Interning in Big Tech: Emmanuel Assumang ‘25’s Summer with Microsoft
Written on September 16th, 2022 by Naser
This post is part of a student spotlight series highlighting the work of exceptional students. The series aims to facilitate knowledge sharing among students on topics such as internships, jobs, and graduate school. Today, I have the pleasure of talking to Emmanuel Assumang ‘25, a rising sophomore who will tell us about his internship experience at Microsoft this summer.
Naser: Can you tell us about the internship you had this summer? What kind of internship was it?
Emmanuel: Explore Microsoft is a 12-week summer internship program for first and second-year college students. It is rotational and allows you to gain experience in SWE and PM roles. For my part, I worked with the Azure Machine Learning team under the AI Platform Team management, and it was such a great learning experience, and I am proud of the work I completed with my pod (since you are placed in a team of 3). Rotating between PM and SWE roles, not only did I learn new technologies and skills, I had a perfect, educational, and fascinating time working on the project.
Naser: How did you find this internship? And why did you select it?
Emmanuel: I searched Reddit and LinkedIn for opportunities geared toward first-year college students in tech. I also had friends already interning in big tech who directed me to various sources!
Naser: Can you tell us about the interview process? And how did you prepare for it?
Emmanuel: My internship specifically was pretty straightforward about the application. After sending in your resume and applying through Microsoft’s career portal, if shortlisted/selected, a recruiter will reach out to you for the first round of interviews, which is a 30 mins behavioral phone call. The first round was pretty informal. If you pass, you’ll be contacted again to schedule a 90 mins (45-45 mins) back-to-back technical interview with two separate software developers. So it was three interviews! And the technical interview was based on problem-solving and taking the interviewer through your thought process.
Naser: What kind of activities were you involved in during your internship? And what aspects did you find most interesting?
Emmanuel: Over the course of my internship, there were many fun and educational activities so I will mention a few. The biggest was the intern day event, packed with social gatherings and lots of fun things. Aside from that, we had engineering boot camps, meet and greet with full-timers, intern-cohort events, and presentation days! These were actually great and gave us the opportunity to network and learn more in a fun way.
Naser: What tips would you give students interested in doing an internship in the future? You can mention any details that you like, including websites and other resources.
Emmanuel: One thing people mostly overlook is creating a good LinkedIn and GitHub profile and keeping it up to date with your projects and achievements. Also, working on personal projects (like even a simple game ) and contributing to open source projects go a long way when placed on your resume and profiles. Try to connect to people as much as possible. Do not be scared to reach out! Start your internship search early.
Naser: Thank you for sharing your experience, Emmanuel. It was great hearing about your internship, and I am sure others will find your experience motivating and beneficial in their journey.
Emmanuel: Thank you!
