My journey to becoming a software engineer at Microsoft

The path to becoming a software engineer at Microsoft was filled with failures, questions, and perseverance. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or make mistakes. Embrace the suck, treat coding like your job, build relationships, fail a lot, and use grit to push through adversity. Believe in yourself and keep pushing forward.💪

# How I Became a Software Engineer at Microsoft

## Key Takeaways
| Strategies | Outcomes |
|————|———-|
| Embrace the suck | Overcome fear of failure, ask questions, understand problems |
| Treat coding like a job | Take initiative, solve problems like real-world issues |
| Build relationships | Communicate effectively, manage office politics, seek support |
| Fail a lot | Embrace failure, take ownership, learn from mistakes |
| Use grit | Develop perseverance, surpass challenges, achieve goals |

🔍 I was bad at coding like really bad see this it’s my college transcript I got a 2.6 GPA with zero job prospects I wasn’t a genius like this guy and I definitely didn’t start coding when I was 5 years old so how did I go from thinking that Java was a type of coffee to Landing a software engineering job at Microsoft how did I stop sucking at coding well I’ll tell you how there’s a secret to being a good programmer even a great programmer and spoiler alert it’s not grinding 3,000 leak code problems.

## Embrace the Suck
📝 The first thing is I embrace the suck so what do I mean by that. This is actually a term coined by the Navy they used it to remind people that greatness comes from messiness. I remember when I used to attend my data structures and algorithms class I was always afraid of asking questions for fear of looking stupid in front of my classmates because of this I kept all my questions to myself and ended up not doing well on the tests. My fear of failure or looking dumb got in the way of me actually succeeding many of the best software Engineers that I know ask a lot of questions they’re more focused on understanding the problem and coming up with a solution no matter the social cost.

> “Embracing the suck” means overcoming the fear of failure, asking questions, and understanding problems.

## Treat Coding Like a Job
📃 The next thing I did was treat coding like it was my actual job so fast forward after college I graduated of course with a 2.6 GPA during my first job I made my first big mistake I was given the responsibility to build some apis on my own as well as work with Azure to build a logic app but I remember treating it like a school assignment.
> As for the office politics I want to give a big shout out to my team as they were so gracious to help me out with the skit and rip to Andre here’s to hoping he can actually find a real friend hey um hey I got to get all right um sorry I’ll we’ll later yeah I’ll text you hey uh the drinks thing I just yeah I’m not feeling well I think I might have gotten Co no that’s fine yeah we’ll do it next week the flight and stuff sure so yeah anyway okay okay bye

## Build Relationships
📘 the next thing is building relationships once you are working at a company you need to prioritize making good relationships with people especially if you want to be on a career growth trajectory I started to learned this early on so I set up one-on ones with everyone on my team

> “Treat coding like a job” involves taking initiative, solving problems like real-world issues.

📈 it’s going to happen trust me in fact I’ve know principal Engineers that joke around about bringing their entire production system down in fact the people that don’t make mistakes are probably the ones that don’t really do much on the team it’s bound to happen so you may as well get used to making progress before making things perfect once I adopted failure as inevitable I started taking risks and producing a lot more on the team

## Fail a Lot
📊 the last tip is using grit after adopting a growth mindset at Target I started to look outwards to challenge myself to reach something that I’d never imagined I wanted to work in big Tech now this is something that I’d never strived for mostly because I never thought that I was smart enough but then I read a book called grit by Angela Duckworth a social psychologist she talked about how success wasn’t defined by talent but passion and perseverance in the face of adversity

> “Fail a lot” entails embracing failure, taking ownership, and learning from mistakes.

✨ The lesson I want to leave you with today is to give yourself more credit you’re capable even if you’re at a point where you feel like things are hopeless or you can’t code or where you can’t even find a job things will work out eventually if you adopt these strategies opportunities are found when people Embrace their flaws and unapologetically use their curios I it to their advantage

By understanding the journey to becoming a software engineer at Microsoft, we can see that perseverance, a growth mindset, and a willingness to embrace and learn from failure are essential aspects of achieving success in the tech industry. Acknowledging these key strategies can not only lead to professional development but also contribute to personal growth.