Microsoft Explore Internship Week 1
Hi all!
The end of the first week is approaching, and as promised, here’s my update. I’m having an amazing time so far.
On Monday, I first officially met my manager, Rahim Hooda. He was very welcoming and helpful with setting up our hardware. The process was definitely a bit tricky, but we prevailed.
After this, I met my podmates, Aminu and Alejandro. It’s safe to say we hit it off right away. Both of them are incredibly smart human beings with a great sense of humor. I felt (and still feel) so grateful to have met teammates and a manager that exactly match my energy.
Soon after, we received information about our project. One of the things I appreciated was how organized everything was. All the details were carefully documented so to avoid any confusion, which really made the process far less overwhelming.
We also met the rest of our team. Our team’s nickname is SALSA; we work in the C + AI division at Microsoft, on the commerce side of things. Once again, everyone was very welcoming.
On Tuesday, we had our remote orientation, which was very informational. They even set up some fun trivia, which really helped break the ice.
I met my mentor Ada Cole (a picture of the two of us will be coming soon, either edited onto here or posted in my next update). Coming in to Microsoft, I was definitely nervous. Being a woman in STEM is always slightly intimidating, and so I asked Ada if she had any guidance for me. In turn, she connected me with the Women of Microsoft groups and sent me invitations to upcoming talks at Microsoft given by powerful women. This was very comforting for me. She also told me that the culture in Microsoft is quite inclusive. One of the most impressive factors that I found about Ada was how strong-willed, knowledgeable, and determined she seemed. She was very helpful and I’m very excited to be her mentee.
Meeting a strong and empowered woman really helped me ease into things; the imposter syndrome I had been feeling really decreased and I was finally really able to feel excited.
On Wednesday, we really started to dive more into our project and started learning about what exactly we would be implementing. We received some required trainings to complete and access to courses that we would have to take to learn the material necessary to work on our project. Rahim went into depth on the documents we had received on the first day and helped clarify quite a bit of our confusion. Later, Aminu, Alejandro, and I met up to talk about our plan of action for the next 24 hours. Our current approach involves trying to finish approximately the same amount of work/readings so that we can discuss them and answer each other’s questions. It’s been working really well, and I really appreciate how well our pod works together.
On Thursday, we met up to finish up talking about our project. Alejandro, Aminu, and I decided who would be working on which parts of the project initially. We attended Intern Trivia Night as well; there are tons of fun events for interns and for employees both. Later in the day, we had a meeting with our entire team again, where we were introduced to more people. We also met some returning interns.
And Friday, or tomorrow, we’ll be having our regular team meetings and pod meetings as well as a social with SALSA. We will be playing Among Us together! I’m very excited to spend time with everyone and play games.
This entire week, I have received messages from my mentor, my manager, and my podmates checking in on how I am adapting and to offer their help. I couldn’t be more grateful for this opportunity and the chance to work with people who I really get along with. This has been an amazing week, and I’m so excited to learn more in the coming few weeks.