Until next time, Microsoft

Years ago, as a kid studying in a small town in India, I came across the CD cover of Windows XP in my school computer lab. Behind the cover was the address of the company that made it - ‘Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond WA 98052 USA’. I remember thinking about the incredibly smart people who had built this amazing piece of software and imagined building awesome things working alongside them one day. Over the next many years, I worked towards the goal of being able to work at this amazing company and make magic happen. In late 2013, I was hired into a small, but growing Exchange cloud team in Redmond. During thanksgiving that year, I moved from India to Redmond to start living my dream, wide eyed, curious and passionate to take on new challenges. Over the years, the Exchange cloud service transformed and evolved to become Microsoft 365 of today. I have had the opportunity to design and built core services & frameworks that powers Microsoft 365 to this day and I am glad to have had a positive contribution to this incredible journey. Microsoft 365 today is the largest enterprise SaaS offering on the planet and continues to be a multi-billion-dollar business for Microsoft. It is constantly evolving under an incredible team, and I am amazed by the immense potential that’s still awaiting to be unlocked. On personal front, during my time here, I bought a house, had two beautiful kids and in short, got the opportunity to live the American dream. The kid holding the XP CD could have never imagined the future waiting for him!

10 years later, the time has finally come to take a pause and explore something different. Thanks to each one of my managers & colleagues over the years for the wonderful memories and teachings over the years. Looking back, I am humbled to have had the privilege to be part of one of the most ambitious and successful services in the history that continues to shape the course of humanity. There is so much that’s still happening at Microsoft and I’m truly looking forward to experiencing the wonderful things the team is building. Microsoft is a wonderful company with amazing culture under a strong leadership. I would strongly encourage anyone looking to work in engineering at Microsoft to pursue your dreams.

On closing, I would like to share some of important things I have learned here that has helped me succeed in my career.

1.     Always start with end in mind

No matter what you are doing, whether it’s doing a simple day to day task, writing code, or creating a product – ALWAYS have a vision of the end goal. If you don’t know where you are going, you will never reach there. This might sound trivial, but next time you set out to start something, ask yourself – Do you have a clear idea of how this should end?

2.     Understand the business

Even as an entry level developer, try to gain a broad view of the company’s business. How does it make money, why do consumers like/dislike the product, how much is the COGS etc. An understanding of the business will help prioritize the right projects and the right tasks to grow the business, as well as your career along the way.

3.     Network!

Maintain a good working relation within each member of sister teams and teams outside the group. When building large scale services, collaboration and communication is as important as the architecture itself. As an entry level software engineer, doing this early on helped me rally the support needed to push drastic changes that challenged the status quo at that time.

4.     Agree on high level

When there are multiple stake holders involved, make sure that there is initial agreement on the proposal at high level across the board. If you don’t have agreement on high level, you will never agree on the details.

5.     Treat everyone with respect

This applies to everyday life. Every living being on this planet plays a role and deserves to be treated equally. So, treat them with respect, no matter which profession they are in for every profession is equally important in pushing the human race forward.

6.     Never underestimate yourself

Echoing what Steve Jobs once said - Every single thing you see around you are made up by people no less smarter than you. You can influence it, change it or create something new for everyone else to use. You just need to believe in yourself and your mission. If others can built it, so can you.

7.     Never give up and persist in the face of defeat

For this, I would like to share a personal story:

The kid holding the XP CD made it a mission to work at Microsoft Redmond and started self-learning computer programming. Every step in the journey was meticulously planned – from being a Microsoft Student Partner during college to finding a job that focused on Microsoft technologies to landing a job in Microsoft India. My plan was based on the knowledge that you could transfer internally from Microsoft India to Microsoft Redmond. But when I accepted the job in Microsoft India, little did I know that the internal level in my group started at 55 instead of 59 at engineering. I joined at level 56 and from early on, the focus was on identifying the path to Microsoft Redmond. I learned that Consulting to Engineering is a +3 level mapping; which means that if I make it to level 57, I can apply to level 60 positions in engineering. And so, I focused on getting promoted to L57 by going the extra mile - building Windows phone apps, publishing App Fabric Cache cluster administrator on Codeplex, running architecture club, developer club & the events team at MCS apart from delivering on work commitments. A year later I made it to 57 and started applying to openings in engineering at Redmond. The reality was that there were too many well qualified developers trying to transfer internationally, most of the teams did not have international hiring budget and there were many L60 hires locally available. During this process, I maintained an excel sheet to track the applications and my follow up schedule with the hiring managers. I would modify my resume for each application to focus on the skills specified in the job description. It was a challenge to work 8am-8pm and then give informational/interviews starting 9pm and that went late through the night until 3am when it was business hours in Redmond. After posting my 150th application, I got news that I have made it as an SDE in Exchange Online team (my 122nd application). I still have the excel sheet to remind myself that with persistence and determination, anything is possible. Quoting John Calvin Coolidge–

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”