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Current Mood:
Happy
Today was my last day at Microsoft. I cannot believe this 12 week long internship has already come to an end. Feels like just yesterday I was being handed a pink cup cake in front of the NEO group. Time really does fly by. I have mixed feelings about Microsoft and the entire experience; although, I guess every place is going to have its ups and downs. Overall, I really enjoyed my time here and learned a great deal from my mentor, boss, coworkers, and all the obstacles I faced. In my time here, I wrote some 19 or 20 test cases, all of which were automated. I successfully tested four major components of the v1 release, participated in 3 bug bashes, and kicked ass in solving deployment or BVT issues. I think when I first started I was so scared because I didn’t know how things worked. If there was an unidentifiable problem, how in the world would I ever be able to solve it. I think after working here for 12 weeks, I was able to recognize certain patterns in the behavior of the software to better solve the problems. This skill set I developed during my internship will help me throughout life, no matter what careers I pursue.
I met a great group of people, despite having lived so far from campus in a rather secluded apartment complex. Some of the interns I met were just terrific people and really got along well with me. I enjoyed our lunches and our weekly excursions for food in far off places.
Early this morning I had a meeting with an HR representative from Microsoft. I’m proud to say that I have been offered a full time position with Microsoft for the following year. This is a really big achievement and I am honestly very lucky that I can say I have something to at least fall back on once I graduate. Not many people have job offers waiting for them once they’re done so I thank my stars.
Overall this internship was a maturing experience, but my flight back to reality is tomorrow morning. And I’m really glad to be returning home.
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Current Mood:
Angry
Raise your hand if you hate computers. Hey, I’m with you there, both hands waving through the air. I think a lot of people assume that because I’m in the IT industry or a CS major, I have less problems with computers malfunctioning or acting up. Quite the contrary. I’d like to think positively and see all the problems I’ve had with computers as an exercise in tolerance and patience; but in truth, it’s just been a huge axe chopping away at my lifespan with tons of stress. Computer malfunctioning costing hours of time at a University is not uncommon, but I never thought I’d see something like this happening at a company like Microsoft, that’s so heavily dependent on computer uptime.
On Tuesday, September 3rd, I came to my office only to discover my computer had either been tampered with or had some serious failures over the weekend because it would not boot properly. Issues around memory constantly froze the machine and showed a nice Blue Screen of Death. After speaking to the IT department and others, I was finally able to get a gentleman to take the machine and “attempt” to fix it. I was greatly surprised how much effort it actually took me to get a loner machine in it’s place. I was even more surprised that it has been nearly 9 days and still there is no progress on my machine. The IT repairman only delivered promises, no results. And the team seems careless about the situation, leaving me without the proper tools I need to finish my project here at Microsoft.
Unfortunately, this means that I’m forced to spend my last week watching Family Guy =) Ahh technology. This is the part where Amma would agree that technology sucks.
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Current Mood:
Sickly
Sadness. I thought things would change now. I hoped my body had gotten over this and I’d have a stronger immunity. Throughout my entire internship, I got sick 0 times. The only times I was even remotely sick was when I was heading back to California. Allergic to California? Perhaps. Maybe it’s just the TSA anxiety. In any case, I’m so sick of being sick. I’ve tried so many different remedies: allopathic drugs, ayurvedic drugs, homeopathic drugs, even no drugs - that mind over matter stuff. And still, I got nothing. No amount of Vitamin C or extra sleep or hygiene skills is going to prevent me from getting sick. As soon as I step into an area full of sick people, my defenses immediately fall and I start getting terribly sick. The worst part is, while my coworkers get sick and recover after a day or two - I’m stuck in weakness and pain for weeks at a time.
The pain is the same, high fever and sore throat. Body aches and soreness. I’m beginning to suspect that perhaps this isn’t really a sickness, more like an allergic reaction. But an allergy to what? Now that is the real question. I’m debating seeing a dietitian when I return to California because I am beginning to believe more and more that something in my diet, something I eat, is affecting my immunity and suppressing it; or it is at least causing these symptoms to appear. I can’t go on like this because it takes all the pleasure out of life. Hopefully I’ll figure it out soon. My biggest worry is that if I don’t cure this then how could I possibly be a doctor - I’ll be working in a environment full of sick people.
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Current Mood: Happy
I returned to Tustin this weekend to visit my family and relatives. I can’t say how good it felt to finally be at home again. To be able to sleep in my own bed, to see my family, and our own Californian soil! Of course the best part was Amma’s cooking. Oh man how my stomach has missed that compared to all the garbage I’ve been feeding it. It was really great to be home. On Friday, we decided to go out to dinner as a familyto a local steak house, which was quite enjoyable because the food was delicious!
On Saturday, my parents decided to hold a party at our house to celebrate my 21st birthday and Vikram’s graduation by inviting a lot of family friends and relatives. It was also rakshabhandan. It was nice seeing everyone, especially Pooja and Arya and Antara. But I honestly didn’t enjoy myself very much because I felt very unappreciated among my guests. I am a pretty simple person and I don’t expect any fancy treatment, but considering I had returned from an internship at Microsoft, I was hoping that at least one person from all the boneheads my Amma had invited could have asked me about my job or congratulated me. They were all so self-concerned, as usual. No big deal. Like I said, it was nice to be home.
Sunday, I just stayed at home, saw Vikram’s apartment. It’s pretty cool, makes me wish I was moving out to off campus housing. Though, after three months on my own, I think I’m looking forward to going back home. I spent the rest of the day with my parents. It was nice.