How I got Microsoft SWE Internship Offer in 2nd year?
Tags: intern, microsoft, engage, development
Published: 2022-06-26 19:31:47

##                 Microsoft Engage Program :

**Microsoft** conducts an **Intern Engage Program** for 2nd year students to provide a platform for engineering students to accelerate their growth and foster industry-relevant skills through mentorship, coding challenges, workshops and networking opportunities.
[Acehacker Site](https://acehacker.com/microsoft/engage2022/)
## What's on Stake?
Through this program , **Microsoft** provides problem statements on which mentees have to make a product as a solution to the problems. 
On the basis of your product, they will you provide a **Direct Internship Offer** or **Interview Round for Internship.**
So, if you are in 2nd year, this is a must-apply opportunity for you.

## How I got to know about this opportunity?
I got to know about this opportunity through **LinkedIn**. I kept an eye on some of the content creators, who cleared the engage program. 
Tip : Follow Arsh Goyal Youtube Channel for more such opportunities.

## How to apply ?
**Eligibility Criteria**

- Students graduating in **2024** enrolled in a full-time engineering program Bachelors, Masters, Integrated Dual Degree & related degrees.

- **6 CGPA and above**.

**Rounds For Selection**
- There are three elimination rounds :
1. **Resume Shortlisting** ( Resume is taken into consideration for proceeding to the first round.)
2. **Online MCQ Round** ( It contains 10 MCQ questions based on DSA to be solved within 30 minutes.[Level - Easy])
3. **Algorithmic Round** (This round consists of a single Algorithmic Puzzle which was of descriptive type. [Level - Easy to Medium])

## Tips for selection

1. Make your **resume strong** : 
So, from POV of a second year, it would contain some experience and good projects.
(In my case , I added my open source contribution as an experience and I was having some Blockchain projects so added them as well.)

2. Add all the achievements you have till date.
Here, I would say, **your ranks in contest , any hackathon you have won.**

3. Coming to Online Test part.
I prepared from **GFG DSA MCQ questions**, it had a good amount of DSA mcq's based on easy to hard level.
Topics : Whole DSA. (Not some particular ones.)

4. Round 2 Algorithmic Part
Here too, I prepared from **GFG Algorithmic puzzles** (_GFG Is Love_). So, you should explain your solution, how it is working and how are you coming up to the solution.

**Note: They say that each round they will consider your overall profile.** 

## Mentorship Program

- So, **Congratulations**, if you made it so far.
In the mentorship program, you will be assigned a mentor, this year , I was assigned one a bit late. Don't worry if u don't get a mentor, it takes time.

- There will be different **AMA sessions** where you can ask your doubts and some survey quizzes.

- There will be meetings on the work culture of Microsoft and algorithms too.

- And Main Part - You will be provided three problem statements where you have to build a solution for the same as a **product/application**.

In my case, all the statements were based on **AI/ML** domain.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/gafjvv7rgu6ut3ukp8fb.png)

## What I built ?

It was a really amazing one-month journey of all ups and downs, motivation-demotivation for me.
AI/ML was completely new domain for me. (_Blockchain Supremacy_)
So, I took **Face Recognition** as a problem statement.

Now, I had to build something out of the box.(_Try Hard Guy_) I took help of my seniors for ideas. 
- So, my first week went on searching for ideas and how to implement it.
Got a lot of ideas, but implementation was quite hard.
- In second week, I was completely demotivated coz of errors and other issues. I thought I can't do it.
- In third week, my senior gave me an idea, so I gave a last try.(_Ye hua toh thik nhi to bhaad me jaaye._)
- The idea was to make **A Video Meet App where users can enter after successful image verification**.
Idea was cool , so I started working on it. I used to keep each and every **Tech Stack Standard** (like ReactJS, MongoDB, Python, Flask, Twilio API).
- I think I can write another article regarding my project.
- So, after struggling a lot, fixing bugs and checking face images of my friends day nd night. 
**Finally, I built it.**
- I uploaded my project on my Github Repo.([Face-Meet](https://github.com/rajprem4214/Face-Meet))
- Remember to make a really nice video and the documentation. You can refer from mine.
On submission day too, I couldn't complete my sleep. Next day was my college internals.(_Bohot julm hai yaar_)


## Result Day
I was playing Valorant with my friends and got a message Engage Results are out. I left everything and sat down with my phone. A mail popped up. It said **"Congratulations on the Microsoft SWE Internship Opportunity."** I couldn't believed that, literally cried after that. Shouted in my corridor.

I was so happy that I couldn't sleep that night.


So, this my experience with Engage Program.
Don't feel sad, if you couldn't make it, there are many opportunities coming for you ;).

**Author**
- Prem Raj , 2nd year ISE student from Nitte Meenakshi Institute Of Technology.
**Connect to me :**
[LinkedIN](https://linkedin.com/in/rajprem4214)
[Portfolio](https://rajprem.me)