Hi, recently Microsoft announced to their Canadian interns working in the US that a new contract had been adjusted to match Canadian prices, I thought it would simply be a conversion however it was half our salary offered in the first contract we signed, are there any other fellow UBC students on the same boat, has anyone solved this?
Also, does anyone know the Canadian SWE salaries for the Vancouver offices?
Thanks guys
This has happened across the board at a number of different big tech companies. I don't think you have any recourse available to you, other than rejecting their offer.
This is very unethical. 1-2 months after signing an offer letter, the interns are getting a 50% pay cut. I recommend emailing them back to ask for an explanation. If everyone does this, maybe they can revert (or at least partially revert) their decision.
Again if they had announced this from the beginning it would suck, but hey fair enough. But I know people that already signed offer letters weeks ago at the original.
If youre in co-op, I'd reach out to your co-op advisor as well.
I applied mid august w referral and haven’t heard anything. Any chance I hear back or should I consider it a rejection ?
I just wanted to thank everyone for providing so much help on this subreddit. I have been the goto for all my friends for interview/internship advice because of all the things I have learned here. Especially not being a computer science major, I find most of my resources online and this r/cscareerquestions as helped me a lot.
I have recently accepted an offer from the Microsoft Office team for a SDE internship! So glad that the work has paid off. Without the constant resume reviews, interview advice, and internship advice I'm not sure if I would have gotten it.
Thanks!
I'm a first year Engineering student in Canada and my program has mandatory Co-ops. I would like to start building my resume as early as I can so that I can hopefully get an internship at MS (sounds really ambitious but I have to try). Any advice on how early (prior) I should apply for internship, and how I should build my resume?
Thanks!
Does anyone know the average compensation for interns at Microsoft in Toronto or Vancouver?
I think it was like 30 something iirc
Trigger warning - This is definitely going to be unpopular as people want their tendies for getting past 1st year.
This is why the salary reporting of internships in HFS and FAANG in the US is problematic to people looking at internships elsewhere. They don’t compare. Internships aren’t meant to focus on how much you can earn, but how much you can learn.
Sure you deserve to be paid, and I think paid well. But if you are focused on looking for a prorated six figure salary for essentially costing a company to teach you how to do anything, I think your expectations might be a bit out of touch.
Hey everybody... It's been one of my goals to work for Microsoft for a while (ever since I started university really). What I want out of this post is really a guide (as detailed as possible) on what I should do starting now until next summer in order to land a position at Microsoft. Before that, here's some background:
I'm a 3rd-year international student taking computer science at Dalhousie University in Canada. I have a fairly high GPA (although I know that it doesn't matter that much). I'm a teaching assistant for multiple CS courses. I've done two previous coop work terms with a start-up company that created components to be used inside electric vehicles. I mainly worked with C# and the .NET framework but also had some exposure to C and eclipse. I'll be interning at Ubisoft this summer as well for a junior programmer position (this will be my last coop). I'll be graduating in December of 2023 (most likely).
Don't think there's anything else left to write about my background. So, onto my goal: I want to become a software developer or software engineer at Microsoft. I don't know how to go from where I'm at to where I want to be and that's where I need help. I have kind of broken everything down to these steps:
Get better at leet code
Add the technologies you learn at Ubisoft into your resume
Add interns/hiring managers on LinkedIn and get their advice
attend any on-campus events for Microsoft to build connections
Apply and get an interview at Microsoft
Really, I don't know what else to ask besides "what can I do to improve my chances of landing an interview with Microsoft by the end of my university?". Literally, any resources, links, advice, connections, etc will help. Thanks for all your answers in advance.
Hey! Has anyone heard back from Microsoft explore after applying?
Hey everybody! I was an explorer summer of 2019, and I've had quite a few people dming me about my experience so I thought I'd compile it & post it publicly!
Timeline
Sent out an application end of August, within a week of applications opening up
Contacted mid-September to do an on-campus interview the next week
Heard back at the beginning of October to sign up for an on-site at the end of November
Received offer beginning of December with 2 weeks to accept/decline
My Resume
Horrible. No project experience, no past internships. I had only taken a 2-semester introductory class at the time of applying. Points in my favor were that I had a 3.9GPA and I went to a target school.
Interviews
First round: string manipulation and behavioral questions
On-site: simple tree question, conceptual questions, PM-style questions, and behavioral questions
Advice
Apply as early as possible. Although I did have friends who applied much later and received their offer in January/February, Microsoft does run out of spots, so I would keep an eye out for the application and apply as soon as you can.
Focus on your resume!! The interview is extremely easy, and this is coming from somebody who had to self-study trees and linked lists and other data structures because I hadn't even gotten to it in class. If you can get through the resume screening, the rest is easy from there. I would highly recommend doing a project if you haven't and putting it on your resume. Highlight any experience you have. If you're too experienced for explore, they will reroute you for the SWE internship (or PM if you're interested in that).
If you know somebody who is on good terms with your campus recruiter, a referral can be very helpful. Not necessary though — I applied online with no referral and somehow made it through.
You do NOT need experience for this internship. Like I said, I had absolutely 0 experience and had to self study data structures for the interview. If you're an incoming freshman/just changed your major to CS, don't let that put you off!! This internship was made for people like you.
You can apply to multiple internships (explore and PM, for example) but they will make the choice for you as to which internship you should interview for.
Finally, please apply for this internship if you are at all interested!! It was an absolutely amazing experience that I'd recommend to anybody. Microsoft has an awesome internship program, they pay pretty well ($32/hour in 2019, not sure if that's changed), and it's altogether a great experience. And you do not actually need to be an URM in the strictest sense. There were white male explorer interns, who talked about their socioeconomic class/cultural background for their diversity. Seriously, if you're even thinking about it, apply. Worst they can do is say no. :)
I'm happy to do resume reviews and chat privately if you're interested in learning more. Hope this helps!
Has anyone heard back from Microsoft? I applied mid-August and my portal still says Application Transferred. Is this normal?
New year, new goals. I really want to get an internship at a larger company since I have tried startup and a mid size company.
I only know someone from Microsoft, and was wondering how much does referral help you to get an interview? Anyone heard back yet for the summer interns position? Is it too late now?
Definitely too late for Summer 2020. The application and interview process for summer internships at these large firms begins in September/October as they try hard to get the good candidates before other companies.
I applied to Microsoft this year as a SWE Intern with a referral, and honestly, I have to say it helped me but your referee might have to do more work than just submit the referral for it to have much effect. FWIW, it also depends on their position at MS as well.
Theoretically, the referral should B-line your application to be at least reviewed by a recruiter, but as you'll easily find out through the interview process, recruiters at MS appear to be overworked with too much to keep track of. Through the process, I think I switched between different recruiters like 3-4 times without any action on my side, just their system I guess.
What happened to me is that my application was not even looked at until my referee emailed his skip and/or University recruiting (this was roughly in November). In my case, he had to be my advocate to get the ball rolling and that's when the referral really started taking effect.
It's definitely too late for Summer 2020. The late on-site interviews for Summer 2020 are happening at the beginning of January, but even then, they are likely tight on spots by that point. Either way, even with a referral and someone trying to push you through, it will take a while until you can schedule the phone interview, and if that goes well, scheduling the onsite, so I wouldn't count on entering that on site round in January.
My experience was with Intern SWE position in the US, so if you're looking to get it in Canada, YMMV. Either way, best of luck in your search! Feel free to let me know if you have any questions.