The fake employee!

July 19, 2012 in Misc

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At the very outset I would like to clear that the title “the fake employee” refers to me, and the post is about my experiences during my internship at Microsoft Research, Bangalore.

The story starts about a year back, when I was told how good a place MSR is, by some of my seniors. I was very eager for a PHd for myself at that point of time, which made me even more inclined towards Micorosoft Research. The internship recruitment period started. I was doing good, and I was about to get into google when I requested my professor to let me intern in MSR instead. And he readily agreed.

But few months later, and even more importantly a week or so before my internship I came to know that I was going to intern in Delhi. I would though go to MSR for the first and the last few days for the formalities of the internship (read get my salary!). Since my professor was staying back in Delhi, I had to as well. Being a Delhite, I could agree to it easily despite the fact my intern was tagged “Sura2.0″ (SURA is a project done by second yearites in the summers, the project itself is not as interesting as the Delhi summers is) by my friends.

The best part was that I could stay at home after such a long time and focus on my startup which I was working side by side. The worst part was that it wasn’t MSR. Finally, my mentor had to leave for England and thus I could come Bangalore about two weeks earlier than I was supposed to. And that was the time I was to get the MSR feeling!

Few observations:

• About traveling and roaming around.  More than being fun, I think they are a necessity while you are interning. It is so because companies aren’t expecting much from you, and your PGs are not worthy of your weekends. So, atleast 1 out of 3 weekends you tend to go out (and that coupled with the fact that you are earning makes spending even more fun).

• I missed home and IIT. Actually, both of them looks like home to me. I missed GCL Terrace like anything (I wrote that in the feedback form that was given to me by MSR as well). I have got habitual of home in these two months. It would be difficult to get rid of my bad habits.

• My internship is ending tomorrow, and I have still loads of work to do. I would be leaving Bangalore day after tomorrow. This is the fourth time I have come to Bangalore. And I am sure, I wouldn’t miss Bangalore. Do anyone really do? I wonder.

• MSR is a great place to work in. Everyone says so. I believed so as well. My experience was not so good here. It was because I feel that I couldn’t really get mixed here in the culture. It was like joining a new school a month before your final exams. It is difficult to adapt into. So, MSR is not great about what facilities they provide (XBox, Nap rooms, courts, etc.) but the people it has. They make the experience valuable. I suppose so.

• About the technical learning that I had during this time, frankly speaking I didn’t learn much. But I learnt one really important thing I really need to learn a lot of things. I hope that I learn them soon enough.

• We are supposed to maintain an intern diary and get it signed from our mentor. It is supposed to be an informal accounts of our internship. It was all good, as we generally don’t even bother about writing it. But for once I bothered to, and I realized I have learnt a lot during the summers. I had to tear what all I have written as it looked more like a love letter, save it  didn’t start with a dear but with a date.

• I love the WordPress’s tagline “Just Write”, and I feel proud of Zumbl’s tagline “Sometimes, we just need to talk!”. There is a difference, and that difference is one of the important things that have happened to me in my summers. I dream about this difference almost like every single moment

Pheww. I would add more to this post as and when I get more ideas and observations about it. For now, I need to publish this blog post so that I can concentrate on my work. Please ignore any errors that I might have made on account of the haste in which this blog post is written and later published.