6.1.2022: Celebrating 2 years in Microsoft

It truly doesn’t feel like 730 days have passed since I first joined Microsoft on 6.1.2020.

I'm sure by now we've gotten pretty sick and tired of hearing these words on repeat: 'work from home', 'new normal', 'pandemic', 'vaccine', 'booster', and have had enough of virtual meetings and can't wait for some proper face time with each other??

I revisited this article I wrote in July 2020 on 6 lessons I’ve learnt in 6 months at Microsoft and it reminded me of the baby steps I took as I first ventured into the corporate world right out of graduation from completion of the MBA.

Not that I'm anywhere close to having everything figured out AT ALL, but it was wonderful to see some lessons and reminders I wrote in those first six months have stayed true to me to this day. That, and the fact that everyday, I can say that I am learning, relearning and unlearning something new.

Fast forward to today, the 6th of January 2022, I’m wholeheartedly grateful and deeply humbled by my short journey here at Microsoft, with so many incredible lessons learnt and more to come my way, I’m sure of it!

Amplify Gratitude Whenever You Can

I recognize that the past 2 years have been quite the extraordinary journey for me - from onboarding 2 months into a new role pre-pandemic in January 2020, to starting a 'new and transformed' role as a Customer Success Account Manager (CSAM) 8 months later within a newly formed Customer Success Unit (CSU) organization, navigating the nuances of an evolved role while building new skillsets and upskill regularly to serve my customers better as well as new relationships with different customers (some of whom I've never met in person until today!) across different industries.

Across my experiences in the past 2 years, one thing is evident. We live in an extremely 'VUCA' (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world, where our superpowers to navigate, survive and thrive in it lies in our ability to be agile and adaptable and self-aware.

Throughout this journey, I've been intentional about building relationships with individuals who were willing to support me while investing in my development, growth and upskilling.

My Microsoft journey would not have been what it is today without the support of the right manager who believed and championed me, sponsors who spoke about me when I'm not in the room, mentors who helped to reveal some blind spots, colleagues and teammates who guided me and peers who held me accountable.

So I'm starting this year 2022 and my 2nd year work-anniversary off with the amplification of gratitude for these individuals who have helped get me to where I am today. Thank you, thank you and thank YOU, you know who you are. :')

Give back as much as you can, whenever you can

Giving back is (one of) our best teachers.

When you're 'forced' to break down your thought process and analyze what calculated steps (or risks!) you have taken and share some 'How-To's' via career panel talks etc, it makes you re-think what you've done that has brought you to where you are today.

As much as possible, whenever I can, I do my best to give back and contribute through becoming a mentor, onboarding buddy, coach, panel speaker or learn from moderating sessions with some incredible speakers through the Aspire MBA Council, Microsoft Aspire APAC Council and other volunteer forums.

Customer Centricity and Creativity is crucial in building Relationships (especially virtual ones!)

Most of us, if not all, can acknowledge and recognize how important it is to build relationships with our customers and colleagues in a fully digital and virtual world.

Yet, it can truly be a challenge without the face to face interaction and face time that we would otherwise get when we sit ourselves in a customer's office for a full day or go out for 'yum cha' or 'teh tarik' sessions with them. (Hey, no shame in the fact that food brings people together!)

Therefore, it's all the more important to find 'creative' ways to build trusted relationships with our colleagues and customers.

I recall one specific incident where a customer experienced a highly stressful Critical Situation which impacted their business and led to their team working overnight and through the weekends until almost 6 in the morning to restore and bring their business applications back up again.

Despite having a dedicated Critical Situation Manager who is meant to manage the situation across time zones, my team and I recognized that as an opportunity to build trust with the customer in an 'unusual circumstance'. We stayed up with them until the late hours of the night and early hours of the morning to help them with troubleshooting, re-installing and restoring their applications (although we didn't have to per se).

We wanted to demonstrate our support by being present with them through the very stressful week so that they know we were there as their trusted advisors. Those late night calls involved surprise delivery of Starbucks coffee to the customers who had to spend the night in their office, but also included very informal chats to get to know them better outside the context of formal 'work'. These little things helped us to build our relationship with the customer better.

The customer recognized that we went above and beyond our 'duty' and 'job scope' and thanked us for it. I too, in turn, was very humbled and grateful that the customer recognized our efforts and was able to extend the same gratitude and appreciation to my engineers' managers so they could be recognized accordingly.

Building trust in a digital world means finding these opportunities to show up for the customers when they need you the most.

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To be honest, I was initially thinking twice about writing this reflection piece because in the grand scheme of things, 2 years is a drop in the ocean and I've barely scratched the surface of the remainder of my working and professional life.

However, I recognized that every opportunity to reflect and exercise gratitude is one that future Sarah will appreciate present Sarah for doing so??

Because it is in reflecting on our past experiences, that we can appreciate our learnings and recognize the efforts put into developing ourselves and getting 1% better each day.

Here's to another year of embracing change, adopting a transformed mindset and learning something new every day!????