In case you missed it - GBM Recap!

We know that you guys are generally busy, we’re students too. We’ve recorded the session and also uploaded it to youtube, check it out here: Spring24 - First GBM Recording

We also went over free resources available from the EBR Library if you have a library card, follow this link to check them out. 

You can go over our slides from the GBM here: January GBM Slides

We went over our upcoming events for the semester:

• 2/21 UI / UX + Figma Workshop
• 3/6 Object Detection
• 3/27 Professional Development
• 4/10 Alumni Panel
• 4/16 - 4/19 Web Dev Week 

👀 Our President, Madi, went over how she got an internship for this summer as a software engineer intern at Microsoft. Read more about this below!

“ Normally Microsoft’s intern application process consists of resume screen -> online assessment -> a 15min behavioral phone call -> final interview. However, this year they only did resume screening into the final interview, which was so surprising at least for the original Redmond HQ posting. I can’t speak for the additional postings they had. 

I applied the first day the application was posted and was part of the first batch of people to be interviewed. I had 2 interviews that were 45 minutes long with 2 different people. It was virtual through Microsoft Teams. I had 10 minutes of behavioral, 30 minutes of technical, and there’s always 5 minutes for questions. 

1st interview: The interviewer had 14 years of experience at Microsoft and worked on Bing

• Tell me about yourself 

• I  saw on your resume you listed this project, what did you use to build it with and was anything open source?

• I saw you had an interest section, can you tell me more abt these 2 things you listed (weightlifting and making Google Reviews lol)

• I saw you had this work experience on your resume, can you tell me more about what you did?

Technical portion

I was given a Codility link and I had an easy leetcode problem asked. I talked about the constraints and gave an immediate ‘brute force’ solution. After running it with some sample arguments, I was asked if it could be optimized. Once it was optimized, I was asked the time complexity and explained it. 

2nd interview: The interviewer had 3 years of experience at Microsoft and was an intern

Behavioral portion

• Tell me abt yourself 

• I mentioned I’m the president of a club so they asked me why I decided to join the club

• They asked me what my favorite project on my resume was

• I was also asked when was a time I was unable to meet expectations or failed to complete something before a deadline

• When was a time when I had expectations and how I delivered them to the client

Technical

Another leetcode easy that utilized a hashset. I asked about constraints such as is the array sorted, etc. Gave a straightforward brute force and then they asked to optimize it. I forgot to mention the time complexity on this one. It was a little iffy compared to the first question.

After my interviews, I felt that I had made a strong impression on my interviewers. The thing about Microsoft that people often mention is that they care more about you as a person and not just the skills you bring. I was told that I’d hear back after 2 weeks but I actually got the offer after 3 days, as the interview was on Wednesday and then the email came on Friday.

How did I prepare for this?

Behavioral 

• Having a word/google doc with all my ‘stories’ aka a story toolbox where I have generic topics such as leadership, collaboration, conflict, etc and jotted down some bullet points of experiences that I could talk about in an interview

• Mocked interview with friends, practicing talking and being aware of filler words such as um, like, you know, and so on. Trying to sound natural as possible even if I’m reading off a script. Going through my resume and knowing it by heart. Also being conscious of rambling on and on without substance. 

Technical 

• Doing a leetcode consistently, actually trying to struggle and think it out. Looking at the solution after an allotted amount of time and then walking through it with inputs, visuals, etc really understanding why the solution is the solution.

• More mock interviews with friends where I practiced speaking out loud and making sure there are no awkward silence because I’m in my head. 

Mentally

• Having an achievement doc to be your hype man so that you’re confident in yourself and your skills. Examples of what you can put on it :

  • Got a 100 on an exam

  • Presented a project in class

  • Spoke to x amount of companies at the career fair

• Creating an achievement document is crucial to establish now, so it becomes a habit by the time you secure an internship. This practice allows you to meticulously document all your activities at work. Consequently, during one-on-one meetings with your manager, you can effectively communicate your contributions and demonstrate your value as an intern, thereby underscoring your suitability for a return offer.

As for how I knew to apply for Microsoft, I was lurking in a Discord server where other users would actively share their processes (applied, rejected, interview, offer). Lurk here.

If you’re curious about anything else, feel free to reach out on Discord! I’m always available to help you succeed."

- Madi, Your GDSC President