One internship that isn’t so ‘soft’

Boston University senior Jason Kahn left more than bad-tasting coffee and stained mugs behind at his summer internship with Microsoft Corporation.

“Usually you might be cleaning, or doing inventory, but we got to actually design a product,” Kahn, who is in the School of Management, said. “When we left, we left a finished feature.”

Along with three other interns from Brigham Young University, the University of Minnesota and Yale University, Kahn worked as program manager in a group, similar to a typical team of full-time Microsoft employees, to develop a new feature for the Windows Live update called People Suggestions.

By using MSN Hotmail and Web Messenger, People Suggestions recommends to users other people with whom to make “connections,” Kahn said.

“It’s incorporating more social networking features,” he said. “It helps you find people you know. It’s a simple feature but it helps people build their network.”

People Suggestions will be part of an update available before January for the more than 400 million Windows Live users, Kahn said.

“They said, ‘We want to implement this so you guys figure out what you’re going to do and what it’s going to look like,’” Kahn said. “It was like a mini full-time job.”

Microsoft Intern Program Manager Caroline Bulmer said in an email Microsoft treats its interns like full-time employees.

“Interns here have real jobs with real responsibilities,” she said. “Mentors ensure the intern has clear goals, access to the information and tools they need to accomplish a project and provide the intern with guidance and feedback along the way.”

Kahn said as a computer science minor, he was excited to intern with Microsoft from the beginning. He said he soon realized Microsoft’s high expectations for interns during the two-round interview process. The first round of interviews on campus was followed by four hour-long interviews with employees in Seattle, Kahn said. 

Kahn said he thinks Microsoft specifically looks for interns who may eventually be interested in hiring. Kahn will start working full-time for Microsoft in the fall after he graduates.

Yale University senior Lin He, who worked with Kahn on the project as one of two developers on the team that helped write the program’s code, said in an email he was surprised by the number of responsibility Microsoft gave its interns.

“Most of the ideas we decided on are implemented in the final product,” he said. “We really have a say in how the product turns out.”

Kahn said he thinks the knowledge of how a company like Microsoft works will help him as he begins his entry-level job there next fall.

“I got to see how a technical project is managed and put together,” he said. “And how to work with people without being their manager.”

Boston University Office of Career Services Assistant Director Debbie Halliday said Kahn’s internship will provide him with something important to communicate in future hiring processes.

“That’s a golden opportunity,” Halliday said. “The important thing is for students to get out there and do things related to what they want to do.” 

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