Preparing for my virtual internship with Microsoft

Background

A better understanding of the workplace

For this task, I hopefully should gain a better understanding of what it means to be an intern at Microsoft. Reflecting on my own knowledge about the workforce, there is so little that I know due to having minimal experience and exposure - so hopefully after this I'll able to at least know what things I need to learn about working in the workplace.

For Microsoft in particular, it is regarded as a home of empowerment, echoing the philosophy of the company's mission. Being a large-scale company that is cemented across the globe, any work that is done here is going to be used by people around the world and depended upon, having a impact on their lives.

As such, it is important for Microsoft to remain agile and at the forefront of the technology landscape, which is why they push so heavily for innovation, especially with the rise of Intelligent cloud and intelligent edge. The resources, people and expertise that exists at Microsoft create an environment for anyone who works there to be able to contribute to the mission of empowerment and be able to stand as an individual in order to plant their own dreams from their time there.

About the task

This tasks gives some insight into how engineering interns operate at Microsoft and what working there is like. More specifically, I'll be watching a video that features previous interns who worked in Engineering at Microsoft talking about their experiences and detailing the benefits from working at the company.

Intern Experience in India

As someone who is extremely passionate about learning and improving every day, what continues to push me towards Microsoft is the culture of inclusivity and environment for growth that it fosters and promotes. Every person who I have spoken to who works at Microsoft has a purpose and feels like their work matters and has an impact on their local community and the world around them.

There is no discrimination between people regardless of where they come from or what they do - they are all united under the common mission; to empower others to achieve more. It is this direction that has made the company more diverse and innovative than before, bringing great people from all corners of the world and at different stages in life to make a difference to the world. This is what inspires me as someone who went into Engineering in pursuit of solving problems to help people.

Moreover, Microsoft who is at the forefront of technology has an abundance of resources and people at the company, creating an environment where you can achieve anything you set your mind to. Whether you want to learn some obscure language like COBOL or create a brilliant cloud application, Microsoft has the tools and information to accelerate your learning, as well as a community to support your journey to answer your questions or provide direction for you. This gives tremendous opportunity for anyone within the company to further themselves and develop lifelong skills that are useful inside and outside of their career. Just being fortunate enough to be working at Microsoft gives you so much opportunity beyond the work that you do, making it the ideal workplace for people like me.

Reviewing the Model Answers

After sending in my answers, the internship provided a set of model answers that I could review and compare to my own.

A sense of belonging

The interns spoke about a ‘sense of belonging’. Why do you think a sense of belonging is beneficial for an intern?

Belonging is something that is crucial when working in teams. Members should feel like they are a part of the picture and they are contributing to something worthwhile because this investment can motivate them to want to do better. From the video, interns who mentioned this sense of belonging or community within Microsoft felt empowered and included and resulted in a more fulfiling experience.

What's interesting about these answers is they also bring it external sources to move the answer into a discussion. This answer in particular cites up the study of human psychology as a source to validate the connection between a sense of belonging within a team and a person's well-being. I think this speaks true with anything due to the nature of humans as social creatures, but seems to be especially critical when people are working in teams towards a common goal.

To achieve a harmony in collaboration, a connection between all members provides a support structure ensuing comfort and equality amongst all parties. According to this article, what comes with a sense of belonging are experiences of purpose, satisfaction and psychological stability. On the other hand, exclusion (the opposite of belonging) results in physical pain or psychological ailment. Especially within an organisation, employees may become loyal and believe that the company truly cares about them and values their worth.

Due to the importance of this, Microsoft have embodied these positive attributes, fostering a culture of inclusion and belonging. By catering towards the needs of all individuals within the organisation without any discrimination, Microsoft has opened itself up to become a widely respected and reputable company. As stated in their yearly Diversity Report, the culture of inclusivity aligns with the overall mission; to empower every person and organisation on the planet to achieve more. This includes not only external parties like customers and other businesses, but also their very own employees.

Experience with working on different teams

One intern spoke about working on a project with two different teams. What are the benefits of working with different teams?

Instead of being limited to one department and one role for an entire internship (typically in Microsoft this is a year), Microsoft provides the opportunity for interns to branch out and interface with different roles and teams within the organisation. As an internship is a time for development and exploration for the incoming interns, having this freedom can be an enriching experience for their career, giving them insight into different areas that they may be interested in.

According to the intern who spoke of working on a project with different teams, he found this extremely valuable because he had more exposure to a range of areas within the company. This gave him a stronger learning experience as he now had different mentors and peers whom he could rely on and support in different ways.

What comes with a shift of environment is not only a change of pace, but also fresh perspectives and new ways to think and approach different problems. As different teams face different challenges when working on the same project, the intern would have been able to see the problem from two sides of the fence - gaining a better overall understanding by seeing the bigger picture. Moreover, having knowledge of the two teams and how they approached their tasks within the project, the intern would have been able to see what may have worked and failed and learned strategies on how they could operate successfully in the future.

Furthermore, since teams usually never work alone but rather in unison with different specialisations on a project, it provides a raw and rich environment that the interns can learn in. Having this first-hand experience with working in collaboration with a different side of the company no doubt helped to deepen their understanding of how the company operated and how they could contribute if they were in that position.