…Google interns enjoy the free, all-day gourmet meals that regular employees do. And, if they're envious that Microsoft interns get a date with Bill Gates, they can hang around with Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin during the company's regular Friday evening fireside chats.
Google interns, much like Microsoft interns, get on-the-job training to work with the company's code, as well as other technical courses. Google also encourages interns to attend its lecture series with the likes of Linus Torvalds, the inventor of Linux, or Carolyn Porco, a planetary scientist for Nasa. This summer, Google interns also get to see some of the presidential candidates, such as New York Democratic senator Hillary Clinton, speak on campus.
Redmond v Mountain View
Microsoft has hired about 1,000 interns in the US this summer, with the lion's share located at its Washington headquarters and about 50 at its Mountain View, California, campus, across the road from Google. (Google representatives would not say how many interns it has hired this summer, except to say it's in the hundreds.)
To find students, Microsoft, like most major technology companies, recruits at universities and career fairs all over the world, scouting for undergraduates and graduate students in the departments of computer science, engineering, electrical engineering, physics and mathematics. Microsoft also relies on referrals from professors in those fields. (Maurer got his job in Google's calendar group because of a referral from a professor at Carnegie Mellon University.)
Although Microsoft's isn't seen as the hottest internship among technical types, as it has been in years past, the company carries heft on a student CV.
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"I still think the Microsoft internship brand is a strong one on campus," said Caroline Bulmer, Microsoft's intern programme manager. "They're getting real work experience on their résumé, and that makes them very attractive not only to Microsoft but to other companies."
Most promising computer science students will get multiple offers to intern from rivals like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo before they choose where to go. And, when they graduate, having a technology giant on the CV certainly helps them land a job. "It's more a difference than having an internship at [one of these companies] and flipping burgers," Maurer said.
"For a computer science undergrad, it depends on the environment, the calibre of people who are around, stuff you get to work on. [Without that], you don't have quite as many stories to tell," Maurer said.
Still, with the growing roster of Silicon Valley start-ups, some aspiring software engineers have turned to smaller companies like moka5, a 20-person software company founded by Stanford University computer science professor Monica Lam. Her company took on two interns this year, one from Stanford and the other from MIT.
"The students get to see what's it's like to work at a start-up — the dynamics are different, everybody knows everyone," Lam said. "And they're working on features that are immediately used by customers."
As for perks like baseball games and bay cruises, Lam said, the start-up life comes with a more personal touch. "We're planning a one-day trip out to Angel Island with the whole company. Maybe that's the difference."
