How I got an Internship at Microsoft!

May 17, 2018

The Story

It was a dream come true to be selected as an Intern at Microsoft. I won’t lie the adrenaline rushing through my veins when I was standing in front of a whiteboard with an employee who just asked me a design question. His question involved drawing the database schema and telling him how the request will be queued.

It was like that scene from a movie where you have rehearsed that moment several times in your head, but when it happens, you just forget how to react.

I had imagined a whiteboard but not drawing a schema. Truthfully I hadn’t practiced that before my interview. But I managed to answer that question and several questions that followed, and if you don’t mind me bragging, I nailed it.

My name is Ankita Mishra, and I am a dual masters (MBA-MIS) student at University of Arizona. If you ask any aspiring intern about their dream company to work for the answer will most likely be Microsoft. We are talking about one of the biggest Technology companies in the world. In this blog, I will be talking about how I got an internship with Microsoft, my entire interview experience, and how the internship offer looks like.

I attended 2017 Grace Hopper Conference for women in Technology (https://ghc.anitab.org/2018-attend/) and got my first round of Interview opportunity in this conference. To know about this conference more visit the link attached.

The Interviews

Round 1– There were questions on Microsoft, why Microsoft and what is my favorite Microsoft product and why. The person interviewing me was a Program Manager at Norway Microsoft. There were situational questions like how I would deal with situations where there was conflict. The interview was for 30 minutes, and there was nothing technical, but I had to give answers logically.

Round 2– I got an email from Microsoft after ten days of my round 1, and a phone interview was scheduled. On this phone interview, the person interviewing me was a Program Manager at Redmond Microsoft. He asked me design questions- how will I design a kitchen for a restaurant. There were ten other questions on my resume, networking and infrastructure, and some basic situational questions

Round 3 to Round 7– The big Super Interview day at Microsoft. This one day is all exciting, challenging, and nerve-wracking as you can imagine. Microsoft flew me to Seattle for a day, and Microsoft paid for everything. The food, cabs, hotel, sightseeing(Well you can imagine my happiness).

The interview was stressful and fun. I had to reach the Microsoft Headquarters at 7:30 am. Many candidates came for their interview. These were 45 minutes to 1-hour interview with 15 minutes break in between. They were like blind dates where you didn’t know whom you are meeting next, but your interviewer who just interviewed you passed information about you to the next interviewer in those 15 minutes break slot. Whatever you say is important as information is passed from one interviewer to another.

There was a lunch interview as well. The questions were majorly design questions. I was asked to design a database schema, an elevator, about my experience, questions about Microsoft products, SQL queries, arrays, security, and block-chains. It was a pretty hectic day from 9 am to 5 pm. All in all, I loved the experience and got to learn so much from the people interviewing me.

Why Microsoft?

Microsoft is an amazing company to work for. It has one of the best internship programs in the country.

If you are someone who is passionate about technology, believes in diversity and inclusion, and is customer focused, it is the place for you.Just keep these three important things in mind:

1. Work on projects other than school work and develop your skills

2. Network with people and learn about the company and its business.

3. Understand what unique value proposition you bring to the table and use it while you give your interviews.

The New Beginning- Summer Of 2018

I will be a Program Manager Intern at Microsoft with the Office 365 team this summers. It’s a 12-week paid internship including living, transportation, health benefits, gym membership, lots of fun events, and what not!

To know more about my internship experience or to discuss on technology, business or ideas connect with me on linkedIn, Email, or Instagram.