Name: Khanh Ha Nguyen
Class Year: 2027
Major:  Computer Science
Minor:  Mathematics
 
Internship Organization:  Microsoft
Internship Title:   Explore Intern
Location:  Redmond, WA
 
What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!  

This summer, I’m interning at Microsoft as an Explore intern, where I have the opportunity to explore both the fields of software engineering and product management. I’m collaborating with two other interns to build a new website feature for a Microsoft enterprise social networking platform, called Viva Engage. For the first three weeks, I learned a lot about product design through writing product specification documents and aligning our work with the team and user goals, which helped me better understand how technical decisions intersect with user experience and business impact. On the engineering side of the remaining weeks, I’ve been able to gain hands-on experience with programming by working with both the front-end and back-end of the feature. I have the chance to also present my work and learning to more than a hundred people in the Viva Engage team.
 
Why did you apply for this internship?  

As a second-year college student seeking to gain industrial experience, the Microsoft Explore program caught my attention. Their emphasis on growth, building, and exploring aligned with what I was looking for at that time, so I decided to give myself a shot and applied right when the application was open. I didn’t expect that I would get in, considering how competitive the internship was.
 
Can you give us three adjectives and three nouns that describe your internship experience? 

Three adjectives: supportive, challenging, fun  

Three nouns: exploration, network, growth 

What is most rewarding about your internship? 

The most rewarding part of my internship has been the incredible mentorship and support I’ve received from my team. Coming in with limited experience navigating a large codebase or working in a professional environment, I made numerous mistakes. However, thanks to the patience and encouragement of my mentors, I never once felt like I didn’t belong. Every question I asked was met with genuine support, and I was always encouraged to keep learning and growing. That kind of environment made a huge difference in my confidence and helped me grow not only as an engineer but also as a teammate.