HackBytes Workshop: Q and A w/ Microsoft PMs & Software Engineers

By Julia

An insight into the lives of Microsoft PMs and Software Engineers.

On June 11, 2022, at 1:30 PM EST, Bytes and Pieces hosted a virtual workshop introducing high schoolers and college students to the experiences of and tips from a Microsoft product manager (PM)and software engineer (SWE).

Introducing speakers + fun facts about themselves:

SWE(Software Engineers)

• Andreea Pintilie (has lived in France and the UK)

PMs(Program/Project Managers)

• KR Shubha (has ran 4 half-marathons)
• Nikhita Vandanapu (used to work at Costco)
• Valerie Olague (came from a Greek family)

Interview Tips?

• Andreea: practice coding qs online w/ books and websites
• Shubha: ask the right questions & understand your competitors
• Valerie: come up with creative answers to creative qs (such as, how would you build a fence for me?)
• Nikhita: go thru job descriptions, know a lot about the job before go into interview

Daily life of a Microsofter?

• Shubha — constantly working with other people in an interactive environment. Bring clarity, focus on customer/product.
• Nikhita-no set schedule. understand pinpoints, roadmap of your goals and tasks, identify opportunities to improve a task.

What is your favorite project you’ve worked on during work?

• Valerie: in 1985 worked with software that hooks up to credit cards like online shopping, but back then the tech wasn’t ready and wasn’t popular. interesting now that Amazon and online shopping is extremely popular today.
• Shubha- design for quality — tell software what is going wrong in the system, can diagnose, want fast system — her project involved manufacturing, supply chain, global solution
• Nikhita- add page delivery date based on shipment address at Costco
• Andreea- work on international project with france, uk, italy. help doctors operate brain tumors with mri data scan to find tumor size

What are some tips for networking?

• Nikhita- shadow, mentor, shadow job, talk on linkedin, uderstand skills , apply internships, connect with company workers on linkedin
• Valerie- find the people doing the speciifc jobs u wanna do, email and linkedin them to say u want internship , do u have any tips for me?
• Andrea-prepare cv/resume, intern at companies you like

5 years ago, would you expect yourself to be where you’re at now?

• Valerie- still connect with her Microsoft team though she had retired — talk about projects, etc
• Andrea- did not expect to relocate from france to uk
• Nikhita- continue product manager position

What is the hardest skill to learn?

• Valerie- came from a Greek family, where the culture was to be loud & bold. At microsoft, she had learned to listen, brainstorm with others, etc., as well as speaking out and presenting.
• Nikhita- learned and improved presentation skills and English- love to use slide decks because it helps with descriptions/imagery
• Andrea- learned to listen, help others, ask right questions, guide engineers into forming solutions, don’t tell them answers right away, and that one tip for getting a promotion is to speak a bit more and present your work

Did you have to do remote interning/work?

• Valerie- Microsoft did reopen after covid- but no need be in office
• Andrea- did UK residency program for AI- paid to do internship, provides location and resources for internship for 3–12mo, but workers prefer work from home & come to office 2–3 day/week
• Nikhita- remained and prefer doing remote work at Microsoft

How do you manage your time + your most productive time?

• Andrea- can start work at any time dep on team -adapt to team schedule, no ask anyone in team work overtime
• she does code in free time bc its her passion- doing competition projects, working 27–37 hours in UK. more productive at night
• Valerie- morning productive — does most of the work before the afternoon
• Nikhita- establishes work life balance, starts at 10 am, but sometimes 7:30 am based on project team

How to become a good team leader?

• listening to your team and asking them questions, don’t tell them how to do everything, lead them to their solutions.

Thank you so much to our participants and speakers for making this workshop possible!
​