Summer Internship with Microsoft — Ankur from Sastra University, Thanjavur
Daily Winner for: – 11th August 2012
Name of the intern: – Ankur
Institute: – Sastra University
Organization interned with: – Microsoft India R&D Pvt. Ltd.
My internship journey began at a party — It was the Microsoft Student Partners’ Annual Boot Camp at Goa, where I gave the written test for an internship at my dream company, Microsoft. After a wait of forever (which was actually just three months), I was on seventh heaven when I found out I got through and was selected for the interview process. At the very least, I’d gotten a chance to visit Microsoft’s office at Hyderabad. Enthusiastic, nervous and not even close to fully prepared (at least, I felt so!), I attended the interview. There was another long two month gap full of anxiety and nervousness after which I got my internship call letter. The news spread like wild fire and the best part was that I had gotten it without having to go through a campus recruitment process.
After three months of fantasizing and over-thinking, on the 28th of May, 2012, I joined Microsoft IT, Hyderabad, for my internship. The first day exceeded expectations. I met the other interns (from all over India) and Intern buddies (who’d help us out during the internship), not to mention my manager and team (I worked with a Microsoft Business Solutions team) and attended a briefing about my prospective projects. The people were friendly, the work atmosphere so amazing that I finally understood why Microsoft was such a great place to work at.
Things picked up speed from the third day. I’d set up my new laptop by then and after getting all the essentials, I got down to work on a project which involved extending an internal Microsoft tool. I worked on two projects — one of which was development related and the other testing related. My development project specifications changed halfway during my internship and so I had to work on it till the very end while simultaneously working on the testing one as well.
I faced a lot of challenges but learned a lot as well. Apart from all the technical skills I acquired, the most important thing I felt I learnt was how to interact with peers and team work. I’m thankful for all the help from my team members, my mentors and the other seniors. Work never felt boring because one could always wander off to relax and then come back and jump back in. Table tennis, pool and football were alternatives you could take up when you felt drained.
Our benefits included free travel to and from work; we could take the bus or if we were working late (i.e after 9.30 PM), we could take a cab. Lunch was free, snacks were free (think beverages, both hot and cold, and you wouldn’t be far off) and vending machines were on every floor for convenience.
On the non-work front, I made a lot of friends amongst the other interns at the lavish hotel we were all lodged at initially. We played video games together, watched movies, lunched together every day, checked out local joints, went to parties and had a lot of fun. The best part of it all was when we celebrated birthdays. I occupied PG accommodations after the initial 15 day stay at a hotel that Microsoft paid for. I met a lot of people from different companies (working different roles) but we became good friends and they considered me as a younger brother.
All the fun, the learning and the challenges made time fly by and before I knew it, my last week as an intern had arrived. Every intern has a Pre Placement Interview (PPI) in the last week and I was nervous about the outcome, wondering whether I’d be one of the lucky ones who’d get a Pre Placement Offer (PPO). My first interview went well but the last one didn’t go that well. We had to wait to find out the results so all I could do was keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.
The last day was hectic (in contrast to my first). I had to finish up some paper work, submit my projects and of course, have fun because that might just have been the last day at the office ever. I had one last dinner with them that night, friends and seniors all together, and then it was back to college. Now’s the best and my most favourite part of this whole journey — one week after my return, I found out I’d been selected to become a full time employee. My happiness was beyond bounds. If the internship had put me in seventh heaven, I was practically floating in the exosphere then. An amazing internship followed by a job at my dream company, icing on the overladen cake. I’m really excited to go back next year and meet the other chosen ones !
Was this interesting? If yes, please like the post on Facebook (below) and help Ankur become winner of the week and win the prize (Rs. 1,000/-) that he truly deserves!
