Finding Joy in What We Do

Many people who have gone to college or worked with me may know that I am a firm believer in the concept of "finding joy in in everything you do." This is the belief that has gotten me through high school, college, my first job, and likely the rest of my life. It is an adage that I share in the hopes of helping others find peace and perseverance through whatever their current situation might be. I realized, with the help of my parents, that we often focus on what is going wrong in our lives instead of finding ways to make it better. We get stuck thinking about how we got to where we are instead of focusing on the little things that we can be grateful for or improve on. My first role as a Support Engineer demonstrated just that.

I joined Microsoft as a twenty-year-old college graduate with an IT degree and a zeal for the opportunities available in corporate America. I had a glimpse at the life of a Support Engineer through the interview process and read about the opportunities available as a part of the MACH (Microsoft Academy of College Hires) program, but the vision and reputation of the company as a whole is what led me to accept this offer over others. So I found myself beginning my career with a three month orientation that covered the basic technical and non-technical skills that would be necessary for success in my new role. Friendships grew as other new college hires and I whizzed through Windows 10 training and tackled road blocks together during Windows Server or Azure labs. Excitement to join our teams and begin contributing to/making an impact on the company followed suit. At the end of the three months, we were split into our specialties and joined our teams for technology-specific training (in my case, SharePoint) and eventually, case work.

I joined the SharePoint team with very little previous exposure to the product. After a month of training led by seasoned Support Engineers on my team, I thought I had a decent sense for what the product was capable of and the few ways it could broken. I took my first case and realized that I had just scratched the surface. I left my first customer call feeling confused, incompetent, and angry. Angry that Microsoft thought that I would be a good fit for this role. Angry that I had accepted it based on a gut feeling and opinion of the company. And angry that I felt like I could do nothing about it.

I called my parents that night and my dad reminded me of that phrase once again, "find joy in everything you do." He would continue to remind me of this for the rest of the month until I realized that this situation truly was under my control and I could use the skills I already had to make it better. I started channeling some of my stress with the role into daily whiteboard quote art to inspire myself and others. I sponsored a Capstone project and mentored college students through the project management life cycle (an experience that provided a welcome break during the weeks of case work and was also valuable during my switch to a Program Management role). I found some amazing mentors of my own to learn from along the way. And I became involved in an Ambassador program to gain insight into the greater CSS org and use my skills to make the bigger impact on the company that I desired.

All this to say, I found joy by seeking opportunities to do what I love and giving myself the time to fail fast and learn from others. I channeled that joy into my role and began to improve my performance, grow my network, and foster the customer-obsessed mindset which Microsoft encourages all employees to have. It was at that point that I realized that if we find joy in what we do and truly obsess over our customers, it shouldn’t be a chore to support them. I realized that service/support engineers have the unique opportunity to interface with customers after they have purchased a product, turn their worst experiences around, and restore faith in a product or company. The problem is that new hires such as myself often lack the true passion for our customers or a perspective on the impact of our day to day job. That's when we yearn for opportunities outside of our core priorities/role. Without finding that love for what we do, we feel unsatisfied, come across road blocks in our careers without the resilience to overcome them, and only focus on the future instead of being the best at what we currently do.

So I think that it is important for everyone to take a step back in their careers or education and find small ways to bring joy into what they do. Instead of trying to make our careers centered around doing what we love, I would recommend finding small ways to use your talents to impact whatever work you do. This is an easy way to give yourself a new perspective on your life and give you the pep in your step that you need to perform well and build skills to eventually move into something new. So whether it's through meeting new people, mentoring others, volunteering for new initiatives, or simply drawing on a whiteboard, we all have ways we can use our skills/interests to bring joy into any situation we find ourselves in.