<aside> 💡 Kate Zhao is a senior majoring in Information Systems and HCI. Last summer, she interned at Microsoft as a UX designer. Let’s see what her experiences are like!

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Could you briefly introduce your internship position? What do you do for the job?

I was working in the enterprise, so my project was working on an internal tool for employees, which made it a lot easier because all the people I was interviewing were inside the company, so it was really easy to reach out to them. It might be a little different from other people's projects as mine was more solo—I was the only intern working on it. I mainly talked to my mentor, manager, and the general team, but I didn't get a chance to interact with many interns. I thought it was a nice project because it was in a very ambiguous space, and it allowed me to be more creative since I was the first person to work on something like that. Parts of the work I did was being used in a recent design sprint with the larger team so it was cool seeing how my work actually had an impact.

How was the internship experience at Microsoft like in general?

I’d say pretty structured because they’re such a big company and they’ve refined their internship program over the years. They just knew what they were doing. I had tasks that I needed to do and many resources to go to. I was assigned a mentor and a manager that I talked to very frequently, and they were able to help guide me throughout the process. They also had a lot of things already set, like their design system. So the whole internship experience was very well thought out already.

How was the communication and collaboration with other people like at Microsoft?

I didn't talk to too many interns. I reached out to a couple to chat because I was in Seattle even though the internship was remote. I communicated with my mentor every day. Every morning, we had a call to check in and see my progress, which was helpful because I could ask her questions and ask her for input on anything that I was working on. Every week I had a call with my manager. He was a little higher level, so we talked about my internship and how I was doing, not necessarily anything project-specific. And then, every month, I had a call with my manager to talk about my progress and reflect on the internship in general. Those calls were used to evaluate how I was doing and whether or not I'd be getting a return offer.

Why did you choose UX Design at Microsoft specifically?

I think it was because, compared to all the other offers that I had, I thought that Microsoft would be able to offer me the most. It was my junior year internship, and I had not had an official internship before that. I wanted to have a very standard kind of internship, where I had access to many resources and a lot of opportunities. I knew that Microsoft would be able to set me up in the best way.

When you were applying for internships, did you specifically focus on applying to only big companies or you applied to a mix of both big companies and startups?

I was applying to everything because I feel like the bigger net you cast, the more you can come up with. Honestly, every weekend I would just set up a couple of hours to apply to everything I saw on LinkedIn and handshake. I would just search for UX design and product design internships on Google.

What was your process of applying and getting into this position like?

You either get a referral, or you submit an application online. And then you wait to hear back. Usually, there's a phone interview to get to know you more (this is your typical behavioral interview). And then another one is a little bit more technical. Some will ask you to do a design challenge. And then there's a final round. The one for Microsoft was five hours long, and usually, they also ask you for a portfolio presentation. I presented my portfolio to a team for the Microsoft one and picked out two to three projects that I wanted to talk about. And then, it was 4 one hour back-to-back interviews with each team member. They each had a different role, so they all had different questions to ask me. That was the most intense.

What is one unforgettable challenge you faced during the internship?

In the middle of the project, I was just really lost. I had no idea how to move forward with it. If you think about the design process, I just kept diverging. I was looking at all of these possible routes and ideas that I wanted to explore, but I didn't know how to converge. So I reached out to my mentor and asked for help. I thought that was very pivotal in my experience. I didn't want to ask for help because I felt embarrassed that I didn't have the experience or anything that everyone else had. And I felt really ashamed that I didn't know how to move forward with my project. But I ended up asking for help, which is really good. You should always ask for help, and she (mentor) was able to help me. So I thought the project ended up nicely.

What is one thing that you learned and find the most useful/valuable from this experience?

Being open-minded and not closing yourself off to one idea or a specific mindset. Because in design, you're going to talk to and be exposed to so many different people, beliefs, and thoughts. It's important to consider all that for your future growth and be able to design a solution that's meant for a larger range of people.

What is your future career plan like? Do you have a preference between big companies and startups?

I think right after graduation, I want more financial stability, which is something you don't often get with startups and is why I veered towards Microsoft. Also, I didn’t want to recruit again. After getting the return offer, I debated for a little while. I also applied a little bit, but Microsoft's offer was pretty good, so I ended up just accepting them. I got into UX design pretty late. My first actual internship with Microsoft was my junior year, and that was my first actual internship for UX design. Within Microsoft, I feel like there are two routes I could take—I could either keep working towards being a senior designer, or I could pivot and be more of a managerial role, maybe a PM. I still haven't decided, but I want to see how I would work as a UX designer full time within this first year.

What do you like about working in a big company?