Technical skills, learning, and lasting connections

Technical skills. Exponential learning. Lasting connections. These are just a few things that sprung to mind for students reflecting on their experiences in the Microsoft Explore program.

Saadia Shahid, First Year Computer Science Student, Toronto Metropolitan University

Technology has always been a part of my life. I love technical stuff and have been incorporating that into everything I do. For example, my interest in photography was kickstarted through an online community, and then I learned how to shoot photography through video tutorials. Eventually, this love for creativity turned into opportunities to get paid doing freelance photography. Photography allows me to explore the intersection between technical skills and creativity which I find to be the same within computer science as well. This is why I was so interested in the Explore program at Microsoft, I was looking for an opportunity to further explore that intersection after having completed my first year within my program.

I immediately noticed that it was a classroom setting with 50 interns, yet I found this strong sense of community that I don’t think I’ve experienced elsewhere. Every person in the program was personable, communicative, and a team-player. It was amazing to be surrounded by a diverse group of people with different skillsets and have the opportunity to learn from each other. We became very tight-knit and I look forward to staying close to many of them in the future while exploring more of the intersections between creativity and technology.

Manjot Singh, Second Year Computer Science & Economics Student, University of British Columbia

I’ve always been fascinated by computer science. To me, it’s like magic. You write random words that make no sense, and the computer turns it into something cool. Through the Explore program, I learned about the possibilities of technology – diving deeper into the tools and solutions that already exist and how we can use them to innovate further. This helped me accelerate my own software projects. I was able to do more in 2 weeks, than I had in 5 months!

it’s one thing to know how to code an application or a program on an individual level, but through this program I learned about how important it is to look at development projects from a holistic perspective. Things like what kind of response should I be expecting from this project? How many hours will I have to devote to this? How do I present this idea to the world? And do I need extra help and expertise to move forward? Learning and thinking about programming from more than just a technical perspective was an amazing skill that I was able to develop through participating in the Explore program.

Ayaan Memon, Second Year Business Technology Management Student, Toronto Metropolitan University

As a business student, I have always been told that I should network and about how important it is. I never really understood that. What do you mean network? How do you do that? After going through the Explore program, I can say that I finally understand networking.

In fact, my favourite parts of the program were the mentorship opportunities, the prospects of learning from full-time employees, and connecting with them. Not only did we have a chance to meet and interact with different people at different points in their careers who taught us about the importance of ethics, organizational culture, etc., but we had the chance to see how they approach real-world business challenges in their roles. Then we had the opportunity to emulate how they tackle a scenario for ourselves, applying the technical and soft skills we learned throughout the program.