How to get your intern return offer at Microsoft and Amazon

It’s summer 2022 and many young college students are gearing up for their internship this summer. It’s already impressive to be given an opportunity to be working in corporate at such a young age and can be a huge relief that there’s an opportunity to work full-time after graduation.

Internships give the opportunity for college students to work over the summer with chance to be given a full-time offer upon graduation. This conversion isn’t always guaranteed and is based on how well the intern performs throughout the internship.

Here’s how to guarantee you’ll be given a full-time offer.

My Quick Background

I’m a current full-time engineer at Microsoft with previous engineering experience at Amazon.

I’d like to disclose that I have never been an intern at any technology company but I have seen and recognized what has and hasn’t been successful for interns seeking full-time offers.

The little things nobody tells interns

There’s the false assumption that all an intern has to do is complete their work by the end of the internship and they’ll receive an offer. This is hardly the only factor and I’d like to clarify some misunderstandings

The return offer discussion is not at the end of the internship

There’s a common saying that most interviewers know if someone will get an offer in the first 5 minutes of an interview.

Most teams know if the intern will likely get an offer half way through the internship. Those who do well tend to continue to do well and those who slack off continue to slack off.

But I’d like to emphasize that the discussion is prominent about 2/3 into the internship, not at the end. If you save all your work towards the end of the internship, it may be too late since the decision of receiving an offer may have already been decided.

Everybody is a stakeholder in your return offer

It’s not just your project leader/mentor and manager who decide if you should join the team.

Yes, the more anyone interacts with you, the more weight their opinion has. But you’re also interacting with

1. Product managers
2. UX Designers
3. Other engineers

So be kind and get to know them.

Your coworkers talk to your manager in their 1:1’s. They talk about you and how they’re interacting with you.

We want you to be successful

An internship isn’t designed to “weed out” under performers like those classes you might’ve heard in school. It’s usually designed to screen potential new hires in.

When you’re assigned easy work or tasks, it’s not that the full-timers are lazy but rather they’re trying to present you well to your coworkers or managers.

Keep in mind that your team really wants you to be successful, but that only happens if you’re taking initiative on your behalf.

The biggest mistake: Treating work like school

If you’ve received an internship at a big tech company, congratulations! But don’t make the mistake of treating this opportunity the same way you treat your school work.

Get to know your teammates

If you’re an introvert like me, you probably liked sitting in the back of the classroom and avoided drawing attention to yourself. Maybe in some group projects you didn’t share your thoughts unless another team member asked or didn’t introduce yourself until someone else introduced themselves first.

The issue here is that at work you have coworkers who have a say in whether or not they’d like to invite you to the team after the summer. It’s hard to argue for someone they’ve never met so it’s your responsibility to meet your coworkers.

This may seem extreme but take the time to schedule an introduction meeting with each member on your team for 30 minutes. You can do this by direct messaging your coworkers first and asking when they would be free to introduce themselves in person or over a video call.

This helps with the following:

1. Makes it easier to ask others for help when you’re stuck
2. Makes it easier to talk about you when deciding if you’ll receive a return offer.

Scheduling a meeting with everyone is scary, but it will be extremely impressive to see an intern do this to get to know their teammates.

There are no extensions for your internship

Maybe at school you can ask for an internship for that project or homework assignments. If you had to take a day off because you were sick, you can prepare a doctor’s note and earn yourself extra time to work on your assignment.

But for internships, there are no extensions.

Your internship will end, so be sure to be productive everyday you’re working. Sure you can get sick or have family emergencies, but these companies aren’t always as forgiving as your professors and school systems. You can sometimes retake an exam or retake a class but you can’t usually retake an internship.

Procrastination can lose your return offer

Knowing there are no extensions for your internship, be very mindful if you’re the type to procrastinate.

We’ve all been there, working on that assignment 30 minutes before the deadline and trying to submit it at 11:59 PM. Then suddenly the internet goes out and you have no idea why this only happens when you need to submit your work.

If you’re the type to do this, people will notice and have a harder time arguing for your return offer. On the other hand, your team will remember if you’ve been consistently working on your project regularly and achieved goals timely.

Be productive everyday and avoid leaving all your work towards the end. There are no extensions, and late work will not be accepted.

The way you should set yourself up for success

After discussing the poor habits in school that can affect your internship, here are a few key points to be successful throughout your internship.

Learn from history

Your manager has been around for awhile and seen a lot of things good and bad. They know what success does and doesn’t look like. This means they’re also the perfect person to ask what you need to be successful.

Consider asking the following to your manager

1. What does a successful intern typically look like on this team?
2. What does success look like for me on this team?
3. What are some mistakes you’ve noticed other interns make?
4. What are the differences between a new grad engineer and an intern?
5. Is there anyone you recommend I introduce myself to?

Just asking the above questions in your 1:1 with your manager is extremely impressive. Set yourself up for success and lead with this impression.

Learn your project inside and out

If you can’t explain your project without using resume buzzwords, then you don’t know your project well enough. Take a day or even two to deeply understand what you have to deliver at the end of your internship.

You have an entire summer to show your work for a project, make sure you’re consistently working and finish it.

Learn who else would be familiar with your area of work

Your mentor/project leader is great, but they’ll be exhausted answering a million questions from you. If you’ve learned who else knows about your project, it’s helpful to spread the load of questions to different teammates.

Other teammates are

1. Other engineers
2. Product manager
3. UX designer

Schedule a time to chat with them and learn more about why this project is important. They do contribute to your return offer discussion after all.

Closing Thoughts

I’ve never interned at a tech company but I have seen interns come and go at the ones I’ve worked at. We all want our interns to be successful and if a miscommunication in expectations was the difference, then I hope this short guide is helpful.

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"I like to tell myself 'Alex can code' and you can too"

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