Internship & Your
Application
Jiwen Cai
About Myself
goodcjw@YSSY, Jiwen CAI
Email: goodcjw2@gmail.com Website: jiwen.info
Senior undergraduate student of the School of
Information Security Engineering
Visiting student in Microsoft Research Asia(MSRA).
I’ll attend UCLA’s CS department as a graduate
student in the fall of 2010.
Highlights
FAQ about internship and GOA application
Preparing for the internship application
My life in MSRA
Notice: all the following information is my personal opinion based on
my personal experience. DO NOT consider it as rules or musts.
FAQ
Is it necessary to get involved in internship?
What will you learn from internship?
What kind of internship will help your
application?
How to find a internship?
Is it necessary to get
involved in internship?
It depends...
If you are aiming at a Master degree,
internship is very important.
If you are aiming at a PhD degree, you can
still learn from the internship.
What will you learn from
internship?
You will learn...
How to take an interview.
How a large cooperation works.
How to cooperate will other people in the same
team.
How to improve English during work.
How students in other universities think and work.
What Kind of Internship Will
Help Your Application?
Large international cooperation is the best
choice.
Try to find an internship which you want to
take it as your career.
Payment and location are not big issues.
It will be helpful if the company has the same
culture with your future destination.
How to Find Internship?
Some company might arrange large-scale campus
intern recruitment. For example, EBay and IBM.
Others might recruit interns any time in the year. For
example, Microsoft.
Others might post Job Description on their website
or even on YSSY BBS’s Parttime forum.
Actually, the most common situation is that: interns
are recruited by internal recommendation.
Preparing
Compile a resume of yourself, the earlier, the better.
Check whether you have enough time to take an
internship.
Survey all companies in your field that have plans to
recruit interns.
Get your qualification and capability ready.
Get ready to receive offer letters and rejection letters.
Resume
Survey: How many of you have a resume?
“Because I compiled my first resume in the first year
at college, I start to know what to improve very early”
-- Shuang YANG, Stanford Fellowship Winner.
Be careful of using the following words: master of...,
fully understand...
Do not only puts the name of projects, but describe
your contribution in detail.
Resume
Actually, a resume in LaTex format is easy to
maintain and update in the future, though it is
some how difficult to work out the first version.
If possible, I strongly recommend you to
register your person website, or add a
personal page under your school or lab’s
website.
Are You Available for
Internship
Do not sacrifice your GPA, GRE, or TOEFL.
If you can find a good professor in SJTU to
direct your research && you do want to get a
PhD in the future, you should consider giving
up the summer internship.
Focus, Focus, Focus...
Survey All Opportunities
Company’s website
http://msra.cn/recruitment/InternRecruitment.aspx
YSSY’s Parttime board
Poster in the campus
Information shared between students
Other sources: Xiaonei, etc
Qualification & Capability
Remember: interns are at the lowest level in
the hierarchy of a company.
Qualification: a quality or accomplishment that
makes someone suitable for a particular job or
activity.
They might not hire the strongest person, but
must hire the person matches the job best.
Offers and Rejections
Offers:
Compare offers by consulting someone working
or worked in that company.
Make sure of the deadline of decision.
Rejections:
Don’t be frustrated and try another one.
If you are determined to work in that company,
improve yourself and try again in future.
My Life in MSRA
MSRA mode: post-docs are leading pre-docs.
How we recruit?
Our slogan: Work Hard, Play Harder.
Notice: MSRA is a place really different with other departments or
companies. The following description might not be applicable to other
companies or even other departments of Microsoft.
What We are Doing?
Reading paper, lots of paper.
Brainstorming.
Coding.
Carrying out experiments.
Writing a paper, if you are lucky and hard
wording.
We Are Always
Recruiting
Someone consider it is hard to get an internship in
MSRA.
Actually, MSRA has about 200 FTE and has 300
intern head count; while other departments of
Microsoft has much lower intern-FTE ratio.
If you have done some research in a specified field,
the chance of being hired will be increased.
We Are Always
Recruiting
Some interns are just doing coding or
engineering works for a specific project. If you
will apply for PhD program in the fall, please
point out your eager of doing some real
research and publish paper when you are
interviewed.
Please focus on the field you have chosen, or
make a decision about your field ASAP.
Advantages of MSRA
Top CS research institute in China. For some fields
live CV or ML, even as competitive as some top
universities in US.
FTE and visiting researchers give talks from time to
time. Some provides the current research hot points;
other will train you to become a good researcher.
Advantages of MSRA
Meet students from top universities in China.
Many of them and almost every
undergraduate will apply for US colleges.
Get some solid recommendation letters.
Get used to the life of a PhD candidate.
Have a great opportunity to get deep tour into
our capital city.
A Useful Website
http://academic.research.microsoft.com/
Only for CS students.
This website ranks conferences’ influence by
fields.
It also ranks authors (professors).
My Conclusion
It is never too late to find an internship.
Focus on your career plan. If you do not have
a career plan, focus on making one.
Balance your time.
Q&A
Thank you!