Non-Traditional Internships: Interning at Microsoft

Today Intern Memo sits down with Charles French, a product planner at Microsoft to talk about interning at his company up in Seattle. On Tuesday we heard from an executive at Inform, a startup that's taken off, and next week we'll hear from the founder of Gradspot.com, but to give you the full range of working for online start-ups and firms, we figured we'd check in with the company that basically invented the internet. Sorry, Al Gore.

Intern Memo: How many interns does Microsoft hire each summer?

Charles French: About 1,000

Intern Memo: Are candidates with backgrounds in computer science more likely to get offers?

CF: Developers, the folks who write code, need to have a CS background. Testers, who test the code, don't need to have a CS background, but need some foundation in math, science, and computer science. Program managers, who coordinate the development and testing efforts, don't need a CS background, but need some foundation in math, science, and computer science. it helps. For all other positions - program manager, sales, product planner, marketer, etc - CS is not required whatsoever. Again, however, people in positions where interactions with Devs, Tests, and PMs happen on a regular basis, a CS background helps.

Intern Memo: What do interns actually do at microsoft?

CF: They are given responsibilities as close to full time employees as possible. Microsoft prides itself in offering fantastic internships that are accurate representations of full time jobs. Interns span every job function across every business. Internships are 12 weeks long and provide a great opportunity to land a full time job.

Intern Memo: Aside from access to extraordinarily fresh coffee, what's the best part of interning at Microsoft.

CF: You get to go to Bill Gates' house, in addition to the overall experience.

Intern Memo:What's the most valuable thing an intern should know before a summer...and before a summer at microsoft?!

CF: Work hard and do a good job. In most internships, Microsoft especially, you can land a full time position if you do a good job. Think of it is a 12 week long interview. And honestly, who wouldn't want to have a job lined up just weeks into their senior year?

It's true. Getting a job weeks into your senior year is like getting into college early, but actually much better. All you have to do is literally not fail out and you're in the clear. Unless, of course, you're intellectually curious like us, in which case you're in sort of a cogito ergo sum situation where you pursue knowledge for its inherent value. But speaking of values and absolute values and binary codes, it's nice to know that any Liberal Arts pacifist can apply for and be effective at a company. We'll be back with an inside look at life in a start-up next week.

Have a great weekend.

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