Somewhere around a year and half ago I decided that I need a change of pace in my life. I applied to Microsoft thinking that there was no harm in trying and got an interview. A little over a year ago I packed up two suite cases with some clothes, packed up my house, and got on a plane to Seattle. It honestly doesn’t seem that long ago that it all happened, but the following Monday morning there I was in NEO (new employee orientation)
Through my year at Microsoft I have grown leaps and bounds both technically and personally. Let’s take a look back on what I have been able to do with this year. Well the biggest thing was simply learning how to do my job. Prior to joining I had little to no experience with QA. I don’t claim to be an expert but I feel I know what I am doing now. I started off working on ASP.NET 4 and have had the opportunity to work on the web forms feature crew (anything and everything to do with web forms). This includes the new ClientID abilities, Routing, and some SEO features. Along with working on our product I have also been busy helping to improve The Lightweight Test Automation Framework that our team uses for some of it’s testing. This also includes making a public release on the asp.net codeplex.com site. Another exciting venture that I have started in my year is starting up an ASP.NET QA related podcast, Coding QA. Coding QA is a podcast that I produce with Federico where we ramble on about everything QA related.
Now on to the good stuff, the lessons learned, and let me say some of these lesson were hard learned! First, I have learned that to deliver a successful product members of a team must be aware of that team. By this I mean that everyone should be focused on their work but they should also look out for other team members. This could be as simple as walking over and asking someone if they could use any help when they are stressed. Basically, make sure you keep the machine well oiled. I think the biggest and best lesson that I have learned is one of our PUMs favorite things to say “Come to me with solutions not problems.” This is a simple saying but I think that it really sums up several key points. First, don’t waste time medaling on what is wrong but on what you can do to make it better. Second, in life no one is going to help you, you need to be willing to help yourself. I know some of these are pretty deep and cheesy but like I said I have also grown personally.
Not all of my time has been spent hard at work, I have been able to have some fun along the way. I have been able to take advantage of the perks of working for a big company (company picnic and the company meeting where Rainn Wilson hosted). Also Microsoft, sent me to Tech·Ed EMEA which was in Barcelona, Spain! I have also been able to meet some many new and interesting people.
When I left to come up to Seattle lots of people warning me about the “honeymoon phase.” Meaning that while I would love the job at first, I would get bored and wore out with it shortly after. I am very pleased to say “I TOLD YOU SO,” a year later and I still love waking up every morning and going to work. Here is too many more years to come! I’d also like to say thank you to everyone that has helped me along the way. A very special thanks go out to my family who have been extremely supportive of me even though I am thousands of miles away!