A new step..

Friday, August 19 2005 - Last day of the week... 12th week of the internship.. One year after Masters.. 5 years after coming out of school.. 17 years after I started formal education.. 22.5 years after I was born..

I got a Job Offer from Microsoft as a Developer in the MSN Mobile division..

My first step out of student life into the corporate world.. Feels great..


-- Do read the other posts about my summer and internship, take a look at the photos at Washington and California and feel free to write in your comments..

Washington weekends and PHOTOS

Even as we entered Seattle on AUGUST 19th.. We had a good idea of all the benefits we would receive at Microsoft.. However, Of all the benefits that we had at Microsoft including Rent reimbursement, Bike expenses reimbursement, free pop, interns social meetings, Tech talks etc... the one that we utilised the most was the free 6 days of rental cars.. With 4 of us eligible to drive, we had 24 days of cars which means a car for every weekend..

Week Zero (Around May 30)
Landed in Seattle.. Rented a car.. Settled into our 3 day temp accomodation.. Shopped.. Shopped and Shopped.. Picked up Arun from Jai's place.. Went around Seattle Science center etc.. Looked for new apartments .. Found one and finished off the formalities and officially moved in..[photos]

Week One - Beach trip and Long night drive
Initial Josh at Microsoft over.. Took pictures of the neighbourhood and house.. Rented a car from the airport.. Beach trip.. Thai restaurant.. Long night drive and coming back at 5 AM...[photos]

Week Two
Mr. and Mrs. Smith + Some random shopping.. Don't write comments about Mr. and Mrs. Smith as I can't encourage unparlimentary language.. :) :)


Week Three
Was already swamped with work that I missed the Mariner's baseball game.. [Baseball game photos]

The Batman begins movie on Friday night.. The night out with Jai, Sai and Rajesh (the amazon guys) and the Snowqualmie falls trip the next day.. [SnowQualmie Falls photos]

Tatiana Becker, our school recruiter took all the U of M interns for a trip around Seattle.. Restaurant.. Gas Factory park, Pike Place market and Seattle Underground tour.. [School recruiter trip photos]

Week Four
The most exciting Mt. Rainier trek.. The paradise glacier trail.. Sliding down the snow.. Arun's comment on "Raining at SnowQualmie falls and Snowing at Mt. Rainier"... Having lunch at Sreeram's the next day.. Inviting Komal for food at our place.. [photos]

Week Five
Watching Anniyan on Tuesday.. Going to Bainbridge islands... Kayaking.. The kayak capsizing.. Eating at an Indian restaurant.. Taking a ferry ride back home.. Instead of driving the 4 hour road, we could park the car inside a ferry which would bring us to Seattle from the island..[Kayaking and Ferry photos]
Going to Gas works factory for July 4th celebrations [Fireworks photos]


Week Six
One of the most exciting events in Microsoft happened on July 9th.. The puzzle day.. A treasure hunt where as a team of 12 we need to crack a series of puzzles to get the cold.. the theme was Pirates and the puzzles were mind racking and exciting.. I'm not goin' to mention that we came 5th in this event (from the last.. :( ) [photos]

Week Seven
Yes... Everyday you have dinner.. But its not everyday that you would have dinner at the house of one of the most revered and greatest persons on the face of the planet.. Yes.. on 13th of July I had dinner at Bill Gates' house and got to meet him along with all the other interns.. It first didn't occur as a big even but somehow its an experience that still makes me feel good .. Unfortunately wasn't allowed to take photos..
That weekend was white water rafting with all interns.. gearing up for the fun.. taking positions.. Going through rapids and JUMPING off a bridge ... You HAVE to see the photots..[photos]

Week Eight
Took a quite weekend to one of the beaches in the neigbouring city of Tacoma and watched Charlie and the Choclate Factory in the IMax theater.. [photos]

Week Nine
The day for which I had worked so far was during this week.. The Intern Grad Fair Demo.. Steve Ballmer had been there to address the gathering... [Intern grad fair demo photos]
The weekend was @ Olympic National Park... Overnight camping... Tents.. Torches.. Burners.. Lake.. Bon Fires.. Cards.. [Olympic National Forest photos] and Rialto beach photos

Week Ten
The friday was the team barbecue party.. Water Skiing with my manager.. Badminton.. Volley Ball and Food.. Photos coming soon...

Week Eleven
Shopped at Fry's.. watched "The Rising - Mangal Pandey" and did some timepass at Home..

Week Twelve
Cleaning the house.. Packing.. Dismantling the bikes.. Settling bills.. Shipping.. Senti talk to all people at work.. Finishing up last minute office work.. Returning the card key..

Its always tough to say goodbye and all good things come to an end.. It was finally GoodBye Seattle on August 21st !!!

We....

Well... When we landed in Seattle on the last week of May the only thing running on our head was work and performing well... Little did we realise that we could have so much fun.. Now at the end of it all, if I look back at my internship I realise that each moment we spent together would be remembered for years to come..

Now.. Who is this WE ??????


Anish Mohan.. My roomie... Both of us from U of M computer science department.. was the only Program Manager intern around us.. the Digital Documents team.. The early to bed, early to rise worker would not meet me most of the days at home considering my split sleeping schedule.. His sincerity and discipline about everything including food, sleep, work and play is definitely something I could only dream of.. This organized hard worker is also a good listener.. Can never forget all the stuff that we organised, planned, assigned roles and executed..


Arun Gurunathan...My classmate at SVCE.. the stud Software Development Engineer in Test intern from University of Illinois, Chicago.. Windows shell team.. Known for his subtle comedy and "silent killer" attitude.. he's rightly nick named "KD".. Someone who was able to understand my local tamil dialect and be able to contribute to it.. Discussing and watching movies, songs and "Goli Soda Ungal Choice"... Crossie and Sudoku.. Cribbing about my non-working code are unforgettable memories..

Ninad Kulkarni.. "Echo" boy... Arun's classmate in UIC... Incidentally happened to be Anish's classmate in Undergrad... Security One-Care-Live team... enter Chicago and ask any Desi girl and they would tell you about Ninad.. especially the..... :) :) "I know" is in the tip of the tongue for this "baap of reasoning".. Inspite of all the brilliant reasons he comes up with, he's great to talk with and good fun to be around.. Something about him makes you feel good.. Maybe its the genuine enthusiasm...


Prasad Gopal.. the other Dev intern (apart from me) in the gang with the IW team.. Heading from Virginia Tech, he could be the Malik Bhai of Company, Pandya of Khakha khakha or the Kameswara of MMKR. I can never forget the Kayaking experience, the racquet ball games, TT at building 32 and night drive with this extremely vivacious and sporty character who can sometime put a mind reader to shame..



Some thought kindlers that would make me smile after years from now..

-- Sambar vada at Udipi Palace..
-- "Lonely.. I'm so lonely" and the "Ooo..ooo" song on the car trips
-- Bollygrounds + Tamil Grounds + Blockbuster
-- Meeting Sai at the airport and Mr. and Mrs. Smith..
-- Fungus and exhibits
-- Subway vs Quizznos..
-- Ninad's colleagues..
-- Undying navigation controversies..
-- "Venam.. vitru.. purila.. ".. "Tune kya socha.. "
-- Nimish the guy who looked like "Aditya" :)
-- Sunita and Smriti and the Olympic National Park experience..
-- Vaibhav and Dylan during the Kyaking experience..
-- Samarth the cricket champ ..
-- Gayatri and the Anniyan movie with Arun..
-- Satish with Hampton greens
-- Night out with Rajesh, Jai and Sai..
-- "Ey.. Police.. ".. "300$ kuduthrukar.. ".. "Simple.. Aana powerful.. "
-- Crossie and Sudoku with Arun..
-- Accounts.xls
-- Laptop o mania.. and the irritating wireless router problem..
-- Freedom Struggle talk after watching Mangal Pandey..
-- Last minute packing and house cleaning..