Silver linings and shared learnings for incoming virtual interns

2020 has been an extraordinary year.  

And more than anything, the significant challenges have provided significant opportunities for learning. For some that has meant learning how to take on a new role of teacher or caregiver. For others it’s meant learning a new skill – individually, that could be making bread or speaking a new language, and collectively at Microsoft, it meant strengthening our understanding of what it means to be an effective ally.  

But for everyone around the world, it has meant learning how to stay connected from a distance.   

Over the last ten months, we’ve learned a lot about remote and hybrid work at Microsoft. Looking back to the spring, we worked at warp speed to shift to remote work and transition all of our recruiting and hiring processes to virtual platforms—a crazy time for me when I was just ramping up in my new role as Head of Global Talent Acquisition! Among the many decisions was to transition our summer intern program to a virtual experience.  

While I know the virtual intern program was anything but ordinary, our 2020 intern class rose to the occasion with an extraordinary amount of grace and grit in meeting the challenges of the year to help drive our mission forward. They also had some fun along the way!   

Since starting our first virtual intern programs last spring, we’ve had time to reflect on the learnings and feedback we’ve received from our interns. And while we know that in-person experiences and connecting with your colleagues off-screen are difficult to replace, we have found many silver linings.  

One of our biggest learnings was how the virtual experience enhances our culture of inclusion across the program. Our intern program typically includes many large in-person gatherings that are hosted on our Redmond campus, which are limited to interns in the Puget Sound region. This year, we leveraged our creativity to make our events more accessible and inclusive to our interns across time zones and around the world. This was also true for more frequent and collaborative events, which enabled interns to connect who previously would have never met given the location of their region or local office. We also expanded our virtual programming to include interns from LinkedIn and GitHub, further enhancing our cross-company collaboration and driving innovation across all our platforms and products.  

As we gear up for another year of virtual and hybrid intern programs at Microsoft, I want to share some additional learnings from interns, managers and leaders who took part in the program over the past year:  

Clearly define your professional and personal goals  

“My time in the virtual internship program at Microsoft gave me the opportunities to develop both professionally and personally. My manager and my mentor were critical to ensuring I was able to get hands-on experience that developed my management skills and empowered me to pursue my passions outside of my day-to-day role. Two highlights of my experience include leading a pilot training program for data center technicians using the HoloLens, and joining the Indigenous@Microsoft ERG!

My advice to interns participating in virtual internship programs this year would be to clearly define your personal goals and align them with your team goals. This strategy fostered open communication with my manager and mentor, ensuring I got to explore different projects, attend virtual conferences, and meet and learn from experts from across the company. I would also encourage setting up weekly virtual coffee chats with a new person each week; this helped me learn about different networking opportunities and communities outside of my own team. While I participated in the program from Boston, across the country from my colleagues and manager, I never felt alone thanks to the family that I found in my team and in my fellow virtual interns. I feel grateful for this experience and I am excited to return to Microsoft in 2021 as a full-time employee!”  –Kimberly Marreros Chuco, 2020 Microsoft intern  (You can learn more about Kimberly’s intern experience in this LinkedIn post.) 

Invest time into building strong support and welcoming environment  

“I have served as a manager for many years during internship programs. This past year, during the virtual program, more than any other year, I feel like we saw the participants truly strive on their own, developing their own initiative and ingenuity, that will serve them so well in any professional environment, especially so we’ll all likely be working in some sort of virtual setting for some time. That has been a huge, unanticipated silver-lining.  

To any manager preparing to host a virtual intern or onboard a new teammate, I cannot emphasize the importance in the earlier investment you can make in creating a welcoming environment and team: be transparent about expectations, help them understand the culture and dynamic of the team, and be cognizant of what their circumstances are (time zone, location, accessibility to connectivity, etc.). This will go a long way in building a strong support structure that sets them up for success where they can shine and do their best.”  –Navin Sathi, Senior Director, Cloud Operations + Innovation (manager to 2020 intern) 

Be proactive in meeting new people and exploring different opportunities 

“Having participated in both an in-person and virtual intern program at Microsoft, I think there are pros and cons to both. At first, I felt nervous about how I would onboard into a new role where I couldn’t turn around and ask my manager or a teammate a quick question. Once I realized we were all adjusting to this new virtual environment, it became a great learning and bonding opportunity for us all to create new habits and routines. And not only that, but the wide use of Teams in this virtual setting, in every meeting and at every event, was extremely beneficial to me, as someone with hearing loss, where features like transcription are built-in, making it easy for me to follow along and participate. 

My advice to any person working in a virtual environment, including interns, would be to implement the boundaries to separate your personal and professional life. I worked to set a schedule of when I would begin and end my workday to hold myself accountable in prioritizing my mental health. And for interns, in particular, I encourage you to be proactive about joining events (even if you might not participate at first) to meet new people and explore different opportunities. As an introvert, I found this much easier to do in a virtual setting where engaging with groups in an event chat felt less intimidating than walking into a room full of new faces.”  – Simin Savani, 2020 Microsoft intern 

Model behavior and lead by example 

“I am so glad that Microsoft decided to move forward with a virtual intern program last year, and again this year; these opportunities matter! They are important and have a huge impact on the lives of students; professionally and personally.  

During the program, I was overly impressed with the adaptability of our interns, it was great to see how they were able to pivot in unexpected circumstances, readjusting to stay the course. 

As we all adjust to this new environment, we have to be especially mindful of modeling behaviors that enable a strong work-life balance. The interns have such a short time to share their full talents, thus resulting in them putting pressure on themselves to have a good outcome. It is up to us to lead by example to guide them, reassure them and empower them. To do that, it is important to be empathetic and patient.”  – Nyasia Sarfo, Senior Program Manager of Diversity & Inclusion (mentor to 2020 intern) 

Pivot quickly to enable equitable experiences  

“Coming in as the new leader of University Recruiting during a time of such uncertainty and change around the world, I was so impressed with how the Recruiting team was able to pivot quickly to convert 4,000 global in-person internships into a virtual program. Our team’s goal was to ensure the students' ability to complete their internship with Microsoft and to provide an equitable experience for all interns around the world. We have received strong positive feedback from both interns and managers that has validated to me that the move to virtual was incredibly successful. I am so excited for what this next round of virtual internships will look like knowing that we are building on our learnings and successes of last year.” – Renate Norman, Head of Global University Recruiting 

We’re so looking forward to welcoming all of our incoming interns over the next year and continue to collectively learn and grow together. To learn more about our internship program and other career opportunities, please visit our Careers site.