TechHer

Allison Farris

I am Cloud Solution Architect at Microsoft where I work with enterprise customers to successfully adopt and leverage cloud technologies. The role ranges from conversations driving transformation at the CIO level to engaging in architectural design and best practice discussions with developers. My team at Microsoft is filled with people both early and late in their careers in tech. I value the tech community that the organization provides to be able to learn from and collaborate with others.

My pivot into tech happened during my time at University. Growing up as a classical pianist, it was music that led me to discover the technology field and ultimately switched my area of study from music to business IT. I joined Microsoft's consulting services organization as an App developer consultant where I learned to build cloud applications for enterprise customers. This led me to apply for the Cloud Solution Architect role in Microsoft's Customer Success Unit.

One of the most impactful pieces of advice my very first mentor at Microsoft gave me was to fail fast and fail forward. Failure is an incredible tool for growth and learning, don't be afraid of it. It provides some of the best lessons!

I am currently living the expat life in London with hopes to travel to every country one day! I moved from Washington DC to the UK a little over eighteen months ago, and now drink milk in my tea and can eat a whole pack of Rich Tea biscuits in one sitting. I love music and have picked up the habit of long walks during lockdown. During my time as a student I started to recognize and experience the lack of female representation in the technology space and discovered my passion to advocate and promote women in the technology field. Realizing I could blend my love of the arts with my passion to promote women in technology brought me to compete in the Miss America Organization. During my five years of competing, I worked closely with the Microsoft outreach programs like DigiGirlz and YouthSpark to expose more girls to STEM and to female STEM role models.

My advice would be to embrace the experiences you bring to the table, whether it be similar or different to the role, it is valuable! Technology is everchanging and innovation happens when diversity plays a part. It's never too late to start your journey into tech!

Athulya Ramamoorthy

I'm a Data and AI Cloud Solution Architect with the Customer Success Unit (CSU). As part of my role, I help customers innovate and succeed with Azure. The possibilities on our platform are immense and there are many ways to accomplish the same thing. My job is to work with them and arrive at the options that suit their unique requirements, basically, make the technology work for them. And if there is constructive feedback that can make our platform better, it's also my job to ensure it reaches the right people at Microsoft.

I'm part of the Manufacturing and Resource industry sector team in the Microsoft UK Customer Success Unit and have been working remotely ever since I joined Microsoft. The team have found innovative ways of keeping the connection going, and as a result, I now know most people, even though I'm not working directly with them on a daily basis. Everyone's really supportive and happy to help.

I have always had a fascination for tech. My Masters was in computer science. I was a Business Intelligence and Analytics consultant for over 12 years before joining Microsoft. Even after all these years, I still get a rush when I write a particularly good piece of code!

This is a brilliant time to be in tech. Technology is transforming the way humans interact and the way businesses function. Microsoft is at the forefront of this innovation, shaping the future, and it's fascinating to be a part of it. You get to work with some extremely talented people and learn something new every day. What's not to love?

One of my most relevant character traits for this role is an interest to learn new things. Tech is constantly changing, and learning is a given, so it helps that I actually enjoy it! A logical bend of mind, though not strictly a character trait, helps as well.

If you are curious about exploring a career in tech, just do it. Tech is a wide area with a variety of roles, there is bound to be something you enjoy. Learn about the industry, talk to people, appear for interviews - give it an earnest try. It's a lot of fun!

Caroline de Sa Luz

I'm a Program Manager working for a Product Development Team that specializes in Security. I'm the customer-facing part of the Product Team, the bridge that connects our customers to our development. My role is to gather as much feedback from our customers - the good, the bad, and the ugly - and share it with the team so that we can build new iterations of the product based on that same feedback.

Each Program Manager is unique in the way they work and experience they bring to the team. Before I landed in this role, I worked as a Support Engineer and as a Technical Specialist. It is always good to understand the technology you're working with, however there's plenty of space to grow and learn. It's also a plus if you have some experience managing conversations and expectations. Even though I've worked with technology throughout my five year career, I didn't study technology. I've come a long way since I joined Microsoft.

I love this role because it gives me the opportunity to work with a multitude of customers across Europe, but also because it's such a versatile role, there's no right way of doing the job. It's also the most diverse team I've worked with and it's great. You can clearly see that when you have a balanced team - career background, seniority, cultural background, experiences, gender - you get amazing results.

I believe my success is a result of the values I carry with me no matter where I go. I didn't have the most comfortable upbringing however my mom passed me three key messages which I hold to:

• Don't ever despair when something doesn't go to plan. There are worst things in the world. Look at the challenges, learn from them and move forward.
• Be the best version of yourself at all time. Always thrive to be better and to learn more.
• Be creative with what you can offer. I'm no Bill Gates, but that doesn't mean I'm not good. I just need to be creative how I sell my skills and how I apply them.

In my own time I love travelling, and listening Joe Rogan's podcasts - I know they're long but you learn so much in 3 hours. I'm a sucker for historical books and shows like Downtown Abbey, Poirot, Miss Marple... you name it. After all, growing up I wanted to be an archaeologist!

Jane Pitt

I am a Training Program Manager in our World Wide Learning division. It's my role to work with customers to identify the resources required to gain the skills that they need to execute on their plans to migrate to the Cloud and fully utilise our Cloud services. I spend my time speaking to customers, discussing how our certifications and learning paths can align with their internal job roles and ensuring they are aware of all of the resources we have available for them. I also work with a number of our internal program teams to help shape those resources and how we make them available.

The best thing about my role is that I can have a positive impact on people. I can help them gain knowledge, skills and certifications, and this can lead directly to an improvement in their careers and even their lives. I love the fact that what I do feels genuinely positive and worthwhile. My team is fantastic, we are all equally passionate about what we do and it's great to be surrounded by people who are all pulling in the same direction. We are very open and honest with each other, and very supportive and always ready to help each other out.

I started my career as a script reader for a drama department in a television company. I was convinced that was what I wanted to do but then I found myself naturally gravitating towards the technology side of the industry and ended up managing five post-production editing suits. I left the television industry to set up an IT support company and I ran that for five years before selling it and moving into enterprise infrastructure engineering. I think I was destined to be in tech; I love the dynamism of the industry and I have a problem-solving brain, so tech is perfect as there's always something new to learn and figure out.

There is such a hugely diverse range of roles available in technology; you don't have to be a coder or a computer science graduate to find your place in tech. You don't even have to be technical, you just need to be curious, adaptable and have a passion to learn.

Outside of work, I love to be outdoors. I'm a long-distance runner and cyclist and I also love open-water swimming. I live in the countryside with my three dogs who also love to be outdoors so we spend as much time as we can roaming on the Ridgeway looking for adventure!

Kate Robertson

I am a Digital Advisor which basically means connecting the business with the technology - in simple terms, it's understanding our customer problems and opportunities and then connecting the right technology, approaches, and people to solve them. Microsoft is about customer obsession and being a Digital Advisor keeps you close to the customer and enables you to really understand some of the areas we could be solving problems and innovating in across key industries.

I am actually a chartered Aerospace Engineer and started my career as an Air Engineering Officer in the Royal Navy. I loved my time in the military and started to focus more on innovation, completing an MBA in Technology Management and Innovation and focusing more on the transformational side. When I left the Royal Navy I started to build my digital skills. It was when I ran an AI Hackathon for Defence that I finally decided I wanted to take the leap.

Since I joined Microsoft last year the aspect that has stood out for me is how happy to help people are. I work across a number of teams and often have to pull from many areas to put a solution together, this means relying on people to come back to you and lean in. I love the different ideas and perspectives you get from this approach and really value how much I learn from each and every person.

I used to be an absolute perfectionist and determined to be the best - which obviously drove me to a certain amount of success but there was something missing. Luckily, I had my first child relatively early in my career and she taught me to swap perfectionism for prioritising the important things and to swap individual achievement for enabling those around you to do more. The determination remained, but its focus moved, and I started listening more. The other trait I am extremely grateful for is my ability to learn - I am a geek at heart and love learning.

I live in the Yorkshire Dales with my husband and 5 children - ranging in age from 1 year to 14 years. They take up most of my time but we absolutely love the outdoors - sailing, walking and cycling. I am also really committed to trying to get more girls into STEM. I spoke at my first Digigirlz event in January and loved it. Microsoft really supports us with those extra-curricular activities.

Kim Wolff

I'm a senior Account Technology Strategist in Financial Services, managing six Challenger Banks. My role is to partner with customer technical leaders to deliver positive business outcomes through their digital transformation program.

My aim is to become the customer's trusted advisor - helping to inform their plans and decisions by orchestrating the best Microsoft information, resources and investments at the right time. I focus on leading and delivering technology plans across all Microsoft technologies.

My strength is courage and I'm not afraid to reach out directly to an Executive either on the customer or Microsoft side. To affect change, you need to challenge customers and the status quo, and this requires an understanding of the technology, the customer's industry and their business, along with having the emotional intelligence to know when to challenge further.

I love having the ability to learn about all new Microsoft technologies and innovations and work across the entire Microsoft stack. The opportunity to help a customer progress on their digital transformation journey and see the direct impact on their business and end customers is very rewarding.

The best part of the role is that it allows me to choose either a more technical or business role in Microsoft. I'm not limited in any way in my future career and which direction I would like to take. I work with a very diverse and inclusive team, we support each other, especially during these challenging times where we need to be flexible and understanding in the way we work.

Outside of work I like yoga and running. I really enjoy mentoring and coaching other females in technology-focused positions. My experience is that some females in these roles lack the confidence or self-belief, thinking they need to be 100% proficient in every area. I get a lot of passion from helping females to realise that they have the tenacity, drive and ambition to achieve success.

The ATS role is great for women as it's such a diverse role and you can influence your success based on areas on expertise you choose. It's a great opportunity to build strategic relationships with executives in companies and to understand different industries which may interest you. It's also a great way to keep up to date on all of Microsoft's latest technologies and to keep a pulse on what our competitors are doing.

Lida Ghahremanlou

I am a Data Scientist and Cloud Solution Architect in the Data & AI Azure Cloud team. I support customers and partners in their AI and Machine learning journey by providing ML/DS solutions.

I was a research scientist at IBM Australia and research fellows in UK universities prior joining Microsoft in March 2018. Although I mainly focused on research before, I often worked with various technologies. I think the level of my engagements changes from research to industry environment.

The role pushes everybody outside of their comfort zone, where the actual learning happens but this sometimes it has its own challenges. I think an important aspect of customer-facing roles that they are often challenging due to customer deadlines, constraints or lack of skills, so candidates needs to be patient, tolerant and adaptive to changes, but at the same time these roles are very rewarding in terms of contributing to a project from beginning to the end when you can see the actual end-product.

My own team is very dynamic with expertise in different technologies in Cloud. I value the fact that my colleagues are very approachable and supportive to each other when assistance is required for a specific use-case. We are also a part of a broader team that also has other areas of expertise in Cloud with a similar attitude of growth mindset.

I have always been a very ambitious person; I love computer programming and am keen to learn new things. Coming from an intense academic background, I believe in the power of AI and ML technologies to support real use-cases in all aspects of industry/research. I am also quite active in Diversity and Inclusion scope and work as a part-time researcher on AI for Accessibility topics. It is not that the technology is everything, it is more important to know where to apply such technology to benefit human society as a whole.

In my spare time, I do Yoga and Tennis and go running. I love cooking and gardening and often use these activities to escape from the technology world. I am also a book lover and a short fiction writer in English and Farsi (my first language). I have published an English translation novel and short-story collection in my country (Iran). While computer science is my career, literature is my passion.

Lucy Bramley

I'm a Partner Technical Manager, this means that I lead a team who work on technical strategy with our business partners. My team looks to align the partner's and Microsoft's goals, and to enable the partner to develop solutions using our products and services.

My team are amazing! They are supportive, fun and eager to learn. We help each other out and love it when we see each other being successful in our roles. They are open and honest with me, which I appreciate the most.

I've worked in tech for twenty-three years and been a manager for the last twelve. I think my path to management was fairly smooth as I worked as a Project and Programme Manager for the bulk of the eleven years before I took on people management, so it was a sensible step.

I did have a life before tech - I had no idea what I wanted to do when I graduated with a degree in Social and Environmental Studies. I started my own business initially - making hats, waistcoats and jackets from recycled fabrics and I worked in pubs at the same time to keep my head above water. Eventually I decided I needed to work with other people, and to try office work, so I became a Recruitment Consultant and that led me to technology as I was recruiting for IBM for a year.

I love coaching and helping people to develop and grow. I want to do more coaching in the future and Microsoft shares that vision, so there are lots of opportunities to do that here. The company also supports me in being an Enterprise Adviser with a local FE college. I love spending time on that and would like to work more with students on helping them with their career choices.

I love reading - I'm into books about brain health and nutrition, but also classic crime thrillers for light relief! I also like to make things - I have a glass kiln in my garage and make fused glass pictures and jewellery. My husband and I love our VW Camper Van (Eddie) and really like travelling the UK with him.

There is a lot of opportunity for everyone in tech. There are creative, flexible roles and opportunities to work with customers across all industries. Bring your passion and enthusiasm into IT!

Madeline Carmichael

I am a Threat Intel Librarian. My team is part of the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) and we're responsible for tracking nation state threat actors to aid in the detection, protection, and response against the threat they pose Microsoft and its customers. My role involves naming and organizing the threat actors we track, curating the threat intel generated by the analysts and looking for ways to improve our threat intel processes end-to-end.

My original career plan was to be a Librarian. While I was completing my Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree, an interesting job posting for an internship in a research library was advertised that ended up changing everything! I got the internship, loved it, and ended up taking a contract position with the research library to stay on post-graduation. I then moved into a role that involved curating incident data and writing a monthly aggregate trend report and it was in this role that I became interested in threat intel and cyber security. Through training offered by the organization and lots of studying on my own time I was able to become a Cyber Security Analyst, which is what I was doing before joining Microsoft as a Threat Analyst in MSTIC.

Curiosity is vital to the role, you need the drive to keep digging and find answers or try new approaches to the job, as well as being detail-oriented to keep track of all the moving parts. I would also say being adaptable is important as the situation can change quite rapidly when incidents happen.

The standard librarian clichés do hold true - I love reading and have two cats! But I also enjoy getting outside for hikes and travelling to new places (when the world is not in a state of pandemic that is). Oh, and as a Canadian, I also love maple syrup, of course.

My advice for anyone looking for a new opportunity is don't hold yourself back from applying for a role because you don't have the traditional background for it - identify how the skills you do have can be adapted to support different roles that interest you!

Pamella Barotti

I head up Customer Advocacy for Microsoft UK. My team and I showcase through our customer stories how our solutions are empowering and supporting our customers, partners, governments and communities particularly in these unprecedented times. Our goal is to create a climate in which Microsoft flourishes both internally and externally through sharing the incredible innovation, stories and momentum we are seeing, and celebrating the success of those leading the way.

I moved from Brazil to the UK to improve my English and to continue my studies over a decade ago. The plan was to stay in London for a year or so, travel around Europe and then go back to Sao Paulo, my hometown. However, I loved the UK so much (nope, I don't mind the weather) that I decided to make this incredible country my home sweet home.

I am so lucky to work with some of the most incredible, smart and kind people in the industry. I love the diversity of my team, we have different ages, nationalities, genders, and have a wide range of experience. I value how we work together, support each other, share ideas and have fun!

The experience in this role enhances my commercial, leadership and strategy skills as well as gives me a holistic view of our ecosystem from all commercial business groups to customers and partners. The opportunity to learn about all our solutions and products across all industries and segments and the exposure to various business units as well as customers and partners, may help me to land a more senior leadership role in the future.

My advice to anyone looking to build a career in tech is to adopt these three Fs:

• Fun: If you don't enjoy what you do, get the experience you need and move roles, business groups, companies asap. You may have lots of roles until you find 'the one' you really like and it is okay. Have fun and enjoy the process!
• Flexibility: Your career will have ups and downs, turns, and probably won't be a straight line, particularly in a past faced industry like Tech so flexibility is key to progress and success.
• Feel the fear and do it away: You will certainly find situation where fear may come up. It could be presenting at a conference, asking for a pay rise or applying for a more senior role. To grow, learn and develop, it is important to know when it is time to go feel the fear and do it away!

Sarah Lean

I'm a Senior Cloud Advocate at Microsoft, my role is to help our customers find the right information in the form of documentation, blogs or videos, and if the information doesn't exist, I help to try and create it. I love that I get to be creative and my job is to engage with our customers and community. I get to do the stuff I love and make a difference.

I studied Computing at University and after a brief spell working in retail I switched to IT, where I've worked ever since. I've worked on IT helpdesks helping people with their queries and I've also helped design and implement infrastructure projects for some very big organisations. My dream was always to work for Microsoft and I'm glad the journey I've had throughout my career has led me here today.

My team is very varied we are located all around the world, with some in Switzerland, some in Canada, some in Australia and some in the US. We all offer a different perspective and level of experience to each situation or opportunity. I've learnt a lot from them all. We're also all very honest with each other, we aren't afraid to say the tough things and this has helped me grow as a person.

Several traits have helped make me successful. I love solving problems which has helped grow my IT skills; taking ownership of a support ticket and seeing it through till it gets fixed. Also being able to work in a team and be a leader has helped, these are skills I learnt whilst taking part in the sport of curling, and I've transferred them into my career. Some projects require you to work as a team member while others require you to leader and being able to switch between those roles has really helped me and given me a lot of opportunities.

I enjoy visiting castles and historic sites in Scotland and the UK. But when I'm not doing that I enjoy reading, curling (basically bowling on ice!) and spending time in my garden; learning about different plants and soils has been a great experience.

My dream was to work at Microsoft and although it took me a little longer to get here that I would have liked, I am here living my dream and loving it!

Torrie Reilly

I am an Account Technology Strategist, working with twelve of our Financial Services customers. A large part of my role is building relationships with the technical leadership within my customers to really understand what they are trying to achieve, and how technology can support in delivering their outcomes. I also orchestrate the right resources from a Microsoft perspective to help my customers in achieving their objectives.

I was never very interested in technology growing up. It wasn't until I started a Business with IT foundation degree at University that I saw my passion for technology really flourish. I always had the intention of transferring to a Law degree once I completed my foundation year, but I enjoyed the technology aspect so much that I continued that pathway. I graduated with a degree in Business Information Systems. I joined Microsoft three years ago on their graduate program.

I love working with our Financial Service customers and understanding what the future of the industry looks like from a technology standpoint. I really value the opportunity the role provides in terms of becoming a trusted advisor for my customers. I can really understand what's top of mind for my customers, and advocate for them internally to ensure the wider Microsoft team are aligned with their strategy.

I'm tenacious and I definitely don't give up easily. The way that I've always found my own success is to be thrown into the deep end and learn through experience. I'm always authentic, and I do think that helps to build trust with my customers and colleagues.

I think there are many possibilities after the ATS role, as you learn a multitude of skills and experience. An ATS works across the length and breadth of the Microsoft technology portfolio, and deal with a wide range of senior stakeholders from a customer standpoint, so you have the ability to go into a more specialised/technical role or take the business strategy route.

Pre-covid times, I would have spent my time travelling as much as possible; I love to experience new countries and cultures. I'm also a big fan of music, so I'd usually go to live gigs and festivals whenever I get the opportunity. During lockdown, I've been really enjoying getting out for walks and I'm lucky enough to live close to some lovely parks in London. I'm still listening to music (albeit in my apartment), and I've also taken up painting at the weekend which I'm loving.