Be Your Future

Hi everyone, I’m Melissa Strickland a first time blogger! I’ve been meaning to write a blog for Be Your Future for a while now but at Microsoft time just seems to just fly by, so 10 months down the line and I’m finally writing :)

I’m studying Marketing, Advertising and Communications at the University of Gloucestershire and here at Microsoft I’m the marketing intern in the Server & Tools team which is made up of 10 people (all men! AH).

Although we’re a fairly small team, within the UK, Server & Tools produce approx. 40% of revenue and the team consists of Product Managers for all of the different Server & Cloud products so it’s a great team to be in! When I joined I have to admit, I barely even knew what a server was – Now 10 months in and I have an insight into these ‘techie’ products which I never would have learnt about otherwise.

Initially I had wanted a consumer marketing role for a well know product like Xbox, but in hindsight I think that being placed in a role completely alien to me has made me learn far more. I’ve had to test my b2b marketing for extremely complicated products and that’s something that you just don’t learn at Uni so the experience has been invaluable.

I also came into the role with the pre-conception that b2b marketing for (not so sexy) server products would never allow me to get creative and innovative – But I was completely wrong! We have 2 major product launches within our team this year and my role in leading the internal launch campaign have allowed me work closely with creative agencies to produce posters, ceiling banners, branded cereal boxes and more! Look out for my next blog where I’ll delve a little deeper into what I’ve got up to in my role towards the product launches!

There are so many great perks working at Microsoft. I’ve found the onsite gym to be a massive bonus and the selection of food at lunch is great! But the best perks have to be the all-expenses paid off sites! The top 2 I would definitely call out is my team offsite to Go Ape with a ride on Segways and the M&O division offsite to LegoLand!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Pirate themed room which had 4 beds to choose from… just for me!

The LegoLand trip that I went on recently was particularly fun as by now I know lots of people in M&O and 6 other interns went along too! We did some really fun team-building activities like creating a famous album cover and recreating the music video. Everyone got really stuck in and it was a real laugh.

We were the first people to use the brand new LegoLand hotel with Microsoft filling 120 rooms – I got massively over-excited with my Pirate themed room…

In the evening we all had a 3-course meal and there were retro sweets and fancy dress items filling the tables – It was a really memorable experience and the perfect way to get to know other colleagues out of the office.

…Look out for my next Blog