>> Welcome to Microsoft Unboxed.
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>> I think we're just waiting on Colleen.
You wear the same things as me.
>> Mine is shinier. You got glasses.
>> You've got your glasses.
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>> I think we are spending too much time together.
>> Hold on.
>> You're going to double down on this?
>> Yeah, I'm doubling down.
>> Okay, great. You're documenting that
you're copying me right now?
>> Who says I wasn't wearing this first.
>> I'm older.
>> How does that work?
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>> Whatever, I'm rocking it.
>> I'm one of your hosts Sonia Dara,
and I'm joined by my twin clearly, Colleen O'Brien.
>> Hello world.
>> By popular demand we wanted to switch things around and
talk about what it's like to be a Microsoft employee.
>> Before we dive in,
don't forget to subscribe.
We have new episodes rolling out every Thursday so yeah,
make sure you're a part of that action.
>> Well shimmy.
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>> Before Microsoft we had other lives, right?
It's the same life but just chapters in our lives.
>> Was there life before Microsoft?
>> Neither Colleen or I actually interned
at Microsoft during our summers in college.
I know my freshman year,
I landed on dentistry
partly because my parents totally use inception of,
"Do you want a job that's helping people?
Do you want a job that makes a lot of
money and you can have your own hours?"
I said, "What is this magical job?"
They were like, "Teeth,
you want to fix people's teeth" This is not
forever cool and not for the faint of heart.
I realized I do not do well with blood, so abort.
I shadowed Tyra Banks for all summer because I had taken off
a year during college to model and so I met her through that.
So that was my first stick with marketing,
then Microsoft came to campus
and there were recruiting and I was like.
>> Technology, there seems like there's something going on there.
>> Yeah.
>> My degree was in Visual and Environmental Studies,
which is Harvard speak for Film Production.
The first job that I had summer after freshman year,
was working for a company called Let's Go Travel Guide.
I was the editor of Let's Go France.
>> Had you been to France a lot that you can have content for it?
>> No.
>> The next job that I had was working for the Boston Phoenix.
At the time I was working in the advertising group and
just getting my feet wet around
this concept of integrated marketing.
So instead of just pitching a print ad to accompany,
we were thinking about all of the ways that we
could bring an advertising campaign to life.
I thought a lot about what Microsoft may have
seen in that mixture of experiences.
I had editorial and writing experience,
I had advertising experience working at
the Boston Phoenix and then I have
this Customer Service experience.
So my first role at Microsoft actually
combined all three of those things.
>> That's right yeah.
>> Yeah, I worked as an Advertising Policy Analysts
on Microsoft advertising.
>> None of my stuff actually
landed up to my first job at Microsoft,
I learned all of it on the ground when I was here.
So everyone can take their own paths here.
>> I work as a Marketing Manager on the M12 team.
M12's mission is to empower entrepreneurs through investments,
insights and unparalleled access to Microsoft.
I am very much a Startup Entrepreneur Voyeur.
>> Yeah, you're.
>> I loved to be really thriving on
that energy of building their own companies,
I love the grit that you need to demonstrate as an entrepreneur.
I know that I can be more valuable and a better contributor
in a corporate space but this allows me
to get really close to that energy.
A lot of my work locally in
the Seattle office is with the portfolio development team.
They're showing companies the ropes of how they
could get integrated into Microsoft,
it's really cool to start your day hearing
from really innovative Startup Entrepreneurs.
>> So I'm on the Surface Marketing Team
on the commercial side and one of
the greatest aspects of my job is I get to collaborate
with a lot of people on a lot of different projects and teams.
Actually really like that moving chaos,
some people are like no, "I want to work on
one project at a time have it super clean."
Yeah, yesterday I started at around
7:35 as well I am not a morning owl.
>> A morning owl.
>> Idioms are not my thing.
>> It's early right now.
>> It's not, it's only nine.
Okay, we have our standing V-teams to work on launch right now.
V-team, virtual team.
>> Which means that you're not on the same team but
you're working across organizations.
>> Exactly, a whole mix of
levels so you have Senior directors in their GM's,
everyone working together for this common goal,
working with a lot of
those stakeholders internationally right now.
So that's been fun with the time zone thing as well,
some early-morning calls and late evening
e-mails I try to coordinate and collaborate.
>> Sounds like you're pretty busy.
>> Yeah, it's been fun.
What has been your best day at Microsoft?
>> My best day at Microsoft was in 2017 when
we announced the results of the 2016 giving campaign.
>> Yeah.
>> Microsoft has an employee giving program.
All of our donations are matched up to $15,000,
our volunteer hours are matched at $25 dollars per hour.
Every October we have
an entire month dedicated to giving up the company.
It's a time when the culture is really alive on the campus and I
was lucky enough in 2016 to serve
as one of seven loaned professionals,
helped run the employee giving campaign in 2016.
It was one of the first times that I
really got outside of my bubble and started meeting
some of our community leaders who are doing
such important work to make
the Pacific Northwest an awesome place to live.
>> That's a wholesome.
>> It's true.
>> How we became better friends.
>> Yeah, friendship.
She's really encouraging to me and I think
a huge demonstration of the culture that this company is building.
>> I think most of the folks here hopefully
saw one of my top five moments which
was episode zero of breaking down the walls of building two.
By far one of the coolest things I've gotten to do.
I would save my best but
also most stressful day I've ever had at Microsoft
was when I got to deliver a demo in
Satya Nadella's keynote at
Microsoft Inspire which is a big partner conference.
It's my first time doing anything like that in terms of live,
in person, on stage with about 18,000 people in it.
>> Wow.
>> So it's cool that Microsoft took this chance and bet on me
to deliver but it took a year off my life.
I had to do this tech check the night before and I was so nervous,
I remember I got on stage and I just word jibberish,
I wasn't sure. I was like.
"This is going to be awful" and I had a cold also
so when I go like in person no big deal yes,
someone has a little bit of a cold but when you're in
an arena and everything's echoed and amplified.
I remember I go to sit down I was like,
"My God, I don't think I did so well"
I feel someone sit down next to me and go like,
"There, there you did okay" and
I look up and it's Chris Capossela.
He is our Chief Marketing Officer.
So he's my boss's, boss's, boss's,
boss and he was so nice he was like,
"You sounds like you have a little bit of a cold.
How are you doing?
You did great up there."
So I remember that night to calm myself down,
I just listened to Africa by Toto on repeat for about 45 minutes.
Then the next day I blew my nose before
I went on stage and I delivered it and it was awesome.
I got to showcase
Surface Hub one of our products I'm super proud about.
>> Yeah, it was really cool.
I wasn't there in person but I watched you on
the live stream and kept screenshotting the screen.
>> She did. She's like," I saw your face."
>> Yeah, it's really cool to have friends
who are doing epic things at the company.
>> Thanks, you're doing epic things too.
More friendship, hi-five.
As proud Microsoft employees who apparently
show up at work dressed the same way.
>> This is the official uniform.
>> It's the official uniform in Microsoft today.
We're going to transition to
our next segment called Outside the Box.
>> Yeah.
>> Maybe I had a sparkle on my teeth, ding.
If you could choose between a dog or a cat as a pet,
which one would you choose?
>> I would choose a dog,
I am deathly allergic to cats.
Yeah, it's not a pretty sight.
>> Yeah, I want to see that, I haven't seen it before.
>> Okay. What were words that you couldn't
pronounce as a child so you made up your own?
>> One that my parents still love to make fun of
me is I couldn't pronounce the word monkey,
I would say, "Punkey."
They would say, "Mon" and I would go, "Mon" "Key" key.
"Monkey." Punkey. I'm just aggressive and then
the other one is I always thought I
couldn't speak Hindi when I was six years old.
I would be pretending to speak Hindi.
This is not a Hindi word.
>> You just made it up?
>> I just made it up.
>> Always innovating.
>> So if you have any specific questions
for either of us like you saw,
please make sure to submit questions to
the e-mail address below or comment on the video.
>> Hit that subscribe button,
we have new episodes every Thursday.
>> Thanks for joining us today. Thumbs up.
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