Hello Julie, thanks for doing this AMA! As a fellow non-CS-degreed software engineer (BFA in Illustration, lol), I have some questions for you about culture and learning.
Before I got into tech, I was working in some decidedly different fields (local government, graphic design, etc), and the culture shock for me coming into a startup was pretty notable. What did you do before you came to Microsoft? Is the tech business culture something that you were immersed in before starting your job, or was it new to you?
Another question I have - does the impostor syndrome ever really go away? :)
I was actually in college! I graduated and got a job at Microsoft. I had some idea about the tech culture, I had two internships previously at Intel, and my dad worked at Microsoft over 20 years ago (no nepotism). I do think that Microsoft made it easy and was very welcoming, thus making the shock of culture change easier.
Impostor Syndrome never goes away! I wish! Especially with a Liberal Arts degree, it always creeps up. Some days are better than others, but I think knowing that it is okay to be an impostor, keeps me going. What I mean by that is, I bring a perspective that none of my teammates have, and that is why I am here. I am technically able, but I also have a different view.
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Hello Julie, thanks for doing this AMA! As a fellow non-CS-degreed software engineer (BFA in Illustration, lol), I have some questions for you about culture and learning.
Before I got into tech, I was working in some decidedly different fields (local government, graphic design, etc), and the culture shock for me coming into a startup was pretty notable. What did you do before you came to Microsoft? Is the tech business culture something that you were immersed in before starting your job, or was it new to you?
Another question I have - does the impostor syndrome ever really go away? :)
Thanks again for your time! This is awesome :D
Hi Anna!
I was actually in college! I graduated and got a job at Microsoft. I had some idea about the tech culture, I had two internships previously at Intel, and my dad worked at Microsoft over 20 years ago (no nepotism). I do think that Microsoft made it easy and was very welcoming, thus making the shock of culture change easier.
Impostor Syndrome never goes away! I wish! Especially with a Liberal Arts degree, it always creeps up. Some days are better than others, but I think knowing that it is okay to be an impostor, keeps me going. What I mean by that is, I bring a perspective that none of my teammates have, and that is why I am here. I am technically able, but I also have a different view.