I am a Senior Escalation Engineer for Exchange Server. I have been in this role for nearly six years and have been with Microsoft nearly seven years. As an Escalation Engineer (EE) we represent the last line of support for the most demanding of issues related to Exchange Server. As an EE we are tasked with:

• Resolving the most the most technically and politically challenging customer issues
• Engaging and being a resource to the larger Exchange PSS group.
• Researching, diagnosing, and writing code to further diagnose and resolve customer’s issues.
• Employing advanced tools and diagnostics to analyze source code.
• Making recommendations to the development team on improvements to product
• Isolating defects to the faulting line(s) of code.
• Writing tools to further analyze problem or improve the overall Exchange experience.

All of these things within very compressed timeframes. What this really means is on a typical day the vast majority of my time is spent mentoring, debugging and researching issues I am currently involved in, and overall contributing to the success of those around me. By using knowledge of software design and programming in conjunction with general product knowledge, it allows people in our group to bridge the gap between the typical end to end support troubleshooting methodologies and the very focused, specific code level knowledge of a developer.

I have been programming in some capacity since I was seven (yes seven, see my first blog). I was in the computer engineer program at UNCC when the opportunity arose to go to work for Microsoft. (Isn't it amazing how a steady paycheck affects your choices in life :-) ) Within a few months at Microsoft I transitioned to the role I am in today.

From a personal perspective, I have wife and two great kids www.kellyscorner.org. If I do not have my head buried in a problem or learning about something technology related, then I am typically spending time with the wife and kids, or the good ole' Honey-Do-List...:-)