thehowe_v7.1

I don't think I've mentioned it here yet: I'm going to be interning at Microsoft this summer instead of back to Amazon for a third summer. Since I put some time and sincere thought into it, I thought I'd post the email that I wrote to my Amazon contact:

Hi (Name Removed),

I'm writing to let you know that I interviewed & got an internship offer from Microsoft for this summer, and I've decided to accept.

I thought a long time about this decision, and it was not an easy one to make. If I were making a decision for full-time employment, there's no doubt in my mind that I'd come back to Amazon: I've had a great time, learned a lot, and worked with some fantastic people over the last two summers. I know that if I were to come back to Amazon I would have a lot of fun and work on very satisfying, interesting problems. However, I feel like internships should be more about gaining a broad set of technical and professional experiences, and I feel that Microsoft will be more valuable in that regard than coming back to Amazon for a third summer would be.

I'm currently planning on graduating with my Master's in April '08, and I definitely hope to be in contact with you more then to discuss the possibility of coming to Amazon full-time.

Thanks for everything,
Travis

The Amazon folks, of course, understood. This decision wasn't about not wanting to go back to Amazon. I made the decision because ultimately I believe that spending a summer at Microsoft is going to be the right thing for me to do, both professionally and educationally.