A Microsoft Intern’s journey to PPO — Part -1
I got shortlisted through Microsoft Engage 2021 for a summer internship at Microsoft in the year 2022 (more about that in this article) and received PPO after completion of my internship (yay!)
Here are some things I’ve learned and experienced that you can apply to your forthcoming internships:
(FAQs are at the end of the article)
This article explains what I did before my internship began, stay tuned for part 2!
What I did before the Internship
You’ve received an offer, but what should you do during the arduous eight months until starting as an intern?
I was just as perplexed as you are.
I simply wanted to record what I had done prior to my joining date and how it had benefited me throughout the internship. Unexpectedly, this was the period of time when I worked the hardest. Looking back, I was so driven to improve my skills in order to earn the opportunity to work full-time at Microsoft.
[1] Giving Back To the Community
After receiving the offer, I took a break since, after working nonstop for two months for Microsoft Engage, I was pretty worn out. I so made the decision to get involved in community work and aid others on their quest.
- I frequently spoke to student groups about my experience and gave tons of community talks.
- Mentored women at my college — thrilled to inform that all five of them will be interning at such wonderful companies!
- Replied to a lot of people on LinkedIn about their queries (there were tons of DMs)
>> Reflections:
- My manager was really happy to see my online presence on YouTube and also went through one of my talks “The Dark Side of Software Development”. He was really impressed by it!
- My internship concluded with a “final presentation.” As a seasoned public speaker, it was simple for me to create engaging presentations and retain everyone’s attention. My final presentation was a HUGE success, which contributed significantly to my PPO.
[2] No Code Internships
I needed a break, as I stated, but I also wanted to accomplish something. Since I had been to the Women In Product Conference in March 2021, I had wanted to check out product management. Fortunately, the one company I applied to hired me, and I interned there for three months.
>> Reflections:
- Learned how to communicate (including writing professional emails) with people in the Corporate world.
- How to document products professionally.
[3] Ventured Into Technical Writing
Thanks to a buddy who informed me (connections are really important) of the tremendous opportunity to gain attention and earn money from it, I made one of the best decisions of my life. All four of the technical pieces I authored received overwhelmingly positive feedback. To give you some context — For the second essay I had ever written, I received job offers. In only one month I received the top Python Article Badge, the Top 7 Author of the week badge, Ben Halpern (founder of dev. to) tweeted my article, and Google Developer Library featured my article .. the list goes on and on.
Link to my articles:
>> Reflections:
- My team commended me on my documentation skills.
- I had no trouble putting my understanding into words, and I could draw informative technical diagrams.
- I shared my articles with a few folks at Microsoft and they were really impressed!
[4] Learned A New Tech Stack
I did this primarily because I was inefficient at reading documentation and then putting it into practice. I needed a YouTube video to help me understand what was happening. I ventured into web3 blockchain, where such video materials are limited and the main source of information is the documentation. I was aware that there was a 90% chance I would be working with an internal tool for which there would, of course, be no instructional videos.
>>Reflections:
- It turned out that a large portion of my work was reading research papers and putting things into practice. I truly benefited from developing this muscle!
[5] Hackathons and Fellowships
I took part in a couple of hackathons(and thus 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 continuously coding stuff.
December — Buidl It Hackathon, Jan — April (ETHWMN Fellowship), March — April (Google Girl Hackathon), April (MLH Prep Fellowship)
I had to manage three things at once in addition to offline college and tests, and at one point I was very weary, but it was all worth it!
>>Reflections:
- Definitely helped me to build my confidence in my ability to figure things out. A new project did not frighten me in the least. I was confident that I could find a solution.
[6] Diving into Books
The lifestyle of an SDE always piqued my interest. I studied a lot of publications by SDEs to find the answer, and they provided me with a wealth of valuable guidance. On Medium, I recall reading a lot of material that I later saved to Pocket.
Some books and articles I had read:
- Software Developer Life: Career, Learning, Coding, Daily Life, Stories
- Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft’s Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone — By Satya Nadella
- List of articles I would definitely recommend reading:
>> Reflections:
- I could have meaningful conversations with folks at Microsoft and understand the memes they shared on private chatting groups xD
[7] Preparing for Exit Interviews
I was aware that MSFT holds exit interviews for its interns. You should be prepared for them in advance because you won’t have much free time to do so during your internship. My belief is that interviews depend on the org; no matter how much time and effort you put into a project, if you don’t do well in your interviews, you won’t get the job. In order to succeed in interviews, you must be at your best! Topics include:
- Operating Systems
- Networking
- OOPs
- Data Structures and Algorithm
- System Design
>>Reflections:
- In essence, data structures and algorithms were the focus of my entire internship endeavor. In retrospect, having solid CS fundamentals is a MUST.
Brownie Points:
- Know how to introduce yourself in a way that people would want to listen to.
- Be familiar with git and the terminal.
- Learn about design principles here is a great book for that — A Philosophy of Software Design
- Read about Test Driven Development and clean coding practices.
- Find an intriguing activity since people will respect it more than if you say “coding is my hobby.” Find your uniqueness.
FAQs
- Should I continue doing DSA or should focus on development?
You shouldn’t stop doing DSA. You have the choice to scale back your preparation by participating in code forces competitions or simply solving one question each day in the Leetcode Daily Challenge. Being constant and in tune with the basics is the key goal here.
As you would largely be working on an internal tech stack, having some past development expertise would always be advantageous. More on this in the next answer.
2. What tech stack should I pick or study in order to perform better throughout my internship?
There is a 99% possibility that you will be working with internal tools and tech stack that you have never even heard of. You don’t need to worry about it because you will have plenty of time to acquire skills during the internship.
The main thing to concentrate on is to create a plan for how to quickly become accustomed to whatever tech stack that you have been given. That entails studying the documentation and putting it to use in your projects. So pick any tech stack that excites you and go ahead with it.
Since there is a lower likelihood that you would be given a front-end task, I would strongly advise working with the backend once.
3. Which three teams should I give preference to?
I’ll be able to give you a summary of what I did. I spoke with a few folks, and everyone agreed that teams associated with Azure have the best chance of working on fascinating projects, so I went ahead and selected all Azure-related teams. In the end, Azure SQL was given to me and looking back, that was a wise choice. Therefore, I advise speaking with former interns about their experiences and organizational cultures before deciding what is best for you.
I hope you now have a better understanding of what you can do before starting your internship. Finally, I would advise you to give it your all throughout these eight months because you now have the freedom to work on anything you like!
Stay tuned for Part -2!
