Microsoft to Welcome Largest Summer Internship Class, Shift Program to Digital

by Ellen Glover
April 8, 2020
Seattle-based Microsoft to welcome largest internship class and is switching program to digital
Photo: Shutterstock

Summer is just around the corner, which means major tech companies are due to start opening their doors to interns soon. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, many of these companies are shifting their operations online, creating digital programs to accommodate these entrants while remaining socially distant.

Axios reported that several tech giants, including Google, Twitter and IBM, have made their programs completely digital, while holdouts like Amazon, Apple and Uber remain hopeful that they can at least have some interns on-site for part of the summer.

Microsoft is among the companies shifting completely to digital. The company also announced Monday that it will be welcoming more than 4,000 students into its internship program this summer — its largest class to date.

“For more than 30 years, Microsoft has hosted students from around the world as part of our summer internship program,” Executive Vice President and CPO Kathleen Hogan wrote in a blog post. “While we’re incredibly disappointed that we won’t be with them on our campuses, we’re committed to creating a meaningful and fun virtual internship experience for each one of them, and remain eager to absorb their energy and learn from them as we always do.”

The company will use its own onboarding and collaboration tools like Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Teams to help support the students. Hogan says the plan is to have interns connect with one another and engage with senior leaders in the company through a variety of virtual events. Recognizing that not everyone can accommodate a virtual program, Microsoft is allowing accepted applicants to defer their internship until next year too.

Traditionally, internship programs are meant to be both learning experiences for students and a means of recruiting a diverse pool of talent for companies. Whether that will be the case this summer remains to be seen, especially since Microsoft recently announced it will be “temporarily pausing recruitment” for certain roles amid the COVID-19 crisis.

“While this experience is not what anyone expected, we’re embracing this opportunity together with our interns to learn from one another and grow,” Hogan wrote. “Adversity often creates some of the biggest leaps in innovation, and I predict that this year’s intern class will not only help us shape our virtual experience, they will have a lasting influence on our program for years to come.”

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