Don’t be afraid to ask questions! Seriously…

You see this advice everywhere, and yet it’s one of those easy to say, hard to follow ones. Sometimes the question is just at the tip of your tongue, but something tells you that its a dumb question or “what would people think of me if I ask this?”. I present to you the alternative dilemma: would you rather not know the answer to your question, or maybe be perceived slightly silly by others? I used to be the former type, where I could always care more about how others view me instead of actually receiving very useful and important information that could help me in my job. Now, I would always choose the latter. I think there is also definitely a balance to this, for example, there is definitely such a thing as asking too many questions without looking yourself. I think you would just have to be the judge of where you are on the scale.

Scope out the timeline for your project

Make sure you’re on track with your work! 3 months seems like a long time but it passes by just like that. I’m lucky that my manager during the internship had set out timelines for me, but even then I ended up slighly behind, so make sure you have a rough idea of what you should complete and by when. This way, you will have a strong and executable plan of finishing your intern project.

Do your work seriously, but also don’t forget to have fun!

I’m a big fan of the work hard, play hard motto. Especially at a company as big as Microsoft, or any other big tech company, there are so many other interns and fun intern events floating around.

I definitely encourage you to make the most out of those opportunities, and have lots of fun when you are an intern, because it will not be the same when you are full-time. It’s almost like a fun techy summer camp in my opinion.

Get to know your team

There are obviously pros and cons to an internship model where interns work on their individual projects vs. tackling regular features and tickets for the team. For the former case, you will be responsible for a project end-to-end (pro), however, you may not get to know the operations and day-to-day of the rest of your team as well, since you are so entrenched in your own project (con). I would strongly recommend to talk to the rest of your team, and figure out the on-call schedule, what product the teams owns/maintains, and how your product fits into the bigger picture of your org.

Explore the Seattle Area

This one is more specific to Microsoft interns in Redmond, or any other interns in the Seattle area (Amazon I’m looking at you). But the PNW is very nice in the summer time, except for the occasional heat wave. One of my favorite experiences during my internship in Seattle was exploring the nearby trails–Mt. Rainer was a personal favorite of mine!

Rent a Car!

This one is a bit debatable, but if you can drive, I would highly recommend taking the rental car option at Microsoft. Although there are connectors that take you to/from the campus, there are just so much more places you can explore with your own vehicle.

Don’t commit to summer classes

I made the mistake of registering for a summer class when I was interning. Between going to work, attending intern events, hanging out with friends, going to the gym, and exploring the city, I really did not have time to finish my class deliverables. So if you want to really enjoy your time, I would advise to not take summer classes.

Lastly, remember to enjoy your internship and have an amazing summer!

~Cindy