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Microsoft Interns Still Feel the Love
theodp writes "Despite layoffs and a blip in earnings, the Chicago Trib reports that Microsoft's summer interns still enjoy the VIP treatment. Although there were 20% fewer of them this year than last, still 85% of the interns are offered full-time jobs. In addition to being paid $4,600-$6,000 a month, a housing stipend, and relocation costs for the summer, the 600 or so Microsoft apprentices enjoyed other perks — such as a police escort to speed their way to a private museum party where they screened the most recent Harry Potter movie and were given a free Xbox 360. 'You feel like royalty to be escorted by police,' said Joriz De Guzman, an intern working toward his MBA at Wharton. BTW, before he got mixed up with those MBA-types, De Guzman earned some fame as the Doogie Howser of computer science."
I was one of Microsoft's interns some time ago and I can tell you that it was nothing like they described in the article. I was actually very poorly treated (and my boss was a big jerk). Amongst other things (mostly Denmark related, and not directly Microsoft), my boss was one of the reasons I didn't want to stay there and why I made sure I wouldn't.
But, it was in Denmark (Microsoft Development Center Copenhagen), so it seems to be something localized.
Onda Technology Institute
Quite correct. Buying a permit, plus officer costs, plus vehicle rental, plus officer OT will get you your very own police escort. It's not that expensive. Probably around $600-900/per hr officer plus permit. You too can feel like a big shot, of course some companies to that just to feel big. Some companies also hire in clothes police as extra protection when their regular duty security can't cut the slack. Because even a cop who's on duty there is still a cop.
This is quite common in Canada for a lot of bars in University towns, they'll hire cops to patrol the floors/entrances just for the extra security. And the cops will send out their own as well just to show the flag(officer presence) to keep the peace.
Om, nomnomnom...
No offense, but as an MS intern from this past summer (who doesn't have a slashdot account), I disagree a bit with what you said.
MS does most of their recruiting from a few universities: Harvard, Stanford, MIT, CalTech, UT Austin, UW, etc. I attend one of these schools.
The MS interview process is fairly extensive, with several different weeding stages:
1) Resume. They'll take a quick glance at your GPA and decide if they want to interview you. There isn't much else they can look at since they get flooded with applications.
2) On campus interview. You'll spend 30 minutes talking to an engineer from MS.
3) Redmond Interview. You fly to Redmond to interview with potential teams. You'll have anywhere from 3 to 4 1-hour interviews in a single day. The questions can be varied, but expect to have to know more than data structures and be prepared to use some theory. They won't ask what the runtime of quicksort is.
Assuming you get through 1-3, accept the internship, then you'll essentially have a summer-long interview at the end of which they'll either offer you a full time job or another internship if you do a good job.
General Tips when Interviewing:
-Dress casually. I gave a presentation to several high-ups this summer wearing t-shirt and shorts. I was not underdressed.
-Think out loud. They're more interested in your thought process and approach to problems than they are in your solutions, much like showing your work on school work.
-Have fun with it. If you're at ease and relaxed, you'll do better.