Software Development Intern - Lessons from the journey that led me to my first job.

A story about overcoming challenges and struggles on the journey to my first role as a Software Development Intern at Microsoft.

Washington, USA

---

For an Audio Summary, click the Play button below:

---

Back in 2004, during the Fall Semester of my 3rd year at the University of Toronto, I was busy with some assignment in the computer lab. I heard that there was going to be a Career Fair on campus and different companies were going to show up and talk to students. I thought about just checking out what these companies were looking for. I quickly created a basic Resume, added a few details there, and printed a few copies to carry along with me.

When I was drafting my first Resume, I was struggling with what to put in there as an Electrical Engineering student starting 3rd year, with no formal industry experience. So I highlighted what I felt strongly about my accomplishments as a student and made sure it best represented who I was.

Here are the 7 things you can highlight in your first Resume

1. Education - Your Grade Point Average (GPA)

2. Education - Projects you delivered as part of coursework

3. Skills - Programming Languages you are familiar with

4. Skills - Communication, Presentation and other Skills

5. Experience - Any paid or volunteer work experience

6. Languages - All languages you are familiar with

7. Activities - Any activity or groups you participate in

I remember walking around the hall in the old University College building, talking to the employees briefly about what roles they were offering and dropping off my Resume at each table after a small chat. At this point I honestly did not expect to hear back from anyone, given the economy was still recovering from the dot com crash of the early 2000s and the job market was still very cold.

A few weeks later, I get an email that two of those companies were interested in interviewing me, one of them was Altera and the other one was Microsoft. Microsoft would end up becoming the place where I started my engineering career and spent more than a decade, starting with my summer internship in 2005, and eventually leading the Microsoft Project Desktop engineering team.

Tip #1: Apply to open positions early and often. Even if you have no work experience, you still need to start somewhere. Just believe in yourself and knock on the door.

---