Its been a long ride getting here... It has been a very long and awesome ride. I came to Microsoft in 1994 as a RhoTech “a dash”, to support Windows 3.1. Back in those days you could get hired if you just knew how to tear apart config.sys and autoexec.bat and your chances were even better if you ever took apart a Rubik’s Cube to solve it. I worked as a RhoTech staffer until 1996 when I was hired on the Windows Server team supporting 3.51 and NT 4.0. I became a tech lead of a small group of folks on IPX/SPX and Netware migrations using Visine to “Get the red out”. Later I moved on to IIS and Proxy Server support and then we kind of evolved into Site Server and Personalization, Commerce Server, and a little bit of Usage Analysis built in. In 2000 the dotNet bubble was just about to burst and so I left the company to go rake it in big, moving to Atlanta and helping a small company establish a foot hold in an industry that was about to implode. Exactly 11 months later I came back to P&M, Commerce Server, and UA where I spent a year on Beta before being offered an interesting position to give up what I knew and come look into some technology that I knew nothing about. Something that was supposed to be BIG. Exchange. So, over the next 13 great years I spent a lot of it, nearly ALL of it, huddled in the recesses of Transport and Foreign Connectors, paying tribute to code when routing was quite literally spec’d out as “Black Magic”. I spent good times crawling through and documenting certificate selection process in Exchange Server 2007, writing training on beta products with constantly moving targets and before features were slashed and assigned to their doom as “Postponed”. A top secret designation meaning “retirement”. In those years, I identified my passion and my strengths. I didn’t like to write code, I liked to tear it down. To understand what made it tick and BEHOLD identify bugs and the satisfaction of getting a 4 (or better) when scoring out in Triage. I became a CSS “Escalation Engineer” just in time for the confusion to set in as entire floors of “Support Engineers” became “Support Escalation Engineers”. Then in 2010 a new opportunity opened its doors. The opportunity to debug and fix product and service level issues in “BPOS” with a team of Escalation Engineers all with the mindset to rock it out and knock stuff out of the park. I’ve seen BPOS-S migrated off of lumbering technology that was put to use for things it was never intended. I’ve watched us go from 2007 to 2010, from 2010 to 2010 Datacenter bits and finally starting to see some 2013 out there. My how the field is constantly changing. As I look to the future of Exchange as a Service I see a lot of success to come, and a lot of work that remains to be done to get us there. I’ve seen teams dissolve, I’ve seen teams evolve, and I’ve seen teams grow as our ever dynamic business adapts to the needs of its consumers. I have made many friends over these years. Some I’ve kept up with, some that I’ve forgotten, some that still work here, and others that have moved on. I’ve had the opportunity to work with some of the best managers in my career here. People that not only managed the business but also managed their staff. Many of them transparent to a fault, my own personal TAMs if you will. People holding both Microsoft and my career in their best interests. Folks that understand that the true success of a team is not built on everyone knowing everything just enough, but that teams are built with people who bring together different skills and strengths to excel when working together. You shouldn’t make a center guard your quarterback. That brings us to today, the culmination of many weeks of decision making processes, trying to weigh the certainty of my passions with the future of Exchange and a work family that has seen me through some very difficult times. I have been successful because of you, because of the leadership of folks such as Brandon Hoff and Marcus Tsujikawa, and because of the support many of you have shown me. I’ve lived through house fires, and mini-strokes literally unable to see straight for months and yet while even working remotely I never felt like I was part of anything less than a team. We have a lot of great people in this business. It’s hard to say, but April 11th will be my last day here. Another opportunity has come knocking, something that promises a good future, continuing to do those things that I am passionate about, things that have made me successful today. Like the chance I took 13 years ago it will be with a product I know nothing about. I’m not going far… My vision of leaving Microsoft always involved getting carried out kicking and screaming by the security staff, or at least packing up peacefully after my Son graduates from college. Either way, I don’t look forward to that day as I’ve enjoyed working with so many great people and made many lasting friendships. Thank you, Please stay in touch. Stu
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 12:40:43 +0000
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