Microsoft

1. Excellent learning experience. You can't find a better place to learn how to build something from scratch.

2. Interns hired are really hard working and nice.

Can't believe I'm writing this review for Microsoft.

1. It's a game of luck:

The Foundry program involves grouping interns of 5 on a new project, sponsored by one of the Microsoft teams. The interns will be pitched with an idea and are responsible for designing and implementing a product. If you're lucky with a good sponsor, your project is 80% done because they will help you out. Chances are some sponsors don't care enough.

1. Second-class interns:

A bit less than 4k a month, that's the lowest job offer I've ever seen. Pretty horrendous, considering how hard the management pushed interns to work. Hardly any intern events, except they gave us some free pizza 3 times in the summer, while we watched Redmond interns go to free concerts and get Surface Pro 3s.

1. Monopoly management:

Management consists of ONE PM, some mentors, and sponsors. As I mentioned, the sponsors sometimes don't matter as much, so the PM and sponsors have almost all the say in whether the project can ship. Yet the problem is, they usually don't take part in the decision-making process. If things go wrong, interns are the ones left to blame, because they will tell you, "you made the decision yourself." Many interns work till 11 pm to catch deadlines. That's as bad as it can be, considering most full-timers are gone at 6. The lack of guidance from the management certainly hasn't helped.

A disappointment to the high expectations of Microsoft internship programs. Stop using "take ownership" as an excuse to push interns to work. Some interns worked really hard for it and deserve better.