Internship Status Update: Microsoft (Microhoo?) and Zazzle
Since the last time I wrote about internships, I’ve applied to quite a few places. The two places I’ve heard back from so far are Microsoft (I talked with some people at the Engineering Career Fair) and Zazzle (they replied to my email like, 45 minutes after I sent my resume and cover letter!).
Both companies I “interviewed” with (I got some short informational interviews) were looking for PM types. The PM here is either product or project management. I think they’re pretty similar and the actual job really depends on the context of which company it’s at.
I think the PM stuff differs quite a bit from standard software engineering in that you’re expected to think about the product as a whole rather than the implementation details alone. So that involves stuff like considering the design, the user, how decisions affect both, and tradeoffs that each solution results in. It’s pretty interesting stuff that requires a lot of thought. I’m sort of training myself to think a bit more critically about things than I have in the past.
Anyway, hopefully some more companies will contact me too. I’m still waiting to hear back from Zazzle and Microsoft (which might include Yahoo, who knows? But that possible merger probably won’t happen for a while). Hopefully I can get a better idea of what these jobs entail, and make a decision on what I want to end up doing after I graduate.