How Microsoft CODESS helped me get my first internship and eventually a job

What is Codess?

Codess is a community for female coders initiated by Microsoft. It is established to explore ways to promote gender diversity in the engineering field.

My experience and process (in 2017), to secure an Internship

I was in 2nd year of college then. In January 2017, The University Recruitment Team(URT) sent an invitation to our college’s placement cell to participate in their event, CODESS Asmi- A Foot forward.

Eligibility: B.E/B.Tech 2nd year girls and M.Tech 1st year girls (across all specializations) with 70% (or a CGPA of 7/10) in the current academic program could register for this event.

Round 1: Registration

The registration form asked for personal details, what you like about Microsoft, CGPA etc.

Round 2: Online Coding Test

It was a 75 mins coding test conducted by CoCubes. It had 3 coding questions based on problem solving, data structures and algorithms. Around 45 girls across India had cleared this round.

Round 3: IWD Celebration on 8th March, 2017 at Microsoft India Campus

You can read about what we did on this day here.

Two weeks post the IWD Celebrations, we received an email from the URT asking us to share our updated resumes with them. I had two coding interviews on Skype and after clearing that, I had a final technical interview.

After clearing all the interview rounds, I was offered a summer internship at Microsoft IDC, Hyderabad. 8 girls across India got this opportunity to intern right after their second year, and I was one of them. The intake of 2nd year interns varies with each year.

Internships and job offer

All of us, (8 girls) interned in Foundry during summer 2017 for 8 weeks. Foundry is a separate workplace dedicated to interns in Microsoft IDC, Building 3. Each team had 4 members comprising one 2nd year intern, two 3rd year interns and one UX design Intern. We were allocated mentors to guide us through our internship projects. For 2nd year interns, based on their performance, their team managers could recommend them for another summer internship(for next year).

Based on my performance in 2017 summer internship, I was offered the 2018 summer internship. I finished 3rd year in college and joined as an intern. I was assigned an individual project and was working alongside FTEs this time. Based on my performance, my manager recommended me for a PPO(Pre Placement Offer). This is how I got my first job!