Name: Khanh Ha Nguyen
Class Year: 2027
Major: Computer Science, Mathematics

Internship Organization: Google
Internship Title: Software Engineer Intern
Location: New York, NY

What’s happening at your internship? We would love to hear what kind of work you are doing!

I am currently interning on the Google Drive team, where I am working on frontend development and making changes to improve the user experience. It has been really exciting to work on a product that I’ve used for years and get to see how a large-scale product like Google Drive is built and maintained behind the scenes.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I have been applying to Google since my freshman year of college, so finally getting the opportunity to intern here has been incredibly meaningful to me. Google has always been my dream company because I’ve grown up using and loving its products, from YouTube to Google Drive and Maps. Being able to contribute to products that have been such a big part of my everyday life is something I’ve always wanted to experience.

What is something you have learned from your internship that you didn’t expect?

One thing I have learned is how important context is when communicating technical ideas. I used to sometimes jump straight into the details, especially in design docs, without providing enough background. Through this internship, I’ve learned that explaining the “why” and giving enough context upfront makes it much easier for others to understand and give useful feedback.

What is most rewarding about your internship?

The most rewarding part is being able to see my frontend changes become part of a real product and eventually roll out to enterprise customers. It’s exciting to know that something I built will be used by real people at scale.

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.