Microsoft Interns Still Feel the Love 293
theodp writes "Despite layoffs and a blip in earnings, the Chicago Trib reports that Microsoft's summer interns still enjoy the VIP treatment. Although there were 20% fewer of them this year than last, still 85% of the interns are offered full-time jobs. In addition to being paid $4,600-$6,000 a month, a housing stipend, and relocation costs for the summer, the 600 or so Microsoft apprentices enjoyed other perks — such as a police escort to speed their way to a private museum party where they screened the most recent Harry Potter movie and were given a free Xbox 360. 'You feel like royalty to be escorted by police,' said Joriz De Guzman, an intern working toward his MBA at Wharton. BTW, before he got mixed up with those MBA-types, De Guzman earned some fame as the Doogie Howser of computer science."
Escort (Score:4, Insightful)
Before I get too angry, I should make sure I'm clear on something. Does this mean Microsoft paid money for people to get preferred treatment on the roads?
Re:Escort (Score:5, Informative)
This [physorg.com] version of the story has some more defensiveness that elaborates more on that:
Re:Escort (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Escort (Score:4, Funny)
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no, everyone knows M$ employees are royalty
Re:Escort (Score:5, Funny)
Just came back from the screening and yeah, that got me real angry too. Under the benefits section of the contract, I had no idea that the "free escort" was a lousy trip to the museum to see Harry Potter ! And I already had an Xbox !
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Since XBox is, by all reports, another fine example of the quality of Microsoft engineering, it's good to have a spare. Just remember to backup your games too.
Re:Escort (Score:5, Funny)
Think about it though, would you have wanted an escort from Microsoft? She'd be bound to be full of viruses.
-ducks-
This is common (Score:2, Insightful)
Look at what they do for professional sports stadiums every weekend. Heck, look downstream from there,at how much public property tax money is used across the nation to brainwash little kids and get them addicted and operate those same pro sports farm teams in the public school system (which is all they are, subsidized farm teams).
If you got the cash and "the juice", what is public can become private *real quick*.
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They already have that you know.. if you pay for the permit and any extra costs, chances are your police department will escort you
Re:Escort (Score:5, Interesting)
Quite correct. Buying a permit, plus officer costs, plus vehicle rental, plus officer OT will get you your very own police escort. It's not that expensive. Probably around $600-900/per hr officer plus permit. You too can feel like a big shot, of course some companies to that just to feel big. Some companies also hire in clothes police as extra protection when their regular duty security can't cut the slack. Because even a cop who's on duty there is still a cop.
This is quite common in Canada for a lot of bars in University towns, they'll hire cops to patrol the floors/entrances just for the extra security. And the cops will send out their own as well just to show the flag(officer presence) to keep the peace.
Re:Escort (Score:4, Funny)
"Some companies also hire in clothes police as extra protection"
Damn they take their fashion seriously!
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah. Tell me about it. I was a MSR [microsoft.com] intern last year. Non-Research interns got the red carpet, while Research's got the shaft. On day one, HR told us, "We have several intern events planned this year, but not every group will go to each event. So if you hear that some interns are going rock climbing and you're not, don't worry. It will be made up with some hiking or wine tasting event. Same thing with baseball tickets. Different groups go on different days, so don't worry."
That police escort was to
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On the bright side, I used my corporate discount and corporate debit card to buy this sweet 17" MacBook Pro. (Right back at you BillG and SteveB!)
You fool! Surely they'll send Rover [wikipedia.org] for you now! RUN!
mods (Score:2)
OK i get that this post has an incorrect assumption that is clarified by trepity, but how the fuck is this trolling? Its a genuine question, and tbh i would be pretty angry if it were true. or to put it another way, learn to mod fscking noobs!
Don't kidd themselves... (Score:3, Funny)
The escort was so they couldn't escape (possibly to watch a good movie).
Perk or punishment? I have a friend with a few scratched up disks that would argue the latter...
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My 12 year old son has a 360 and about 40 games and hasn't scratched any yet. Maybe your friend should grow up.
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To be fair, the only reason they are in perfect condition is that the console red-ringed before he could play any of them!
My experience (Score:5, Interesting)
I was one of Microsoft's interns some time ago and I can tell you that it was nothing like they described in the article. I was actually very poorly treated (and my boss was a big jerk). Amongst other things (mostly Denmark related, and not directly Microsoft), my boss was one of the reasons I didn't want to stay there and why I made sure I wouldn't.
But, it was in Denmark (Microsoft Development Center Copenhagen), so it seems to be something localized.
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no, actually, at least in Denmark, the backstabbing managers emerge early. I could smell him from a distance. We did have a fuzzball table and a "guitar hero" room, but that was campus wide, not an "intern perk". Actually, interns had fewer perks, like, not being elligible for the development teams paintball tournaments and stuff like that.
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I don't know, but don't think so. I don't think they have one there yet, never heard about it, but really can't tell.
Money can't buy you love (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm sure Microsoft has evidence that the money they're investing in the various internship programs nets them something tangible in the long term - otherwise they wouldn't do it. I've known a couple people who've been MS interns, and they were both pretty happy with the program. I'm not sure why people here are giving MS such grief over this (yes, I'm new here, thank you for asking) - this is pretty standard stuff for most large tech companies.
But I must admit I still smile whenever I walk into the Paul Allen Center - home of the University of Washington's CSE department - and see the disproportionate number of students using Mac laptops there in the main atrium. Looks like the Beatles were right on that score...
Can't buy me love - Beatles (Score:2, Informative)
Can't buy me love
I'll buy you a diamond ring my friend if it makes you feel alright
I'll get you anything my friend if it makes you feel alright
'Cause I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love
I'll give you all I got to give if you say you love me too
I may not have a lot to give but what I got I'll give to you
I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love
Can't buy me love, everybody tells me so
Can't buy me love, no no no, no
Say you don't need no
rent-a-cop (Score:2)
This makes me curious. What does it cost to rent out the local cops to provide entertainment for your party? Do they let you play with the siren? Can the motorcade break the speed limit? How about the local ambulance corps, can they juggle plasma bags? Can I get a guarantee that they won't get called away to deal with some boring disturbance on the wrong side of the tracks before the song and dance number is complete? Do they bring their own hookers, or is prostituting themselves enough?
How is this legal? (
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You can rent off-duty cops in lots of places for event security and whatnot.
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Re:rent-a-cop (Score:4, Funny)
Do you only drink and post on weekends?
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Who's gonna arrest them if they aren't - you ?-)
From this TFA: (Score:2)
http://www.physorg.com/news170614813.html [physorg.com]
As for the Pacific Science Center shindig, he said, "It's actually a fairly low-budget effort because of our relationships with the studios and that kind of thing." He said the police escort "is a nice story for the students. The truth of the matter is we just try to cooperate with the police when we're trying to move a dozen buses across town at rush hour."
(A State Patrol spokesman said police escorts are contracted privately and paid for by the person or company that hires them.)
Apparently, it is perfectly legal.
still 85% are offered full-time jobs (Score:2)
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Royalty? (Score:5, Funny)
'You feel like royalty to be escorted by police,' said Joriz De Guzman, an intern working toward his MBA at Wharton
I don't know about this; when I got busted for drunk driving I had a police escort all the way to the station, but I didn't feel like royalty at all.
Keeping the Microsoft hate alive. (Score:4, Insightful)
How about we judge a software company by their software and business ethics, there's plenty of things to dislike Microsoft for in those departments...
Re:Keeping the Microsoft hate alive. (Score:4, Insightful)
Have to voice agreement on that. Microsoft puts a lot of effort into attracting excellent developers and trying to keep them happy. The developers and front-line managers I've talked to struck me as a decent, and I know more than a few people who have settled in there.
There are lots of reasons to rip on MS and their products... but I'm not seeing good treatment of good interns as one of those.
Pretty standard. (Score:3, Insightful)
It's usually the bigger companies that offer these perks for their interns. That and the high pay they receive are usually the incentives for students to work kind of hard to get a spot in one of these programs...
Hence, it's no surprise that because these companies are bigger, there would be an increased risk of dealing with crappy managers and boring dead-end work. Overall, the people I know that have worked in such companies were usually happy with their expereinces...
No internship for Bill (Score:2)
The interviews by Macgregor and Ballmer were strict. And one favorite was questions such the High-low number puzzle.
Bill himself failed this test when asked by a reporter one day.
. Ballmer said(of these types of questions), you could assess the "smartness" of someone. Ref: Hard Drive. Wallace & Erickson. 1992
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Of course. That is the intent. Don't you see it?
Ballmer wants another shotgun riding Bill like another hole in the ass.
The idea of an exam is NOT to ascertain what you know. It is to expose what you DON'T know.
(with apologies to Churchill).
Renting police and public streets (Score:4, Insightful)
Ever see a carnival that takes in several city streets and blocks traffic for the duration? It depends on the city, but most cities will, for the right price, allow companies, or even private citizens to purchase the rights to have exclusive control over specific public facilities or resources for a short period of time. It's usually not cost effective to do so, and you're therefore not likely to see a great deal of it. The only example I know of with real numbers would be the First Saturday sale in Dallas, TX. I don't even know if it's still there, but back in the mid 90's when I was a vendor there for a few months, I asked about it. For a few public parking lots and to block one street in Dallas on a Saturday, they paid $5000 for a 24 hour permit.
And yes, you can rent cops.. in uniforms... with cars, for pretty much anything you want.
The real question isn't how they could do such a thing, but why they would even bother. I never thought of a group of interns going to a Harry Potter movie as being an event worthy of a police escort, let alone requiring one.
-Restil
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The real question isn't how they could do such a thing, but why they would even bother. I never thought of a group of interns going to a Harry Potter movie as being an event worthy of a police escort, let alone requiring one.
Clearly you've never tried to get across WA-520 during Rush Hour.
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Nor does he know that this is nothing new this time around... I know they did it for sure last year at least [microsoftjobsblog.com]
Definitely not Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
Good money, plenty of perks... this is not the Apple way.
A few years ago the company was on the brink of disaster and made huge salary cuts. Now they are making sh*tloads of money, thanks to the iPod and iPhone, but the salaries are still low. Last year, Techcrunch published data pulled from Glassdoor.com, showing that Apple engineers are paid 15-20% less than their counterparts at Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.
Some food for thought: who made more money at Microsoft? Steve Ballmer or Bill Gates? and who made more money at Apple? Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak? Engineers always have been a commodities for Apple.
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That's because at Apple, design is law. Engineering exists to support design.
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And yet, are the innovators at Apple or Microsoft? Perhaps Apple is guilty of hiring people who care more about what they do than how much they make doing it.
Yeah, but I bet I learned more... (Score:2)
Perqs were better during the dot-com boom. (Score:2)
For those who missed the dot-com boom, read this: [archive.org] "In the outer lobby and decadent smoking lounge, the top sales guys from VA Linux flashed their nametags in an effort to secure some immediate female profit taking from one of the most impressive IPOs of recent weeks. Elsewhere the women of Snowball danced with wild abandon and Dexter from Scent.com tried to sell me a unit that would include smell in my daily internet experience. As I quietly exited the scene, I caught view of a woman in a long dress being
Microsoft and Google (Score:5, Informative)
I interned for Microsoft in 2008 and for Google last summer.
At Microsoft, we got a police escort to the zoo. But, to be honest, while the story casts it as a VIP thing, it's actually set up to minimize traffic disruption.
Microsoft has 800+ interns in the Redmond area, which means about 20 buses if they need to go anywhere at once. Attempting to push 20 buses through already congested streets is a nightmare. Better to shut down the roads for a couple of minutes than risk an accident or clog up the streets.
The housing benefit isn't exactly a steal. You can share an apartment (with another MS intern) for about $600/mo, or they will give you $3000 to find housing on your own. I chose the latter.
Relocation costs are effectively plane fare plus a couple of days of car rental, or mileage if you drive.
I was offered a full-time job, but I turned it down because I was more interested in graduate school. The full time job is contingent on working for the same group that you interned with. I must admit that the package they offer is pretty tempting.
Google paid me considerably more than Microsoft. I worked in my home city (Boulder CO), so I didn't need relocation or housing. I did get to spend a week in Mountain View (paid for by Google) for orientation and training.
Google didn't have any major events in Boulder, but I'm not sure about Mountain View.
Google's interview process was considerably easier than Microsoft's, but that's because at Microsoft interns go through the full interview process (for me, two phone interviews plus 4 interviews onsite at Microsoft). Google does not offer interns full-time jobs unless they go through a conversion process that includes the full interview track.
Both Microsoft and Google had me doing real work that went into actual products. My code was reviewed, just like a normal employee. I went to meetings, had performance evaluations, and worked an 8-9 hour day, just like a normal employee.
By the way, if anyone wants to know about the interview process:
- Neither company asks 'brain-teaser' questions anymore. It's straight-up CS fundamentals, algorithms, and data structures.
- I was interviewed by actual developers from the teams that I ended up working for. These people know their shit and will see through BS.
There's no magic trick or great mystery here. Either you know your shit and can get hired, or you don't and it will be apparent.
How Soviet (Score:2)
The streets cleared for the bright Komsomol kids.
Then back to learning how to embrace extend and extinguish the world.
Re:How do you get these internships? (Score:5, Informative)
I think most of the interns are CS majors; they're actually pretty common among computer science students, probably 2nd only to the giant flood of Google interns.
Re:How do you get these internships? (Score:5, Funny)
Wouldn't that be a gaggle of Google interns?
Re:How do you get these internships? (Score:4, Funny)
Wouldn't that be a gaggle of Google interns?
He he. Your Google gaggle made me giggle.
Re:How do you get these internships? (Score:5, Funny)
I'd still love to know the secret [of how to get an MS internship].
Big lips and a slack jaw.
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Big lips and a slack jaw.
Whatever you thing of Microsoft or the effectiveness their intern program I'm certain these potential employees are not only overachievers, but are probably photogenic as well. I don't see any comfort in deluding yourself otherwise.
Your description would probably come in handy for a hooker though.
Re:How do you get these internships? (Score:5, Informative)
Two basic things.
1) Your resume needs to get you an interview. This is easy if you're applying for an internship position at a school which MS actively recruits from. Not many secrets here. Try to engage a college recruiter in person at your school. Show an interest! Tell them about a project you've done outside of class. Tell them about that club you're an exec on (even if it is the nerdy math club or pot-smoking surfer's club!). Make yourself out to be well rounded and keen! That will get you an interview.
2) Interview skills! You need to ace the questions you're given. An interview for an internship is pretty short, less than an hour. Spend the first couple years of your CS degree doing http://topcoder.com/ [topcoder.com] competitions in your free time, ace your two or three algorithms/data-structures courses, and spend a day or two reviewing those same courses before an interview. Think of it as a programming competition. An internship question won't get into anything beyond those classes with the technical questions. If you have a friend who has ever taken any interview training, get him to run you through all the "so tell me about yourself" warmup questions half-a-dozen times. Learn to reference your past projects and experience while answering questions. Even if you know your shit (broadly speaking), if you're not prepared for the interview, you can only really blame yourself. If you've been focusing for the last year on your honor's thesis, review that 1st/2nd year material until you can teach it. You'll thank me :)
Re:How do you get these internships? (Score:4, Informative)
In general good advice (except for the pot club thing), but for a company like Microsoft (or Google, or to a lesser extent Amazon, and probably others of similar size) the initial interview is barely a foot in the door. It's usually under an hour long, conducted on your campus or over the phone, and pretty general - you're talking with recruiter types, not with the people who you would actually work with.
*IF* you do well in that inital interview, you get a second one on site with the business. Many of the larger companies will fly potential interns out to their location for this second interview. The second-round interview itself it pretty grueling - 4 hours (it varies by company; I've seen as short as 2 or as long as 6.5) of constantly being grilled by people who want to test not only your knowledge and experience, but also your intelligence and approach to problem-solving. The people you'll talk to are engineers, usually the ones who you may end up working with directly. The interview may take place long before the job begins (for example, interviewing during the fall for an internship that wont start until the next summer).
If you get the offer, and accept it, they'll fly you out again when the summer starts. Some companies (including Microsoft) also reserve and subsidize housing and transportation for their interns, who come not only from around the country but even from overseas.
Re:How do you get these internships? (Score:4, Interesting)
No offense, but as an MS intern from this past summer (who doesn't have a slashdot account), I disagree a bit with what you said.
MS does most of their recruiting from a few universities: Harvard, Stanford, MIT, CalTech, UT Austin, UW, etc. I attend one of these schools.
The MS interview process is fairly extensive, with several different weeding stages:
1) Resume. They'll take a quick glance at your GPA and decide if they want to interview you. There isn't much else they can look at since they get flooded with applications.
2) On campus interview. You'll spend 30 minutes talking to an engineer from MS.
3) Redmond Interview. You fly to Redmond to interview with potential teams. You'll have anywhere from 3 to 4 1-hour interviews in a single day. The questions can be varied, but expect to have to know more than data structures and be prepared to use some theory. They won't ask what the runtime of quicksort is.
Assuming you get through 1-3, accept the internship, then you'll essentially have a summer-long interview at the end of which they'll either offer you a full time job or another internship if you do a good job.
General Tips when Interviewing:
-Dress casually. I gave a presentation to several high-ups this summer wearing t-shirt and shorts. I was not underdressed.
-Think out loud. They're more interested in your thought process and approach to problems than they are in your solutions, much like showing your work on school work.
-Have fun with it. If you're at ease and relaxed, you'll do better.
Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)
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"backbones to post as something other than AC"
You haven't noticed the astroturfers and fanbois? Seems obvious to me that one of the first requirements for a good intern at MS is knowing how to sign into dozens of sites anonymously. We should get /. to analyze their logs, to see how many AC's are posting from MS IP addies.
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How on earth do you get these internships?
For the top jobs? Nepotism or pedigree. You could be the smartest or most talented guy among your peers, but if you don't know the right person's uncle or haven't dined on the right senior manager's yacht, well... enjoy your 2nd rate job at Joe's local engineering shop.
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Re:Seriously?! WTF?! (Score:5, Insightful)
In a world where many people have never made a phone call, where children still get polio or die from malaria, where there are some people who make less than $30 USD in a year, let me be the first to say FUCK YOU! Seriously, Libertarian001, what the hell is the matter with you? You honestly think that showing off by using the luxury of an internet connection and personal computer to bitch about other people's fortune is a good idea? Asshole.
Perspective, it's what's for dinner.
OK, let's talk perspective... (Score:5, Insightful)
$4500-$6000 a month is a LOT of coin for pretty much most of the country not containing coastline.
Truthfully, this is real news to me, I never heard of interns making that kind of money. In this economy - and yes, I'm talking about the US - it just seems... absurd.
Re:OK, let's talk perspective... (Score:5, Informative)
I don't disagree that it's a lot of money for an intern to make, but that doesn't really justify screeching at them for it.
And, you may be thinking of interns in the way most people do - some kid who doesn't know much and gets coffee for people an generally hopes to not fuck up. These guys are, I am going to say, likely a bit more advanced than that and have some serious skills/talents, and Microsoft is willing to pay to impress them and hire them. I think "intern" in this case is more like "possible potential super-stars" and they're giving them that money as a kind of 2 month job trial before investing any real cash in 'em.
For people who are very, very good at what they do, in pretty much any field, that kind of money isn't unreasonable, especially since it's likely they'll make it back in spades.
Sure, it'd be great if the money were used for people who are in dire straits, but I have a hard time getting pissed off that talented people are making money in a capitalist society. Also, I found it really funny that "Libertarian001" was pissed off - how un-Randian of him!
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I don't disagree that it's a lot of money for an intern to make, but that doesn't really justify screeching at them for it.
It IS an almost unreasonable amount of money for an intern, but you're right--we shouldn't be screeching at them. We should be screeching at our own employers.
If the economy wasn't so bad, I bet there would be a lot of printouts of this article nailed to manager's doors come Monday morning. These kids with no credentials and little professional track record are out-earning a lot of us
Re:OK, let's talk perspective... (Score:4, Interesting)
Take the raw numbers with a grain of salt - we (interns) don't get health insurance or stock offers, and most certainly don't have any job security. The seemingly high offers are simply what the industry values us at - Microsoft is far from the only company making internship offers like that, and they all have to compete with one another to get us. I can get cheap insurance through my university now, but in a year that kind of thing will be a big deal.
As for the salaries that Microsoft pays in general, that information isn't terribly hard to find online. If you've got experience* and preferably a degree (not strictly required, but most employees seem to have at least one), go ahead an apply. https://careers.microsoft.com/ [microsoft.com] (or https://careers.microsoft.com/careers/en/us/collegembahome.aspx [microsoft.com] for internships).
* While I don't deny that interns typically don't have a lot of experience, we pretty much all had some. It might be previous internships at other companies, or high school internships, or volunteer work, or research, or even something like a significant contribution to open source or something you'd developed independently, but I think we all had something. As for lack of credentials, I think one could argue that simply getting into the university programs we were in says something.
Re:OK, let's talk perspective... (Score:5, Insightful)
The work Microsoft interns do is along the same lines as what a standard developer does, aside from the fact that they have to ramp-up on the product and finish their project all within 12 weeks. What I'm trying to say is that while an intern obviously can't do as much as a normal FTE could in the same time period, as they have to learn along the way, they still do very real work. Interns certainly aren't coffee grabbers or paper filers, unless, of course, they're grabbing coffee for themselves.
The idea behind the program is that an intern is a potential new full-time hire, but because they're not ready to work full time (as in, they still have a year or two of college to complete), then Microsoft tests the water with us. They get a fair amount of work out of their interns, and the interns ramp up on a product at a rate that's ~80% of what they'd pay an FTE. If interns choose to return, then theoreticially, they've completed their ramp-up work already and hit the ground running.
Disclaimer: I was a Microsoft intern this past summer.
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I had completely forgotten about the disparity in cost of living. When it's all you know, it's hard to imagine anything else.
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Sure, it'd be a hell of a lot of money in, say, Kansas. But Microsoft's in a coastal location, so has to pay coastal salaries.
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I know of folks at financial firms around here who have those kinds of salaries...in IT, no less!
Again, bigger and more well-known places are usually the ones to offer huge salaries to interns. The only thing, I think, is that those intern compensation rates are usually equivalent to their starting salaries. Could be wrong, though.
You've got to admit, though; with housing and probably transportation covered, those people could almost live like entry-level rock stars for a few months...or save to live that l
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Before you decide to do an MBA, also consider that the total cost of an MBA over 15 months( not counting internship period) is close to $150,000. That means spending about $10,000 a month on education. It also puts a big dent on your bank balance and unless you have significant savings, prevents you from starting any small-scale start up . You can never
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$4500-$6000 is more than I'm making and I've been in software for 10 years and have an MBA from a top school. That's a BIG salary for a seasoned professional, let alone an intern.
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I've been in software for close to 25 years, and I was making more than that my first day out of college, and it was worth a lot more in 1991. I would hardly consider that a BIG salary for a seasoned professional, and I don't live in a coastal state, unless you consider lake michigan part of a coast. Sorry, but if you are only making that with 10 years of experience and an MBA, you either picked the wrong field, or well, you need to change jobs.
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That seems only marginally high for a technically-oriented summer internship. I made $3000/month the summer after my freshman year as an engineering student, and I think the company got pretty good value for my work. And this was in Tulsa, OK where that kind of money goes a lot further.
With another student we put together a parts manual for a product they were working on. It was rather tedious work, so it wasn't worthwhile to put the full-time engineers on, so they got their money's worth. It was also a
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To be honest, it's simply what the industry supports. Basic economics, really - when you have two or more companies fighting over the same interns, offers get pretty good in a hurry. After my Junior year, I had internship offers from both Microsoft and Amazon. Both were in this price range, and were in fact only $100/month (less than 2%) different. At the time, I too thought it was a ton of money - over twice what I'd made the previous summer - but as a student working my ass off to pay my own way through c
Woosh... (Score:5, Insightful)
If the parent douchebag would have read what the person hes aiming this at was talking to, he would have realized it was sarcasm to point out the others idiocy... talk about woosh...
Jealous? (Score:2)
Nah, you just sound like a douchebag.
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Butthurt much?
Hate Microsoft all you want, but they're giving people high paying jobs during a tough economy. That's more than Comrade Obama's been able to do with his trillion dollar "stimulus" plan.
If you don't like it, feel free to stop buying Microsoft and STFU.
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Re:The jokes are just writing themselves. (Score:5, Funny)
Interns working on products that are going to ship.
Okay, so that explains Vista...
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Re:free work for the rich company (Score:5, Funny)
And paying them so much, too. What the fuck is WRONG with Microsoft?
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It isn't. Lrn2sarcasmnoob.
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The Microsoft Way has never wavered.
You have to be able to throw yourself into the job completely and without reservation, even if that means self-destructive self-denial.
You also have to have talent.
Few people fit both prerequisites.
Those that do are heavily recruited by MS.
Whether you view MS as brilliant innovators, or as cutthroat criminals, they beat the competition every time, so their model does work.
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This is especially true because Microsoft isn't the only company looking for people like this. In today's job market, Google, Amazon, and a few others (IBM prbably qualifies) all compete for those same individuals. When those individuals are students, the competition is a matter of their intern programs - each company tries to make a better offer in terms of salary, benefits, perks, and interesting work. I've received offers from other companies for internships with the same pay as Microsoft offers its inte
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Why would Sam Ramji leave Microsoft just at this moment?.
His options vested?
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I'm calling it again, Microsoft' press team is playing out a carefully orchestrated agenda to beat open source software.
WTF does that even MEAN? How exactly would one go about "beating" open-source software? Barring legal idiocy like making non-MS code illegal, people will always be writing open-source code. The fact that a multibillion dollar company even feels a need to "fight" a bunch of loosely organized hobbyists says more about the hazards facing the company than anything else.
Who said anything about making open-source software illegal? What the GP is referring to is called marketing, and it's everywhere. It has little to do with fighting a bunch of loosely organized hobbyists to get installed on an individual user's machine, and more to do with competing against Red Hat, Novell, or Sun for the business of large corporations who need much more than just thousands of Windows and Office licenses.
Your post seemed pretty hostile towards the GP's observation. I wonder why... Too bad y
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That's $6K a month, not for the entire summer.
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Did you *read* the summary? It was $4,600 to $6,000 per month.
Please tell me you weren't an English major (Score:2)
Or if you were, that you really didn't read the article.
Olin said interns make about 80 percent of a starting full-time employee. That comes to about $4,600 to $6,000 a month, based on pay of entry-level software engineers. They also receive a housing stipend and relocation costs for the summer.
or the summary.
paid $4,600-$6,000 a month, a housing stipend, and relocation costs for the summer,
If you did read either one, rather than just pulling junk numbers out of your ass, please tell me you weren't a math major.
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Perhaps he majored in political science? That would explain the numbers.
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There's any number of variations of this one:
A Microsoft Windows programmer died and soon after found himself in front of a committee that decides whether you go to Heaven or Hell.
The committee told the programmer he had some say in the matter and asked him if he wanted to see Heaven and Hell before stating his preference.
"Sure," he said, so an angel took him to a place with a sunny beach, volleyball, and rock and roll, where everyone was having a great time.
"Wow!" he ex
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