Delivery Excellence Intern Review

At Microsoft you are not only involved in the job role you were hired to do, you are also pushed to get involved with a variety of other activities or projects, whether it be stretch projects, or internal/External events, which allows you to follow your interests and develop many new skills. The work that I currently do, for me personally is not something I would want to do for the rest of my life. I originally applied to the HR scheme at Microsoft, however this was cancelled and I was put into business operations, although this is not the role I wanted, Microsoft with its culture of growth mindset has meant that I have been able to easily find mentors within the HR, and recruitment team. One of the things I have most enjoyed about Microsoft is that you are always pushed to go out of your comfort zone, I am from a non technical background, but I have been taught how to use basic code, and have extended my technical knowledge of Microsoft products such as PowerBI.

The people I have worked with at Microsoft have always made the work environment feel inclusive, there are often times that I have had to present to senior management, and I gained a sense of respect, despite the age gap. There has however been times where I have worked on a project, that has not worked out, due to lack of need of the end outcome, or as a result of organisational change. In this instance it would have been nice to have been told earlier on so that i did not spend time developing a new idea, for it to not be used.

My manager has always been an excellent source of support while here. Since the start he introduced me to the team and made me feel welcomed. He has always been very supportive of my passion for HR, and has helped me to gain contacts in the department. Letting me have time away from my current job role, in order to shadow and work with members of the HR/ recruitment team. This is definitely something I appreciate about the company itself, as it is very flexibility to offer support in aspects such as career growth.

Personally I feel that as an intern they got the balance right. I never felt overworked, there were times that I had to meet a deadline, but I would always work the 9-5:30 slot I had been contracted. To stay later would actually indicate concern to the managers. There were weeks were I would be constantly busy, but then others where I did not have as much work to complete. As an intern starting out in a big company, I felt this helped to ease you in to the world of work. It also gave you time to attend training courses, and seek work in other area's of the business. Microsoft is ran with a 70-20-10 mindset, 70 your work, 20 percent stretch projects, and 10 percent personal development, this set up for me worked extremely well.

I feel that I was not offered as much responsibility as I could have been. The tasks I performed, were at times, admin based, where I was checking the success rate of projects deployed. The project management piece that I was given, I feel that the project had already been kicked off before my involvement. However should you have a new idea, and the management team like that, then you are given full responsibility to follow through with the initiative, and are given support where needed.

Degree wise, there is a useful library resource on the Microsoft campus, where I was able to gain books and resources to help with my dissertation, I was also able to set up meetings with people in the company to gain research. The skills I have been able to pick up will definitely help me with organisation at university, and time-management of my work. They will also of course help me later on in life when it comes to applying for job roles, and interviewing, and then starting a new job. Having been able to develop my technical skills and well as soft skills it will benefit my future job role. for example soft skill wise, I am more confident to talk to a variety of individuals, and speak up in meetings, as well as present to a large audience.

The atmosphere is collaborative, everything is around working together, as part of a team to achieve more. The people are friendly, and respectful, and open to new ideas. The work place has a work hard, play hard culture, which you can see with the celebration events put on, and things like BBQs after all hands meetings etc.

At the start I felt this was not well organised, but this was due to an organisational change that was taking place, people where unsure if there job roles would change, or if they would even have a job. Once new leadership had been put in place, this began to settle, and the work felt more organised. However at the start it felt very much like myself talking to the managers to find work, rather than work being there ready for me.

ALOT! we were given the chance to attend many events with guest speakers, and training course, that for FTE cost quite a bit of money. This was definitely a privilege to be an intern. We were also able to sit MOS exams for free, which for the public, is expensive.

I would personally love to continue working at Microsoft, as I enjoy the culture, and the benefits the company offers. However as I wish to go into HR, the only option for me would be to go full time here, as they do not offer a grad position, I feel the likelihood of me getting that is low, due to the lack of experience, there would I will likely apply to grad schemes at other companies, giving me the option to come back later in life.

Given the fact there was around 60 interns, it felt very social, we would often go to lunch together, and get involved in activities and training at work together, which made fitting into work nice. Colleague wise, each quarter we would attend a moral event, which was nice, and allowed me to get to know my team members more.

Coming from the north, I felt that reading was very overpriced, thankfully we are given a decent pay for interns, otherwise I feel this could have been a struggle.

There were lots of bars, a cinema, and restaurants to go to, which made the nightlife nice.

Lots, work had sports societies, but there are also a lot of clubs in reading you could join should you want. Plus there is often events, I know I attended a few, like the street food festival, and flower festival.