Entries tagged 'intern'
Microsoft interns discuss creativity, collaboration & Cirque du Soleil
This summer, Microsoft’s Online Services Division (OSD) held its First Annual Hack Day for interns at Bing, Bing Mobile and MSN. The competition gave teams of interns a single day to collaborate and create a new app.Over forty interns showed up to demonstrate 9 apps. The People’s Choice prize was awarded to Peter Huang, Jessica Leung, Daphne Ezer, Zhiyong “Joe” Xie and Etienne Le Grand for building the Sidecar app.
Below, the team discusses Hack Day, interning at Microsoft and the Sidecar app in their own words.
Interns win top prize for Windows Phone 7 app
Among all sorts of other fun, games, learning, work and play, Microsoft's 2010 Interns had the opportunity to partake in a number of competitions. Entertainment & Devices hosted a competition that pitted the best and the brightest against each other to design the best new Windows Phone 7 app.The 1st place winning team created a new app for the Windows Phone called, "Headliner." Check out video highlights Headliner below and then read on to hear insights from the winning team of José Arriaga Maldonado, Roger Pincombe, Aaron Schultz and Chris Cortes - in their own words.
Microsoft Intern Tony Menard on video game testing and white water rafting
'Softie in question: Tony Menard
Job title: Xbox Games Intern - University of Michigan, Class of '11
Why did you decide to intern with Microsoft and not with a different tech company?
This was actually my third internship with Microsoft. I've chosen to intern with the company because it's a very well-respected leader and innovator in the technology industry.The products MS develops are used by millions of people every day. That being said, I know that the work I do will impact a large number of these individuals. I've also been given the opportunity to live "every kid's dream" as my last two internships were as a Software Development Engineer in Test for the Games Test Organization of Microsoft Game Studios (also known as a VIDEO GAME TESTER)!
Microsoft is one of a very few companies that have a 5-star intern program. The company never ceases to impress me with how well it treats its interns.
How did you feel about the type of work you did as an intern?
I think my intern responsibilities were both challenging and impactful. Throughout the summer, I took part in the testing of three different Xbox 360 titles. Furthermore, not only did I design the overarching test plan and generate build verification tests for a tool that will be used by my entire organization, I was also responsible for designing a targeted test specification and cases for a major release of the tool as well.All 9 women in Brown University Computer Science class intern at Microsoft
All nine Junior Class women at Brown University's Department of Computer Science interned at Microsoft this summer.Intern Nell Elliott interviewed with Google and Apple as well, but chose to intern at Microsoft because she was able to meet the people she'd be working with in advance. Even if she had met her future coworkers at Apple and Google, she says it would be difficult to think she could enjoy them more than the team she ended up with at Microsoft, the Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU).
"I worked on real stuff," Elliott says. "My team treated me like an adult. They took me seriously. It's more like you just started working here than being an intern." She adds her team at Microsoft is relaxed, funny, and quirky, but also clearly dedicated to their work.
Intern Tess Avitabile felt the same way about her team. "I wasn't expecting people on my team to be such goofballs, and I'm so excited about it," she says. "They were able to get so much done while also having time to pull pranks, such as inserting David Hasselhoff songs into presentations. They are so competent and so silly. It was great."