Sharing My Career Journey with the HOLA Community

On Monday I had the honor to participate in the opening keynote of the HOLA Employee Resource Group Career Week. HOLA is the community for the Hispanic and LatinX employees at Microsoft that has over 4000 members, and this event provides an opportunity for them to focus and engage on career growth and development with a series of presentations, workshops, trainings, and mentoring sessions. As the new Executive Sponsor of the HOLA ERG, it was a special moment to introduce myself and start my journey with this community in which I aspire to support, and where I can amplify their voices and be an advocate for them to drive change inside and outside the company. As part of the session, I was asked to reflect and offer advice on how I have been able to grow my career at Microsoft. It made me really think about the lessons of the past many years and so I thought I would share it more broadly. Here were six of the tips I shared:

Foster a growth mindset and a passion for life-long learning. I’ve written previously about the importance of having a Growth Mindset, and how this has been core to the positive culture shift at Microsoft since Satya took over as CEO. It is something I aspire to live and breathe every day and it is always the first piece of advice I give to people who ask about how to grow their careers and be successful. It is vital that you take advantage of every opportunity to learn. And yet, the more successful you become, you can easily drift from a “learn it all” mindset to a “know it all” attitude. This is one of the biggest mistakes I have made in the past, and I am constantly on the lookout to make sure that in every meeting and in every moment, I focus first on the learning vs communicating what I know or believe. In fact, I look for the moments when I hear something that is so opposed to what I believe, so that I can really lean in and try and understand why a particular point of view or idea is not resonating with me. While I may not always change my view, I consistently find I learn something new from that approach and broaden my mindset.

When in doubt about what to do in business or for your career, focus on your customers. There will be many instances in your career when a key decision needs to be made and the answer isn’t clear. You may be getting input on how to move forward from many different directions and sources, each with differing opinions and reasoning on why a certain path should be chosen. My advice here is always focus on what is right for your customers. I’ve experienced this across many products and services I’ve worked on in my career, and when we have listened to our customers and put them at the center, we have always been successful, and in those instances where we have made assumptions on what our customers want or made a business-first decision, it has proved to have a negative impact. In our industry, it has never been more important to listen, learn, and delight your customers, so always put them first and success will surely follow. When your customers succeed, then your business succeeds, and ultimately that ladders back to you and your career.

Surround yourself with people that inspire you and make them great. One of the greatest things about working at Microsoft is all the amazing people you get to work with every day. The diverse cultures, backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge of Microsoft employees is incredible, and I’ve always been fortunate enough to be surrounded by people that have inspired me and my work. One insightful piece of advice that I received as I was advancing my career at Microsoft was to treat my colleagues as if at some point in the future, I might be in charge of the business. Now I know that probably sounds a bit strange and maybe even wrong minded but let me explain. Work environments can be very competitive, especially at large companies when you are at times compared against your peers. But competing with your colleagues is not the best way to collaborate, deliver on your goals, or grow your career. The advice I was given was to act like I was the manager and do what all good managers do and make their employees great. Help and inspire them, offer them guidance based on your experience and knowledge, and most importantly make them great in their roles. It really unlocked for me a new mindset on how to relate and collaborate with my peers. This helped me not only build much better relationships, but it put all my focus on doing what was right for the business. 

Look for opportunity in technology and platform disruptions. Some of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had in my career have come from being part of a team that was building something completely new. Being involved in a project from the beginning that could have an impact on billions of people around the world is incredible and will always be a career highlight for me. From my early days at Microsoft, I’ve tried to seek out opportunities that have been at the cusp of something big. Building relationships with engineers at the company was an important part of this and learning about what they were working on and how they saw the future helped guide some important career choices that led me to work on products and services like Windows 95, early versions of Internet Explorer, and the initial creation and launch of Bing. While these completely new areas are risky and less stable, they really challenge you to grow in new and unexpected ways. There are always incredible new platform and technology changes that arrive each year. If you find one that inspires you, don’t be afraid to dive into the great unknown and lean into the discomfort.

Be excellent at what you do. I know this one probably sounds a bit cliché, but it really is a critical element to personal growth and career progression especially if you are earlier in career. Over the 30-40 years that will span your career, you will work on a great many businesses and products. The work will change, but what is remembered is the level of impact you made while you were on a particular project or mission. If you hold a high bar for excellence, you will undoubtedly have to bring your very best work ethic, passion, and commitment. As people see your commitment for excellence you will undoubtedly be sought out and asked to take on more. It is far more important to be known as someone that can deliver at a very high level no matter the project vs someone that has a lot on their plate. Equally, excellence will lead to success and success will make the work enjoyable which spins the virtuous flywheel of wanting to continue to improve. If you watch the world’s best athletes, entrepreneurs, and entertainers, you will not mistake how much they hone their craft to be excellent and it incorporates all the attributes of a growth mindset, work ethic, and focus on their customer/audience.

Always make time for the people and things in life that matter most to you. I saved this for last, as this is one of the most important pieces of advice that I can give, and one of the areas I get asked about frequently. Balancing our work lives and our personal lives has always been a challenge, and in recent years it has become even more difficult because technology has enabled work from anywhere and anytime. Growing a successful career can be incredibly fulfilling, but it should never be at the expense of personal relationships or taking time away from things that bring real joy in your life. You can only be truly successful in your job if you are happy in your whole life. For me, my family comes first. I’ve never missed an important family event or key moment in my children’s lives such as a birthday, a first day of school, or a graduation, as I know those moments are something you can never get back. Being present with my friends and family when it matters has brought me great joy and in return I redouble my commitment to the company that enables me to have this fantastic work and life balance. It isn’t always easy and for me it means at times I will need to work late into the evening, but I happily make that tradeoff for the time during the day when I need it. In the end, I sleep well at night because I know I have prioritized all the things across my family and job and I have not sacrificed either.

I hope sharing these tips has been helpful to you whatever stage you are in your career. I’d love to learn from this community and hear your advice, and I look forward to reading your thoughts in the comments.