Three Years at Microsoft

I still pinch myself that I am a Microsoft employees, even after three years, it still doesn't seem real and doesn't seem real that I've fulfilled my childhood dream of working for Microsoft!

The last year three years have afforded me so many opportunities and have enabled me to meet so many great people. I've grown so much as a person through those opportunities, challenges and people. I still remember the first day as a Microsoft employee and heading down to our offices in Reading England. It was still a nerve wracking experience but it was nice to be there as an employee and not there for an interview as I had previously been a few months earlier. lol

When I joined Microsoft I was a Cloud Solution Architect, but as I write this blog today I am a Senior Cloud Advocate. I changed role in September 2019 and although changing job was a bit of a scary experience, as it always is when you embark on a new role, I've really enjoyed the role as Cloud Advocate.

The Cloud Advocate role has allowed me to spend a lot of time doing the thing I am passionate about, helping others. Sharing my knowledge. I've had the chance to do that through this familiar medium, blogging. But I've also had the opportunity to speak at a lot of conferences and events as well as look into the medium of video.

The last year has been a challenge in the role I do, as we were all set up as a team to be engaged with people physically at events, at conferences, in meetings. Changing to an online format for my role, has been challenging and I've had to learn a lot of new skills, delve more into social media and figure out how to best interact with people. Now my role before this pandemic involved an online element, but it was never the full focus. So it wasn't a complete change, it was just a challenge.

Although I really am looking forward to getting back to events and travelling again I have loved being able to try new things online. I've got my home office setup in a nice way that allows me to present virtually quite comfortably, last year I present at 39 events to over 24,000 people. I published over 100 YouTube videos on my channel and a ton more on other channels. And I wrote over 170 blogs. I was productive. Not everything I did was a success but everything was a learning opportunity. Everything was a growth opportunity for me. The hard work that I put in has helped others and has helped me.

I still see 2021 being a year of virtual, online interactions, which I am ready to tackle and put my heart and soul into. But you better believe when it's safe to meet up again that I'll be there with a ton of stickers and enthusiasm. 😁

Until then I'll continue to pinch myself everyday that I am a Microsoft employee, accept the challenges thrown at me and enjoy every minute of it!