This summer, I interned at Microsoft India Hyderabad as a software engineering intern.
After my first year, I had an inkling that I didn’t like core and started exploring the plethora of opportunities available in the quest for what I liked. My ITSP project excited me about deep learning and motivated me to be part of the computer vision subsystem at Sedrica. I was fortunate to further explore ongoing research and other branches of deep learning as part of my research internship at the Technical University of Braunschweig in my sophomore summer.
Even after working on these and other machine learning projects, I realised I did not have a penchant for machine learning and wanted to diversify my profile and experiences. Having done a research internship, I knew I wanted to apply only for software roles at multinational technological companies, driven by a sheer fascination with how these companies put everything together on such a large scale. I had taken DSA in the 4th semester, which rekindled my liking for coding, and subsequently, I decided to pursue a CS minor. I approached seniors who had interned in my companies of interest to know the selection process, preparation strategies for the coding tests, and interview tips. Every piece of advice for any software role was a restatement of practice makes perfect. Practising questions from LeetCode and Codeforces worked for me, and one might want to give more importance to specific topics depending on your target companies.
Like most tech companies, Microsoft also had a moderate coding screening test, and around 45 students were shortlisted for further interviews. Round 1 involved coding a solution to a problem based on a breadth-first search in any editor of your choice. I was able to implement one possible approach to the problem, but the solution did not run as intended, and I figured the missing ‘&’ just after the call ended (yeah, welcome to my life). The interviewer seemed satisfied with the solution, but I lost all hope and dozed off since I didn’t have any other interviews scheduled that day. To my surprise, when the IC called for the next round, I just splashed water on my face and sat down while trying to calm my anxious heart. The 2nd round was focused on DSA, particularly string manipulation and linked lists, and some questions were related to array memory allocation. Last was the HR round, where I was free to choose any project from my resume and explain the problem statement, impact, obstacles, learnings, etc. This round is a chance to rave about your project, don’t shy from talking about what you enjoyed working on and be thorough with every point you have mentioned in your resume. The results came around midnight, and I was on cloud nine on seeing my name under “Day-1 Final Selections”. I got the company of my preference, and trust me, all that hard work is worth this moment.
Unfortunately, my internship was WFH, and I did not get the opportunity to witness the vast campus, amenities, and the thrill of working offline with your team. Nevertheless, the online experience was equally satisfying. I worked with Microsoft’s Digital Security and Resilience team on implementing intelligent insights from data. I can’t share many details about my project due to NDA. Still, an overview of my project involved developing the design and robust approaches for the problem statement and implementing it end to end, including deployment on the function app. I was blessed with a fantastic team, mentors, and manager. Not only my mentor but every team member was always available for even the slightest doubt, and there was always so much to gain from their experiences and other ongoing projects. Every day was filled with new learnings. Working with a team outside my comfort zone taught me about the fundamentals of digital security and fostered critical thinking for even the most minor details.
Overall it was a gratifying experience interning at Microsoft, with every intern project in the DSR team having a global business impact. The amount of knowledge to acquire seemed overwhelming on the first day, but on the last day, I left with more than I knew, some newfound interests, and definitely more clarity on what I wanted to pursue. I believe in exploring and rejecting until you find your passion. Until then, keep hustling :)