectedly, this was the period of time in which I worked the hardest. Looking back, I was very motivated to improve my skills in order to get the opportunity to work full-time at Microsoft.
[1] Return to the community
After I got the offer, I took a break because after working non-stop for two months for Microsoft Engage, I was pretty exhausted. So I made the decision to get involved in community work and help others in their research.
- I often spoke to student groups about my experience and gave tons of community talks.
- Mentored women at my university, happy to report that all five will be interning at such wonderful companies!
- Answered a lot of people on LinkedIn about their queries (there were tons of direct messages)
>> Reflections:
- My manager was very happy to see my online presence on YouTube and also gave one of my lectures “The Dark Side of Software Development”. He was very impressed!
- My internship concluded with a “final exhibition”. As an experienced speaker, it was simple for me to create engaging presentations and hold everyone’s attention. My final presentation was a HUGE success, contributing significantly to my PPO.
[2] Practice without code
I needed a break, like I said, but I also wanted to get something done. Ever since I attended the Women In Product Conference in March 2021, I had wanted to look into product management. Fortunately, the one company I applied to hired me and I interned for three months.
>> Reflections:
- Learned how to communicate (including writing professional emails) with people in the corporate world.
- How to document products professionally.
[3] Adventurous in technical writing
Thanks to a friend who informed me (connections are very important) of the huge opportunity to get attention and make money from it, I made one of the best decisions of my life. The four technical pieces I wrote received very positive feedback. To give you some context — For the second essay I had written, I received job offers. In just one month I received the Best Python Article badge, the Top 7 Authors of the Week badge, Ben Halpern (founder of dev. to) tweeted my article, and the Google Developers Library featured my article…the list goes on and on.
Link to my articles:
>> Reflections:
- My team complimented me on my documentation skills.
- I had no trouble expressing my understanding in words and was able to draw informative technical diagrams.
- I shared my articles with some people at Microsoft and they were very impressed!
[4] We learned a new stack of technology
I did this mainly because it was inefficient to read documentation and then put it into practice. I needed a YouTube video to help me understand what was going on. I ventured to the web3 blockchain, where such video materials are limited and the main source of information is the documentation. I knew there was a 90% chance I was working with an in-house tool for which, of course, there would be no instructional videos.
>> Reflections:
- It turned out that a lot of my work was reading research papers and putting things into practice. I really benefited from developing this muscle!
[5] Hackathons and scholarships
I participated in a couple of hackathons (and so far my participation to winning ratio is 1). I had to do this to stay in touch with how things were being built, so from December 2021 to April 2022 I was coding things continuously.
December: Buidl It Hackathon, January to April (ETHWMN Scholarship), March to April (Google Girl Hackathon), April (MLH Preparatory Scholarship)
I had to manage three things at once, besides university and offline exams, and at one point I was very tired, but it was all worth it!
>> Reflections:
- It definitely helped build my confidence in my ability to figure things out. A new project did not scare me at all. I was sure I could find a solution.
[6] Immerse yourself in books
The lifestyle of an SDE always piqued my interest. I studied many SDE publications to find the answer, and they provided me with a lot of valuable guidance. On Medium, I remember reading a lot of material that I then saved to Pocket.
Some books and articles I had read:
>> Reflections:
- I could have meaningful conversations with Microsoft people and understand the memes they shared in private chat groups xD
[7] Preparation for exit interviews
I knew that MSFT conducts exit interviews for their interns. You should be prepared for them in advance because you won’t have much free time to do it during your internship. My belief is that interviews depend on the organization; no matter how much time and effort you put into a project, if you don’t do well in interviews, you won’t get the job. To succeed in interviews, you need to be at your best! Topics include:
- operating systems
- Network work
- OOPs
- Data structures and algorithm
- System design
>> Reflections:
- In essence, data structures and algorithms were the focus of my entire internship effort. In retrospect, having a solid CS foundation is a must.
Brownie Points:
- Know how to present yourself in a way that people want to hear.
- Be familiar with git and the terminal.
- Learn about design principles here is a great book for that: A Philosophy of Software Design
- Test-driven development, clean coding practices.
- Find an intriguing activity as people will respect it more than if you say “coding is my hobby”. Find your uniqueness.
I hope you now have a better understanding of what you can do before starting your internship. Finally, I advise you to do everything during these eight months because now you have the freedom to work on whatever you want!
Stay tuned for part -2!