Microsoft Engage Program
Microsoft Engage is a one month long mentorship program offered to engineering undergrads in India, where each year a theme as well as a core software engineering principle is chosen on which students have to make a project.
Microsoft Engage Program happens for 2nd and 3rd year undergrads separately. For the 2nd year undergrads it is an opportunity to land an internship offer post the mentorship whereas for 3rd year undergrads its a chance to get a full time engineer role. I was a participant of the 2021 edition of MS Engage for 2nd year students and had the most fruitful and “engaging” experience last summer.
Selection Phase
Eligibility criteria:
- CGPA: 7 and above.
- Course: B.Tech/B.E/Dual Degree
- Branch: All branches were allowed
- No pending backlogs
- Strong CS fundamentals
After an initial shortlisting based on Resume(I suppose because not everyone received the invite link to the online test) and CGPA, we were given a link to the online test.
Online test:
The test had around 15–20 questions most of them being MCQs and some being text based answers or fill in the blanks. Time to complete the test was 45 minutes(give or take 15 minutes since my memory is failing me xP). Important concepts for this round include Data Structures, Operating Systems, DBMS, Programming language specific questions (C/C++, Java, Python). I practiced all of these topics from sanfoundary and geeksforgeeks. Speed and accuracy are important so one should keep that in mind.
Nearly after a week of giving the online round I received a mail saying I was shortlisted for the Engage Program!! I was thrilled to participate in the program since it was a break from other programs which usually focus on DSA/CP or hackathons which are usually 24–72 hours long and very exhausting.
Mentorship phase
The theme for the 2021 edition was a clone of Microsoft Teams app and participants were required to incorporate agile methodology. The mentorship phase started from mid June and went on till end July. Participants were divided into groups consisting of 5 to 7 students and 2 mentors who were seasoned software engineers from Microsoft were assigned to each group. All of the conversation took place on Microsoft teams app and it was a steep learning curve owing to the interactions with the mentors as well as other mentees. Regular sessions were kept related to doubt clearing and concepts related to the project. Short assignments were also given.
Every week we used to have group as well as one on one meetings with the mentors. In the group call all the mentees shared the progress they made in the week as well as what they plan to do in the coming days. I remember my heart beating fast before my first one on one but the mentors were warm and welcoming, I soon felt comfortable enough to discuss problems that were not even related to the project. (lol)
Looking back now I remember having the barebones of the project ready in the second week and taking the plunge to show it to my mentors. 5 minutes in and I had already gotten so many insightful inputs, it motivated me to do better. Some of the features showed bugs during that call but surprisingly I was not scared or worried what the mentors would think (I am an overthinker btw so this was huge). Instead it was a discussion in which they understood the progress I made or was trying to, and gave inputs on how I could improve. The call went on longer than the 30 min initial duration ; ) I was complimented on showing a working prototype in the second call itself (yes I started smiling like a monkey after that).
During the next two weeks it was rigorous development and debugging from my end. Making a project solo was tough but very fulfilling at the same time. Each call with the mentors gave something new to work upon. The osmosis of information happening among the mentees was also helpful. Group calls were a means to help each other out as well as see where one stood. Around the third week, mentees were given a surprise feature (chat functionality) that needed to be implemented. I had already incorporated this feature so I worked on other aspects of the app.
The final call where I presented the entire project was a memorable one. I was happy with my progress and so were my mentors.
Links to my project presentation: MS Engage (Teams Clone) by Aditi Tiwari
Post mentorship:
After the mentorship concluded, based on the project students were given the interview opportunities with Microsoft for SWE Intern roles. Depending on the depth, complexity and mentor feedback of the project either coding + AA round, only AA round or direct internship offers could be given. AA stands for Ask Anything (correct me if I am wrong) and can cover basically whatever you have written in your resume or whatever direction your interview proceeds based on your responses.
After the evaluation of project, shortlisted candidates received mails stating they will be having interviews. I received the mail and was excited about the further steps. However this is when it got scary. Most of my other friends who had been a part of the program started getting interview invites, I however didn't.
Instead I received a mail stating I had gotten an internship offer as a SWE Intern @ Microsoft for the summer of 2022. A pleasant surprise UwU. This was my first ever offer and indeed a euphoric feeling.
Do apply to the program if you are eligible and have a great summer!! You will have a great experience ;)
