Transcript Title of Presentation - Missouri Western State University

. . . And Make the Most out of
your
Summer Internship
Software Developer Engineer: hardcore
coding
Software Developer Engineer in Test: you
build it to break it
Program Manager: Design new features
TAM/AC: problem solve and plan for MS IT
customers
SE/PFE: work on and offsite with
customers providing either proactive or
reactive support
Stand out from your peers
Lots of students have similar resumes, same classes, same class
projects, make yours unique
No experience? Fill it up with other great stuff
Build an application or game just for fun, create iphone and zune
apps, participate in contests like ImagineCup and TopCoder
Three areas Microsoft recruiters assess
resumes on:
Academic Record
Relevant Project/Work Experience
Leadership skills
An elevator pitch is a short statement which
will tell a concise and clear story about you
in a very short space of time
Choose 2 or 3 key things that you believe
are your key selling points
Make sure your pitch is relevant
What do you want them to remember?
How could you describe your unique
potential value to the company
What is the goal of your pitch
Ask for the desired outcome
Research
Practice
Do your homework about the
company, read their website
Utilize your career center. Go through
mock interviews & have them review
your resume.
Do your homework about the
position…at the very least by the
night before.
Check out blogs, facebook groups,
wikipedia, ask friends, former interns,
alums, professors and your career
center
Have well-thought out questions for
each interviewer…write them down.
Asking questions shows you’re
passionate/interested in the position
Be able to talk about your past
projects…this is key. Be clear and talk
about what you did, not what the team
did.
Practice answering standard questions
but don’t have too much of a ‘canned’
response. Practice answering out loud
Use interviews to your advantage... In
the end, even if you don’t get the job,
it’s a great learning experience for the
next one!
Four Main Things We’re
looking for:
Smart and Driven
Passion
Problem Solving Skills
Technical Skills
We don’t want one without the other
How do you show you’re smart?
Ability to apply your knowledge to make things better
Ability to comprehend complex ideas
Can learn quickly
Ways to show drive
Go above and beyond, ask for more work
Be a self starter, work hard
Do projects outside of the classroom
Passion for the Specific Company
Have a great answer for, “Why do you want to work for
Microsoft?”
Passion for the position
“Why do you want to be a software developer?”
Passion for the general concept
“Why do you want to work in the field of technology?”
“Why did you choose CS/CE/EE as your major?”
This is one of the most important areas, but
it’s also the toughest area to give tips on
Sometimes they seem like trick questions but they’re not
Clarify the problem, Ask questions
Take your time to think about it
Analyze/approach it from different angles, show creativity
Think out loud…if you get stuck, we’ll know and can give hints
Don’t give up
Sample question:
Tell me about the most difficult problem that you had to solve in
the last year
Practice implementing code
Teach yourself new languages
Really know C and C++…very impressive
The words of one of our top hiring managers:
What I noticed that separated the better candidates was that they:
1. Diagrammed the problem
2. Asked tons of questions before writing a line of code
3. Considered the consequences of every line
4. ***Checked their work*** without being prompted <-- this was the big one
5. Proved that their code was correct by trying a few different inputs
6. Knew how to self-test their code (OK, 4, 5, and 6 are all the same thing, sort of,
but so few people did it that it really stands out)
Tell me about the project you’re the most proud of
Give me an example of when you had to show good leadership
skills. How did the situation turn out?
Describe a situation where you disagreed with a decision your
group made. What happened, and what did you do?
Describe a situation where you were not able to meet a
deadline.
What have you done to improve your knowledge in the past
year?
Is there anything I’ve missed? (Tell them about a big
accomplishment)
http://interview.heygenius.com/
1. Write the question on the board. Verify
assumptions and ask questions
2. Write a few samples inputs and what you
would expect the outputs to be
3. Pseudo-code
4. Code!
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Clarify the question/need?
Clarify assumptions
Prioritize test cases
Understand the customer
Be creative, and don’t stop
Say what you are thinking
Example- Mock Interview with testers
1. Clarify the problem you are trying to solve, this
involves understanding your audience
2. Identify the goals
3. Run through some scenarios
4. Gather the requirements
5. State the detailed design
6. Evaluate whether your detailed design fulfilled
the requirements to enable scenarios that meet
your goals to solve the problem (phew!)
Example- Mock Interview with PM
You didn’t prepare
You don’t get sleep
You show up late (duh!)
You give the ever dreaded one word answers
You lack details (give them the how)
You lie
You give up
You don’t ask questions
You don’t apply what you’ve learned
during the day
 You make assumptions









“Programming Interviews Exposed”
Relax and have fun (easier said than done) 
Keep trying! Sometimes it takes more than one
time to get an offer!
1.) IMPRESS them
2.) Exceed your goals
3.) Ask Questions
4.) To us an Internship = One Long
Interview
5) Know where you ‘rank’
6.) Remember this is your ONE chance
Learn Something New, Broaden your skill set
Meet with your manager to set clear goals
Network, Network, Network
Participate in all the events
Get to know the hiring manager & recruiter
Explore the area…think long term
Have fun...its a new experience
Projects, Projects, Projects
Create an app…notepad, iphone app, mobile apps, open source projects
like codeplex.com, ask your profs have projects they need completed
Participate in Competitions: Imaginecup, Topcoder
Volunteer: IT at a non-profit, lead a drive or project
Take Classes: learn a new tech skill, or something unrelated to
broaden your perspective…marketing, finance
Learn Something New:
experience.com, S2B:
http://www.microsoft.com/studentstobusiness
Use free software and become an expert
Find Industry Certified Solutions online:
StackOverFlow.com, MSDN.com, etc.