A match made in internship - how Microsoft and I got together
Credit: Microsoft APAC University Recruitment Team

A match made in internship - how Microsoft and I got together

The competition for talent is as heated as ever as top firms from all industries vie for the young, brilliant, and digitally savvy from the same talent pool. These students have their pick of prospective employers and embark on internships not only to boost their employability but also to figure out where to devote their talent upon graduation. Besides being an audition for the students, an internship also the most effective way by far for companies to persuade top young talent to join their ranks.

An awesome internship experience not only persuades interns to join full-time and prepares them for the job, but also gets them completely sold on the culture and identity such that they promote the good brand of the organization to the outside world.

My internship experience with Microsoft was exactly that: awesome.

I'm sharing my experiences in order to highlight how important internships are to a company's recruiting ambitions and in shaping a student's career choices. To students out there who are looking for an awesome internship, I hope my experience sheds some light on what that means to you.

Put simply, if I didn't do the internship, I wouldn't be there full-time.

An internship constructed with care

I joined the Microsoft Intern to MACH program in May 2017 as a Technical Account Manager. MACH is the Microsoft Academy for College Hires, the company's version of the graduate program. My background in Mechanical Engineering and Economics should already hint at the diverse makeup of the interns, whose internship roles spanned software engineering, technical sales, marketing, and other corporate functions.

The University Recruitment Team runs the 12-week program and handles on-boarding, career development, and welfare for all interns, while the on-job-training and mentorship is managed by each intern's respective hiring managers and their teams. This arrangement ensured we received constant tender loving care from all parties concerned for our development and more importantly, they genuinely wanted us to have fun!

No efforts and expenses spared

There were no efforts or expenses spared to give interns the best learning and bonding experience. The uber-cool UR Team held regular combined sessions with all interns, such as weekly career coaching, coffee chats with senior leaders, and kept organizing social activities right from Day 1 (no better way to break ice than getting new colleagues to chat over drinks).

In the spirit of cultural diversity and collaboration, interns from all over Asia Pacific were also flown in for a week full of engagements with senior executives, games and parties, and cultural exchange activities. Despite all the interns working in different segments and geographies, it was such a fun and enriching week that we forged lasting bonds and still catch up with each other when we visit each other's cities.

No, this picture is not one of materialistic joy; scratch beneath the Surface and you will be able to discern the pure exhilaration of being a Microsoft intern :)

Kudos to Edwin and co. for helping to form such a strong intern family (many of which are now full-time Microsofties).

Internship as a cultural eye-opener

"Culture eats strategy for breakfast" - I only got to understood what this meant through my internship. Although I was well aware of the open, flexible, and nimble culture in the tech industry, I was still taken aback on how real everything seemed. In Microsoft, the culture it preaches actually pervades its strategy and operations. I could observe very clearly the commitment to collaboration, the "growth mindset", diversity, and work-life balance - where asking "stupid" questions, making mistakes, being different or working from home or university are genuinely not frowned upon, but actively encouraged as long as I got the work done and showed progress.

Exceptional coaching and mentorship

What stood out as a feature of the collaborative culture is the exceptional coaching and mentorship that I received. My manager Eugene took a personal stake in my career development, frequently giving feedback during weekly one-to-one sessions as well as soliciting my feedback about the company and his management style. When an intern recommends their boss watch Game of Thrones and he does so (inevitably consigning himself to a 7-season commitment), you feel confident that your management listens.

Then there are my mentor and buddy, Lorraine and Gaurav, who held my hand through everything from internal processes, product and services knowledge, staff perks, lunch and coffee spots, and various tricks of the trade. Everybody here is constantly busy, but still never too busy to help me (and each other) out, and that's much easier said than done consistently.

In Microsoft, there are just too many things to learn, so people specialize and then teach each other. It's this collaborative learning from one another that enabled me to thrive in my internship, by learning quick and daring to add value to the team with my own unique contributions.

I owe immense gratitude to the entire Services team for the guidance - so many people helped me along the way, too many to list out completely.

An easy decision to continue

As I extended my internship beyond the stipulated 12-week period into my final year in university, I thought hard about my career, about whether Microsoft would serve me well, and whether I would serve it well. Of course one can rationalize, but when the feeling is there, the decision is usually much easier.

Through it all, I came to recognize that the internship proved to be an exceptionally effective conduit through which Microsoft wielded their considerable soft power, to the point that every one of us wanted to continue being part of the community.

And after the amazing internship I had, I just couldn't turn down the offer to continue here in the long term.

After all,

an awesome internship experience not only persuades interns to join full-time and prepares them for the job, but also gets them completely sold on the culture and identity such that they promote the good brand of the organization to the outside world.
Daniel Ting

Product Marketing at TikTok | PMP®

6y

Thanks for sharing!

Like
Reply
Smit Kabrawala

Data Engineer at Flipt

6y

That was inspirational. Hope to work for Microsoft one day. By the way I did apply for MACH program. Lets hope for the best.

Aim Kusuwan

Couchbase (NASDAQ: BASE) | Multi-Cloud Database | NoSQL | DBaaS

6y
Like
Reply

To view or add a comment, sign in

Insights from the community

Explore topics