Two weeks in Seattle... and loving it!

Hey Rossers!


It has been two weeks since I moved into Seattle, first if you are coming here do not expect a lot of sun at the start of your internship (apparently summer does not start at the same time all over the US) you will still see a bit of rain and clouds but whenever you get a day of sun everyone will be out and be ready for a very active and outdoors city, people walk, bike, run and stop for some coffee anywhere. Pike market is a must see (I personally did not enjoy it very much even when it is a novelty for Americans I am too used to them) and of course next to it you can find the "first Starbucks" shop (if you are into that).


Housing is amazing (if you got Amazon or Microsoft, hope to get Harbor Steps and be right in downtown) and a lot of other MBAs are around as are bars, restaurants and the waterfront (really nice if you like running, biking or just walking).


The first two weeks at work have been hard, yes you are an intern and they cut you some slack but it just takes a couple of days until you feel overwhelmed with information and with all the people you have to work with in order to be able to finish your project. Do not worry, you will feel like you are not an MBA intern but a high school intern where you barely know what to do (or at least, that is how I feel).


My Microsoft team is amazing and I am currently working in developing and managing the Hotmail campaign for July 2011 (yes, you are right I am managing the campaign which involves dealing with the creative agency, the research agency and with a lot of teams inside of Microsoft). This last Friday we had something they call "Demo day", where different teams (this time it was the Developer managers) demonstrate how some of the new features work... I got to see how Windows 8 works and some improvements across the Windows platform (let me tell you, it was amazing!... I think I know why I decided on High-Tech now, you are changing how people will interact in the future).


I am still trying to learn how to navigate through a big organization (I come from a country where organizations are usually lean and where it is better to "ask for forgiveness than permission" to get your goals done).


Oh! by the way, I am not crazy about the commute, the morning one is not that bad it will take about 30-40 mins to get from downtown to Redmond, but in the evening it can take up to 1:15 hrs to get back! So, for your convenience, leave at 5pm sharp, or stay in Redmond (the gym is amazing! and it has tons of things to do from racquetball to saunas to pools to cardio rooms and weights) until 7 or 7:30pm.


I will see you in the next post!


Gabriel.