I ended up in Seattle this summer, interning as a product manager with Microsoft.  My product was an edition of SQL Server, but first I’d like to talk a bit about the MBA internship opportunity at Microsoft.   Everything I was told by the second years last year about it being a fun and event filled experience turned out to be completely accurate and true.   
EXECUTIVE SPEAKERS: Every week we a number of top executives from around the company speak to us about their experiences at Microsoft and outside the company.  There were 60 of us (as opposed to  1,000+ “technology” interns in Redmond) and the general structure of these meetings was a brief 15-20 minute introduction talk by the speaker in the beginning and then an hour long Q&A session.   Some of the best speakers that I remember were Chris Capossela, Steve Ballmer, and Jay Allard.  There were about 20 or so speakers total.  
INTERNAL OUTREACH: As an MBA intern, I would not hesitate to reach out to school alums or to even the executive speakers.  Most people I reached out to were very receptive and were willing to grab lunch or coffee with me, or a group of interns.  I arranged about 10 sessions outside the main intern activities, and it was a great way to explore other parts of the company.  I heard some other interns arranged a lot more of these sessions….but I really enjoyed my group and my work, so did not have as much incentive to go exploring.   
ORGANIZATION SIZE: Redmond many many Microsoft buildings, but the feel is still fairly small, since the groups tend to be based together and are not very large.  But, the interesting aspect of it is that you may find some random people you lost touch with in the past. For example, I found a couple of old friends from undergrad, as well as a guy I knew from high school in Richmond, VA! It’s a small world, but if you also put 30k of techies together in one place…chances are you might meet someone you knew before.
FOOD: Besides a great time, it also meant free lunch, since each speaker picked up the tab for whatever was catered to the meeting.    Not as nice Google’s amazing food, but still a nice touch.  Speaking of food, the cafeteria’s are actually quite impressive and had a surprising variety.   I still tended to stick to sandwiches, but they had ingredients like fresh avocado and all kinds of pastes (tomato basil, pesto, hummus, etc.), and cheeses that I don’t normally see at delis.  There were also ethnic cuisine’s such as Indian, Pho, sushi, etc.
SOCIAL EVENTS: Anyways, back to the internship.   Beyond the speakers we also enjoyed a number of planned events that showed us Seattle in the best light.    These including kayaking, going to the tallest building in Seattle, dinners, happy hours and a stint at a local bar “casino” where we played for fake money, but still had a lot of fun.    The recruiting staff put a lot of time and effort into making sure that our summers were enjoyable, and it really showed.   We also went to a couple of Mariners baseball games at Safeco field. Both times we hung out at the MSFT luxury box, and it’s a completely different way to watch a baseball game! Additionally, there were countless raffles for all kinds of prizes including X-box 360s, trips and restaurant certificates….of course I didn’t win anything, but there were probably around 50-60 prizes throughout the summer.  
NIGHTLIFE: As far as nightlife, Seattle has a lot to offer in this category from dive bars, to lounges, to dance clubs to afterhours places open till 4 or later (though unfortunately no drinks after 2).  So overall, from the social perspective, the internship was a lot of fun.  I would however also mention that you would need to explore the city on your own or with a couple of friends and not depend on the intern class to necessary organize social events as a group.  I would not say that the intern class hung out a huge amount together, though there were times we came together outside Microsoft.   This apparently differed from the previous two years, when the interns threw a bunch of parties for themselves and went out a lot, but I would say play it by ear as intern classes vary from year to year.
LIVING ARRANGEMENTS: The corporate housing at Harbor Steps was quite impressive and affordable.   This was especially good since I did not sublet my place during the summer and was hurting.    The apartments are well furnished and are located in the heart of Seattle. There at least three large nightlife areas nearby and it is also right next to the famous Pike’s market where you can get all kinds of produce (if you cook) or grab a bite to eat at a number of great places.  There is an option to stay closer to work in Redmond, but very few people take it and I don’t recommend it. 
COMMUTE: The commute is not that painful, especially if you can get a carpool together of 3 or more people.  It’s about 25-30 minutes to Redmond and about 35-45 minutes to get back with 3, but could take an hour or more if you don’t have the use of the 3+ carpool lane.  The carpool was also great because I got to know some of the interns much better who I otherwise may not have spent much time with. Some of the discussions we had in our car were really cool and informative.  I actually feel like I learned a lot each time.   During the carpool people also generally discussed their projects, which provided me with valuable insight into other areas of the company – a very cool thing especially if you had no clue one area could have been so much fun or another so boring.
INTERNSHIP PROJECT DETAILS: Well, I think that about sums up the social aspects of my internship and now I will move on to my responsibilities.  While I will not discuss my project in much detail, I would say that I received an impressive amount of responsibility from my team and the test was significant and impacted the overall SQL Server product.    The entire team was very open and receptive to me. They worked hard to ramp me up and help me understand the business.  I learned a ton during the summer regarding product management, specifically about positioning and messaging.   
WORK LIFE BALANCE: My days usually lasted from 8:15am to 6pm, but I did at times do a bit of work from home or on weekends. This was however my decision and not something that I felt obligated to do.  The work life balance within my group also seemed to be good.  The flexibility was impressive – as some came in at 7, while others at 10.  Everyone was pretty much gone by 7pm, though judging by email threads, some continued to work from home into the evening.   
WEATHER: The weather was hit and miss this summer, as it started off quite cold, but then became gorgeous in July, only to become a bit more cloudy towards end of July and be amazing in the last few weeks of August.   I heard the winters can be rough, but I also heard that September is the truly amazing time to be there.   As far as rain, well the kind of rain that Seattle gets doesn’t seem to compare to east coast as far as intensity, but it definitely drizzles more often.