Today I’m celebrating 7 years of working at Microsoft, what a journey it has been! 🥂 🎊
My journey with computers started as a kid, helping my dad to screw in hard drives and motherboards into desktop computers he was assembling for sale in our community in Barbados
I never was that attracted to the hardware side of a computer like my dad thought but instead I was deeply intrigued by software from the time I completed my first coding question in school at 16. Looking back, I enjoyed the speed.
That intrigue and deep fascination led me to leaving Barbados to migrate to Canada at 18 as an international student with no family in the country to study Computer Engineering at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Even though I had a non-linear path thru university, I finished with completed internships at RBC, Amazon, a distinction on my degree and a full-time offer to work at Microsoft the moment I finished my courses. I did this with no referrals and knowing no-one who directly worked in the tech industry.
Getting to the point I am now I’ve had moments of broken promises, imposter syndrome, failing others expectations, having my expectations failed, doing my best work and feeling like it doesn’t matter, big wins, milestone moments like acquiring my Azure Solution Architect Expert certification, promotions, the greatest compliments and harsh feedback – sometimes all in the same month
Overall, it has been and continues to be an incredibly rewarding journey
So now for the take-aways. After 7 years at Microsoft, the keys to my success has been:
✅ Being honest with the quality of your work and standing firm behind it when it is high
✅ Being Team oriented and embracing the fact that Software Engineering is a Team Sport
✅ Treating my knowledge as a portfolio of expiring assets and continuously dollar-costing into it
If I could go back to my younger self who made a presentation in his first internship at RBC pitching himself to be hired full time and wrote on a slide “Why wait until I’m discovered by one of these tech companies”, I would tell him he was right and it is worth it ✨
#GuidingInnovationsAndInnovators