Back in 2015, I was working as an RSDE in Microsoft Research. I was a Principal Engineer, and the technical lead for LUIS, a natural language understanding service we were getting ready to launch at //build. Then a re-org happened as a result of one of our directors leaving. My manager was asked to take that role and he needed a development manager for the 7 engineers under … [Read more...] about Becoming a software engineering manager
Career transitions
Changing jobs and programming interviews
Last year I decided it was time to try something new. After 16 years at Microsoft I found myself wanting to get new experiences and challenges. This meant going through programming interviews again. This was actually pretty scary. After all, I joined Microsoft out of college so I had only gone through a full interview process once. What if I lucked out the first time? Would I … [Read more...] about Changing jobs and programming interviews
Software Engineering to Machine Learning
I'd like to get into machine learning ... This is something I hear often, and with good reason. Machine Learning has risen as one of the hottest fields in Computer Science and the software industry. For companies it's appealing because it serves as a tool to leverage the large volumes of data available nowadays to turn it into business value. For engineers it's a fascinating … [Read more...] about Software Engineering to Machine Learning
Can you go to graduate school while working as a software engineer?
As a professional software engineer, the question of going back to school can often cross your mind. And this brings up some related questions: Is it worth it? Should I do it now or later? Can I juggle work and school? I've personally done this twice. I joined Microsoft straight out of college, and a couple of years later I started the UW CSE Professional Master's program. … [Read more...] about Can you go to graduate school while working as a software engineer?