Like millions of young men across the United States, Albert Rocker dreamed of a career in the NFL. Although there’s a better chance of getting struck by lightning than playing professional football, Albert’s ambition, discipline and dedication brought him within striking distance.

As Albert reached his final year of college football eligibility, he found himself at a crossroads: take his last shot at pro football stardom or move to California for a promising career opportunity at Microsoft. "It was probably the most difficult decision of my life," Rocker admits.

This enviable but gut-wrenching choice did not just appear out of the blue. Albert had always treated his academics in the same way he approached football.

He reflects, “As a football player, you learn a lot about teamwork. You live with your teammates, eat with them, lift with them and study with them. If one guy misses curfew, he lets down the whole team. You learn a lot about collaboration and you really come to understand accountability.”

Albert believes that football is good preparation for the challenges of a career. He says, “You learn to deal with adversity. It’s all about using your attitude to never give up a fight and to keep investing time and hard work until you overcome your obstacles.”

At Georgia Tech, Albert played in a total of 38 games, including all 13 games of his junior season in 2010. Around his grueling football schedule, which Albert says could take “up to 60 hours of work per week,” he studied management and landed on the ACC Academic Honor Roll in 2009-2010. During his summer vacations, Albert balanced preparation for the next football season with internships to build his business knowledge.

Early last year, Albert attended a Georgia Tech career fair in search of a new summer internship – something different that would give him broader experience. It was at that career fair that Albert happened upon Georgia Tech alum and current Microsoft program manager Irwin Dolobowsky.

Irwin recalls, “I’ve attend lot of career fairs and sometimes speak with up to 500 students per event. Almost all of them have good grades and good experience. Albert had the background, but he also had exceptional social and leadership skills. He was able to showcase those abilities to me immediately.”

Irwin passed along Albert’s resume to Microsoft recruiter Trish Lincoln. Albert had reconfigured all of his football experience as work experience on his resume. Trish says, “Albert’s resume was really unexpected and special. He showed a breakdown of his hours on and off the field. He had been a leader with younger players and demonstrated not only his management skills, but he had come up with team-wide stats to quantify improvements over time.”

Irwin adds, “Things move fast at Microsoft and you can’t wait around for stuff to happen in this work environment. Albert was clearly the kind of guy who makes things happen.”

Albert’s search for a summer internship soon became the opportunity to take on a fulltime role at Microsoft. However, Albert had never imagined himself at a large company and always considered himself a budding entrepreneur.

But Trish worked to find the ideal role for Albert’s talents. She points out, “Microsoft has a strong entrepreneurial history and is a great place for young employees to build their networks and take risks while benefitting from the stability of the company.”

Albert agrees, “Trish pointed me toward the technical account manager role where I’d work for Microsoft, but most directly interact with clients. There’s a lot of independence and your success is driven by you and you only. It’s like having your own little business with the backing of a major company.”

In the end, Albert decided to go pro… at Microsoft.

It was a painful decision to forsake his final season of college football, but one that Albert knew was the right way to maximize his success over time.

As Albert shrewdly notes, “Success is not about money or the glory of being on the cover of a magazine. Success is about being happy and you get that true happiness by giving yourself 100% to a given endeavor, whether that’s playing football, being part of your family or working in technology. I make sure to take that approach to all I do in life.”

Albert Rocker took the skills he learned in life and on the football field and found a place at Microsoft. How about you? Interested in learning more about technical account manager positions and what they are like? Then see what we have to offer and apply for the job of your dreams!

It’s never easy to say goodbye, so let’s just hope this is just “until we meet again” for Alexandra, Pragun and Amanda. With their internships in Redmond coming to an end they take a moment to tell us about what they have learned over the summer. And it’s really as unique as their differing experiences. Whether they learned about themselves in a work situation, discovered the beauty of Washington state or simply got to know a few great people – their internships made an impact. Listen to what they have to share with us as they get ready to head back to school or on to other adventures.

As always, here is your chance to explore the possibilities that an internship at Microsoft has to offer you!

- The Jobsbloggers

If you are a fan of bloopers, those unintentional mistakes that get caught on film, this episode of My Intern Life 3 is just for you. A slip up and some general silliness get the interns going as they take time to make fun of themselves during the filming of the series. The only way this could be any better is if Dick Clark and Ed McMahon were hosting the outtake real!

- The Jobsbloggers

Microsoft interns work hard on real life projects each summer on our Redmond campus. We hold an exclusive event to celebrate their contributions. This year's event was held at the Woodland Park Zoo. Along with some choice eats, Dave Matthews performed a private concert. To cap off the evening each of our hard working interns received an Xbox and Kinect. They were excited, really excited. But you don't have to take our word for it. Just take a look at what they have to say!

- The Jobsbloggers

What's the signature summer event for interns? The Intern Games of course! Part Survivor, part Amazing Race, but mostly a lot of Midnight Madness this annual event keeps their brains spinning well past business hours. Find out how our My Intern Life team fought sleep deprivation and bad food to solve puzzles all in the name of fun!

- The Jobsbloggers

The internship experience at Microsoft is as diverse and fascinating as the company itself. Beyond each intern’s work experience, they also lead dynamic lives outside of the company. And, even though our interns make a big impact on our technologies, it’s often what they do outside of work that leaves a lasting impression.

As our interns now leave Redmond campus, we’re taking a moment to reflect on some of the more unique stories we’ve heard this summer. From finding love across international borders to befriending soccer royalty to having a casual chat with titans of technology– our interns have done it all!

We hope you enjoy getting to know our interns as much as we did…

The intern experience: Apartments are more than just a place to sleep

The ‘Softie intern in question: Wes – Software Development Intern – Server & Tools

Wes, tell us about your housing situation as an intern.
When you intern at Microsoft, you are given the choice to stay in corporate housing or they’ll subsidize you to rent an apartment.
I decided that it’d be fun to get to know the Seattle-area a bit better, so I hunted for an apartment on Craigslist.

And you found something good?
I found a great place. It was an easy bike ride to campus and was way better than any place I’ve lived at college.

Tell us about your roommates.
I lived with two Italian/Venezuelans; both named Ricky. They were both minor league soccer players and had all sorts of friends who played soccer.

I suddenly had a big group of new friends. Everyone was very welcoming. Another soccer-player friend was over at the apartment so frequently that we decided to host his birthday party there.

So, you were living at the epicenter of the Seattle soccer community?
It definitely seemed that way. For example, at that birthday party, a girl asked me “Did you get to meet Fredy?”

I was like, “Fredy who?”

“That Fredy,” she pointed to a guy sitting on the couch.

He looked very normal, just like anyone else at the party. But suddenly I realized that it was Seattle Sounders  star forward Fredy Montero.

Did you get to meet him?
Yeah. I’ve never hung out any sports celebrities before, but he was a really nice guy and a completely down-to-earth person. We played ping-pong and he came around the hang out at our apartment other times too.

Did you find that kind of accessible, casual culture elsewhere in your internship?
For sure. No matter if somebody is an intern or the head of a business group at Microsoft; they go by their first name at work.

I mean, at the intern keynote speech, Steve Ballmer said if we had any questions or concerns to go ahead and ping him and he’d do his best to get back to us.

There’s a sense that all interns are welcome and you immediately feel like part of something much bigger than yourself.

The intern experience:  Sitting down with the big boss

The ‘Softie interns in question:
Sara – Software Development Intern – Office Communications – Lync
Ted – Program Manager Intern – Windows

Rumor has it that you met with Steve Ballmer not once, but twice. Tell us why you sought out a meeting with the CEO.
Sara: I’ve been a total Microsoft fangirl since middle school. But, all this time, people like Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer were just figureheads to me. I wanted the opportunity to get to know him as a real person.

Ted: Who wouldn’t want to meet him? This seemed like the best chance we’d get.

An intern doesn’t usually get more than one shot to request a meeting with Ballmer – so it’d better be a good one. How’d you do it?
Sara: It was more straightforward that you might think. People really overestimate the difficulty of sending an email.

It did involve a mousetrap, a high school yearbook page through which I'd made abundantly clear my passion for Microsoft and approximately an hour to build up the courage to hit “send.”

Ted: And, somehow, we ended up with a meeting with just the three of us.

What was it like to meet with him? What did you talk about?
Ted: I was a little nervous at first, but that disappeared once we actually met him. He’s a very likable person. We talked about technology but also normal things like where his kids were applying to college. It felt like I was talking to a family friend.

The second time we met him – for lunch with the other interns from our schools – it was like having a front-row seat to watch your favorite sports team. He has a powerful presence that you can only fully understand by meeting him in person.

How did meeting Ballmer affect your overall experience as an intern?
Sara: The meeting alleviated the one concern I had about Microsoft: that it’s such a huge company that I’d get lost in it all. But, as interns, we were so welcomed into the company that we managed to traverse every level of the organization and personally meet with the CEO. How cool is that?

Is it fair to say that you felt like a valued member of the Microsoft community?
Ted: Absolutely. We were given real work and real challenges, but we never had trouble getting support from people on our teams or anywhere else in the company.

And beyond Ballmer, we got to meet all sorts of other Microsoft executives to get a big-picture sense of what it means to be an employee at the company.

The intern experience: Finding love at Microsoft

The ‘Softie interns in question:
Jonathan – Program Manager Intern – Windows
Montserrat – Software Development Intern – Windows

Tell us about how you met each other.
Montse: We met on the Explorer internship. I‘m from Mexico and Jonathan is from Puerto Rico and it was both of our first times here at Microsoft. However, we were on separate intern teams so we didn’t get to know each other at first.

How’d you two actually meet then?
Jonathan: You’re very busy as an intern as you get real, challenging work, but it is all balanced out with a lot of fun social events too.

There’s everything from parties to the chance to do outdoor stuff like going to Mount Rainier or white water rafting and community service projects.

Montse: We actually got to know each other and a lot of our other intern friends through the social events. Believe it or not, we sat next to each other on the bus on the way to a community service project.

Unfortunately, this happened toward the end of our internship.

Did you think that you’d ever see each other again?
Montse: We never thought that we’d see each other again, but then kept in touch by Windows Live Messenger and Skype and we just kept talking.

Jonathan: I went to visit her in Mexico that Christmas and that’s when we started dating.

So, what was the next step?
Jonathan: We told the Microsoft recruiters that we wanted to intern again.

Montse: They were great in making it possible and comfortable for us to come back for another year.

Does that mean you only actually see each other during your internships?
Montse: As full-time students living in different countries, we only get to be together while on our internships in Redmond and at Christmas.

I’ve gotta ask, do you two talk about technology all the time when you’re together?
Jonathan: Montse is a dev intern and I am a PM intern, so we have very different specialties and don’t talk specifically about tech so much.

Montse: But we do talk about the industry and Microsoft a lot.

What’s next for the international lovebirds?
Montse: We‘re already working with our recruiters to find out if it’s possible to come back for a final internship at Microsoft next summer before we graduate.

If you’re a student interested internships or fulltime positions, please visit us on our University Careers Site.

They came, they had (a boat load) of fun, and yes they even kicked some software development butt! And by that we mean they worked and worked hard. It's week 7 and Alexis, EJ, Pragun Alexandra and John share a slice of their team life and project responsibilities on this week’s episode of My Intern Life. Coding, design reviews and sprints are all on the to do list – though we are pretty sure there is no actual running involved!

- The Jobsbloggers

What makes the Great Pacific Northwest, well, great? In Episode 6 of My Intern Life our summer apprentices take time to explore all the outdoor locations that are representative of life in Seattle. Whether it’s sailing on Lake Washington, hiking in the Olympic National Park, Deception Pass or viewing the numerous waterfalls that creep out of the rocky crags – there is an outdoor experience that will take your breath away. And if the outdoors isn’t your thing, there is always the city of Seattle to explore along with a number of restaurants, stores, museums and other cultural hot spots that are close at hand. Find out what places the interns discovered on their adventures around the Northwest!

- The Jobsbloggers