Why I LOVE my job as a Technical Evangelist at Microsoft
There are many, many reasons why when people ask me "How are things going at work" that I go on and on about how I love my job and that it's been a long time in my career now that I've been in a place that I feel consistently good about being a part of. That's not to say that I had a miserable time in the startups I was part of or the bigger companies that I worked for. I think that it's generally a tough formula to put together - to have the right job, with the right company, and the right team to work in. I love the diversity of activities that keep me on my toes every day - and I especially enjoy putting to work the different skills I've picked up in my 12+ years in this industry - from development, marketing, and presales engineering. It's been amazing to work not only with the high energy, focused, smart folks that work within Microsoft, but also the partners providing solutions around the VSTS ecosystem. One of the things I often rave about is my manager -
Jeff Sandquist -I genuinely love working for Jeff - it's hard to put it into words. It's not just that he really cares about people, provides great guidance when you need it, is there for you even when he's juggling 101 projects AND PDC, and generally let's you run with your projects - He's a totally down-to-earth, pragmatic, smart, warm person who gets you excited about what's going on, recognizes that hard work you're putting in, makes sure you know about the important stuff - how reviews really work, what's going on in the organization, why you shouldn't worry about xy or z. He even has tips for staying more organized, or how to get things you need for an event, and he seems to have a never ending list of people he knows that he can refer me to that are experts in different areas. I think most of all, I really appreciate the fact that Jeff personally wants to see the folks on his team be successful and recognizes and treats everyone on his team as individuals - that not only have our unique contributions to bring to Microsoft, but have outside lives that aren't always running as efficiently as we'd like. :-) Jeff - thanks for being such a great manager. I really appreciate the support you've given me to be successful in my work.
