The final presentation.. finally :)

The very stressful last couple of days ended today with the delivery of our final team presentations. It was amazing. I know I'm supposed to be modest, but I really think we all did great :) We've gotten tons of positive feedback (actually, only positive feedback), which really made the long working hours worth it.

And here's the final presentation, unfortunately without the embedded movies or animations :(

Prezentare finala MS

Working at Microsoft.. as a woman

Mirela invited us (intern girls) yesterday to a very interesting session regarding Microsoft women employees. Mainly, she was asking for our feedback on how we enjoyed working in an environment which is considered very masculine, the IT. 

Well, I have to admit, the ratio between male and female employees is quite unbalanced in GTSC. Nevertheless, I haven't felt discriminated at all during this entire month, on the contrary. I enjoyed working in such an environment, and from what I've seen, so have my colleagues. 

Anyway, Microsoft is now trying to encourage more women to apply for a job in GTSC, and all I can say is good for them :) There is even a Facebook group, called Women at Microsoft, and on Thursday they organize a special event (which I'm going to take part in) for their female employees.

Working on weekends in MS

We thought we were the only ones at work on Saturday, and apparently Robert thought the same :D So this is how a Saturday at MS looks like, when you have projects to finish and really cool sound speakers :))

Days 19&20

At the end of the week we were invited to take part in the bimonthly site meeting, where we were given presentations about the new GTSC image campaign, as well as some other general topics.

On Friday we had our last training with Bev, mainly a team-building seminar, which we enjoyed a lot, as you can see below:

(we were trying to protect a raw egg while being thrown across the room)

(Catalin decorating the egg protection)

(we built our very own balloon chair - a chair made of balloons, that is)

(and here's Alin testing an actual balloon chair, well.. that didn't quite go as planned)

Days 16-18

We started the 4th week with intense work on our final project. And this is what I mean by intense work:

We came up with some really great ideas, so I really hope the presentation next week (did I mention the entire GTSC site will be there, including the managers?) will turn out amazing.

On Wednesday we had our first encounter with Bev Baker, one of the best trainers I've met, and she told us a bit about dealing with customers. Here is Bev talking, and then a nice group picture,

Ok, we kind of took advantage of the fact that she's actually a psychologist and we discussed topics like hypnose, cynophobia or hyperactive brains :D

Oh, and we all had lunch in the cafeteria, delicious :D

Days 11-15 (Week 3)

During week 3 we continued our individual study of Windows 7. Well, I have to say, the chapters on configuring and deploying system images were reeaaally difficult. But at least I know where I can get help from :)

Besides working with Win7, we had a visit from Gabi's puppy, a lovely French bulldog:

And we ended the really stressful week by going out in Silver Church on Friday evening. No pictures, unfortunately, but I can say it was nice, although very crowded. 

What else can you find in Microsoft

Firstly, when I got to the office, in the morning, I found this on my desk, and it sounded cool and mysterious, so maybe I'll check it out :)

During the afternoon I decided to go visit each floor, introduce myself to people and see what else can I find :)

So, as I was saying, I started walking around the place, only to find stuff like this training room,

a place where you can train your pool, Xbox or darts skills :D

But the best part is what people store on their desks, 

or on their walls..

Lastly, I also found some stuff about the internship program :D

Have a nice weekend, everybody! :)