<p>a friend of mine from UCLA has received offers for a computer science internship at amazon.com and microsoft. Amazon pays a little better, but Microsoft probably has a better name (for resume, etc). They are both good jobs where he says he can learn a lot.</p>
<p>Anyone think that one is much better than the other, or much more prestigious, etc?
Thanks!</p>
<p>Lucky friend. </p>
<p>But why are you asking. Friend should be asking.
I don't think either company have a prestige advantage. Our son did two internships with MS Research. I think son would have been OK with a AZN internship if the he had the opportunity. Son did not get hired for a position and so far has not found a definitive position. Hiring freezes. </p>
<p>I'd go with the money.</p>
<p>I'm friends with myself, ok?</p>
<p>lying on the internet, awesome...</p>
<p>We're very disappointed in you. Lying doesn't bode well online. Almost no one does it.</p>
<p>lol.</p>
<p>They're both fine. I doubt interning at one would look any better on a resume than the other. The key isn't really so much the company you intern at but what you do while you're there. Some positions will give an intern more menial tasks to do and others will allow the intern to perform more mainstream work. For CS interns, I would expect the position to be more than menial. Sometimes smaller companies are actually better for internships because they might let the intern do more significant hands-on. </p>
<p>So, see if you can determine what you'd do at each place if you can (you might not be able to determine it very much up front). Also decide which location you'd rather stay at assuming they're at different locations although I'm guessing you'd be in Seattle for both.</p>
<p>LOL > :)</p>
<p>UCSD<em>UCLA</em>Dad, said it. Nothing wrong with MS that son had, infact he had offers from different managers until HR said, "not this year, we got this year's hires. "</p>
<p>I stand by my recommendation. Go with the money, all things being equal.</p>
<p>Well I would go with the place you actually want to work at more (location, Job Duties). If you can't decide based on that then go with the money lol.</p>
<p>my friends really hot btw</p>
<p>My view of the companies is that Amazon is more of an IT company than a software engineering company and that you may be exposed to more of a software engineering environment at Microsoft. You might also see projects that are more theory-oriented at Microsoft.</p>
<p>If you have a preference for what you want to do after graduation, perhaps IT vs Software Engineering would help in your selection. They're both fine companies in their respective areas.</p>
<p>^^ But Amazon develops the Kindle which has interesting software in it, and Amazon has what I assume is proprietary software that tracks the user, analyzes the user's selections and browsing history, and finds other 'recommended products' to present to the user. They might have more software development vs. IT type opportunities than one might think. But this is all conjecture on my part. It all comes down to the specific tasks the intern would do since it can vary a lot even within a particular company. For example, would the person be doing actual software development, participate in software design sessions, be responsible for developing a particular module, handed bugs to try to resolve (which a lot of new hires at Microsoft do I believe), or do something else?</p>