Standing on the bridge overlooking the interstate late one evening, I felt the bridge tremble each time a car buzzed past under it. Hundreds of cars on either side travelling at least 10 or 20 above the speed limit I thought. I squinted just a bit. All I could see now was a yellow blur on the right and a red one on the left.
4 weeks have just flown past me and I have a big midterm review coming up in 2 weeks. The midterm review supposedly decides whether or not you are suitable for a full time position at Microsoft. Though the reality of the matter is that the management would have made their mind up already and the review is likely going to be a way to validate and communicate that decision, I still find it difficult to shake off that academic mindset - I feel the review is like a pass/fail exam, the one hour that will decide the rest of my career here.
To complicate things further, it can be hard to deal with the fact that I have not been able to come up with any brand new discoveries or earth-shattering recommendations. I keep asking myself what value am I adding? Having gotten used to churning out solution after solution to cases in a short period of time such as a day or a week, being forced to think through the nitty gritty details of the recommendation for a whole 12-week period is slightly different. The devil is in the detail. The good thing though about going deep without necessarily compromising fully on the breadth is that I have had to meet a whole bunch of people from across different groups in the company, getting my hands dirty in the process rather than being stuck at a desk poring over tons of printed material.
At the same time, it thrills me to bits that the recommendations I make (once I think through the operational details!!) are actually going to be implemented world-wide. A 6-week internship that will have a global impact across at least 6 continents(I wish we had a few subsidiaries in Antarctica too), 50 countries (I am guessing a bunch of countries will continue to do things their own way), over a 1000 strong field consultants and countless customers over the next year or two. Now that's what I'd call impact!
PS - That blog was actually authored on 23rd June, 2 weeks before by midterm review that happened on the 7th July. Just getting the dates out there so I don't confuse anyone when I say i am out of here in 3 weeks in my next post.
- Deepthi