UPWARDS: Recent Episodes
Microsoft Aspire Experience
Welcome to UPWARDS, sponsored by the Microsoft Aspire Experience, where we share stories and insights to help you grow 1% better, in your personal and professional life, every episode.
It’s a big rock we live on, but it can definitely feel smaller when you’re able to connect with different people from around the world and learn about each other’s experiences, celebrating what makes each of us different, and unique. Not only does that connection support empathy and understanding, but it also helps us understand ourselves better, too. Join us as we conclude Season 2 of UPWARDS with a special, global episode featuring four guests from around the world.
How do you take the experiences and skills you have and align them with your passions for a more purposeful career? Jessica Afeku has navigated an exciting and varied career journey and has managed to meet challenges head on while not compromising on her ideals and interests outside of work. Join us for an inspiring conversation on how to find motivation and purpose on your career journey and the encouragement to share your talents in both your professional and personal life.
As a seasoned veteran of the federal space, Ted has witness countless instances of lack of awareness in navigating certain client interactions. Having mastered the skill of Diplomacy, critical for personal and professional growth, Ted has a passion for making sure others are well-versed in how to effectively navigate in these spaces. Join us on this episode to hear ways we can all improve our diplomatic skills when we are caught between a rock and a hard place!
Are you worried that you're going to stay static in your career? Worried that you won't be able to explore other industries? Have no fear, Juliana Tioanda, Chief of Staff and Director of Business Strategy for Gaming, is here (and has been in your exact shoes). Listen in to learn how you can consistently make an impact no matter where you are in your career, and how to dynamically shift paths to new areas of exploration!
Healthcare to Sid is not just our eating fitness habits, but also everything in our environments: the air, soil, and everything around us. Sid is a strategist, a dot-connector, and a mastermind in health-tech. Listen in as we pick Sid's mind on how he fully utilizes his network and innovates with concepts from other fields to create a FitBit for the planet.
Most of us love learning, but what goes into a healthy learning environment that might be below the surface? Join us this episode to learn about Chris Shaffer's journey to discover what goes into effective learning and how he has started to lead Microsoft's effort to redefine learning culture!
Have we lost the ability to 'walk a mile' in each others shoes? In this episode, learn how Jewel taps into her experience of discrimination in Computer Science, and how everyone's underestimation of her led her to founding YouMatter Studios, landing an internship at Microsoft, and more!
When you imagine what a stereotypical gamer looks like and the games they play, what do you think of? We bet you most people conjure up the same image in their heads. This week, Katy Jo Wright, the director of Xbox's Gaming for Everyone, comes on the podcast to debunk this stereotype and discuss diversity, equity, and inclusion in the gaming space. Drawing from her past experience in recruiting and D&I, Katy Jo walks us through how she discovered and created her dream job, and, how she aims to make gaming accessible and empowering to all three billion gamers around the world.
Being a Product Manager (PM) requires you to optimize a lot of things: time spent on a project, budget spend, feature impacts, team progression, and more. But how can we translate these skills (and others) into tangible impact towards our personal lives? Is there a system we can develop for ourselves to PM our lives and synergize the thought process we have at work to the growth process we would like to see occur in ourselves? Hadley shares her struggles adapting to the career world post-college, the sense of direction-lessness that accompanied her (and many others) in her early days at Microsoft, and how she has approached moving forward!
What does it mean to "have a great day on purpose?" Join us this episode as Ethan Alexander explores the benefits of intentionality, gratitude, and positivity encapsulated by this mantra and how it relates to his life story, as well as how it can lead to personal growth in your own life as well!
As early-in-career herself, Lily has always had passions in environmental and social responsibility. She was an active participant of the Hult Prize (a non-profit social entrepreneurship org), is a founder of the Canadian Sustainability Community, and is working to support the Data Center Team in their workforce development, environmental initiatives, and socio-economic impacts. A lot of her "why" for engaging in these causes come from her family origins in China. She's an individual that absolutely embodies the concept of "empower each and every organization on the planet to achieve more" in asking "how do we integrate career progression with helping to make the world a better place?"
What does it mean to be committed to "Journey of Becoming"? For Kyren, that meant the learning and adoption of kingly principles such as reflection, healthy mentor relationships, and growing influence. Listen in to hear insight on how to take a radical self-defining journey, and how Kyren is bringing others along with him.
Going from EMT to self-taught developer, entreprenuer, community builder, and now Microsoft Program Manager working on Mixed Reality for Hololens, Jesse McCulloch has certainly taken the path less traveled. Not only has Jesse been able to break into tech and work on some ground breaking technologies, he's made sure to build programs and communities to benefit others new to the field after him. Tune in to hear Jesse's story as he reframes being 'new' to a field as an advantageous opportunity!
Have you ever had so many passions that you can't balance them all? Or wanted to make them part of your career but don't know how to? Jen is here to give you all the advice to bring your passions to the forefront. From creating start-ups, to running a food blog, to working on product at Microsoft and Stripe, and to building a creator's community on Discord...Jen has perfected the craft of identifying her passions and making them a key part of her life.
Once upon a time, Mark couldn't make direct eye contact with anyone, always shy due to various issues including mental health, social anxiety, being a first-generation immigrant, and poverty. Now, he dedicates his life to being of service to others by making an impact in the industries of mental health, careers, health & wellness, personal branding, speaking, storytelling, and more. Learn how Mark got to where he's at and what you can do to help feel comfortable bringing your authentic self to everyone around you.
In western culture, the idea of self-centric living pervades nearly all of society, particularly in corporate realms. How can ‘I’ benefit from ‘you’ being the equation so often running through our minds when we meet others. However, some folks choose to lift others up in everything they do, changing the equation to: how can ‘I’ benefit ‘you’ in both personal & professional situations while still finding ways to activate their purpose and passions. Sophie joins us today to share her incredible journey in life of doing just that.
As a finance major and FRP analyst when starting at Microsoft, Kevin constantly found himself drawn to technology when he realized he had a passion for Power BI and teaching it to others. From there, he engaged in multiple stretch projects working with the Power BI team and has now moved to the role of BI Information Architect! Kevin's story is the perfect example of creating your role at Microsoft and speaks volumes to the experience of learning on the job regardless of what your education background was focused on.
Calling anyone from a non-tech background! Helen Huang is here to chat about how she broke into a tech with an earth sciences degree, picked up product management skills, and launched her own company, Co.Lab, to help others break into the tech industry. As a community-focused leader, Helen and her co-founders built Co.Lab to teach anyone and everyone to learn by doing, develop professional relationships, and gain new skills.
How do companies go beyond their own operations, and work with their local communities and employees? In this episode, Holly Beale guides us through how she brought her passion for sustainability to Microsoft and built the Datacenter Community Environmental Sustainability Program and Microsoft’s sustainability employee engagement program.
To be or not to be…in your career? There are so many directions that a career path can go. Karen had 200+ career conversations with Microsoft employees around the world as she tried figuring out her next steps. In this episode, hear her key learnings from these chats as well as what it’s like to run a career blog that has reached readers from 78 countries. If you’re curious about developing your personal brand and professional career, dare to take a listen!
Goal setting often helps to turn theory into reality, especially at work. When Michael started at Microsoft in 2019, he made two goals: (1) Learn as much as possible and (2) Create more than he consumes with Microsoft serving as a springboard for learning and creating. In this episode, find out some simple strategies and tactics that you can use to turn your job into a daily education. Learn how to build communities and share your work knowledge with the world.
Nicole has always been a self-starter. Through her passion of storytelling, she went from writing her first short story "Nancy the Nanny Goat" as a child to running her own successful writing entrepreneurial venture for 14 years. Despite her success in the entrepreneurial space, Nicole was missing a feeling of growth and challenge and returned to Microsoft, bringing an excellent perspective for many early-in-career individuals or anyone looking to bring an entrepreneurial flare to their career.
From a featured skater in Thrasher magazine to shipping Xbox Live to Chief Architect at Microsoft, John has done some remarkable things throughout his career. At the end of the day, he chooses to be led by curiosity. Hear John’s story as he looks back (and forward) at his career at Microsoft.
From being one of the few female aerospace engineers at Georgia Tech and a comedian at open mic night to a leader in Microsoft's Federal Sales unit, Caroline embodies what it means to intentional and fun in any situation while maintaining confidence and poise in herself. In this episode, Caroline brings some laughter and advice on how to bring a similar attitude to any part of life.
Groups of individuals, aligned around the right goal, exhibit “emergent properties”, characteristics greater than the sum of their parts. In this episode, we explore how to unlock these properties through the power of bringing others with you: the practice of creating a space for people to make an impact alongside you by empowering them to lean into their skills and passions. Dan LaBruna is a Software Engineer in Cloud + AI at Microsoft and the founder of Care for Students (www.careforstudents.org), a non-profit that provides virtual tutoring support to public school students in need. Find him on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielslabruna/.
Leadership is important anywhere but it’s most important to understand how leadership works at the place where you work. This episode will give concrete examples on how leadership makes certain decisions and all aspects of how MS considers employee feedback into driving decision making.
Microsoft has a monstrous amount of people within it, how does anyone get in contact with the right person, especially if you’re trying to find a new role? This is how to identify teams you’re interested in, how to discover them and identify specific members and also strategies on getting to talk to a hiring manager. More strategic insight than “just network until you figure it out” Think outside the box like watching the all hands of other orgs or receiving announcements from other orgs.
You are only as good as you can communicate, and you have one of the most complex instruments in the world - your voice. Yet, when was the last time you sat down and learned how to use it to its fullest potential? Most people in life only focus on their visual image and put little to no time and attention on their vocal image. What is your vocal image saying about you? What is your vocal image saying about you? What assumptions are people making when they hear you speak? Have you learned how to style your vocal image? Masterful communication allows you to amplify the very best parts of who you are, allowing the skills you currently possess to shine brighter and to influence and engage those around you.
Of the many pain points present throughout 2020, one that struck close to the heart for many was the sudden loss of social support through acquaintances and close friends. Meeting new people over video calls revealed a question most of us don’t think we need to answer post-high school: “is this person my friend?” Many individuals have shared their stories of being lonely and unsure of friendship during this time, and it shines a light on the struggle of ensuring we have human connection through virtual communications. In this episode, we want to share a conversation centered around how we can adapt our behavior to promote building friendships despite the distance, so that at the minimum we can be sensitive and aware of how some may be struggling with remote work, and hopefully help foster the growth of a friendly digital community.
No one can read your mind and chances are with the growth mindset everyone we have, people are willing to help! How do you frame an ask to be the most beneficial for everyone involved? What’s the most professional procedure to make sure your ask is heard? This episode explores the true power of the ask.
Tech life often overemphasizes your career progression (esp. if you are an early in career hire). We are sold on the illustrious career before us, and quickly learn that there is an enormous amount of effort required to effectively network and shift around in the company, let alone be promoted. This focus on career, our position, and our identity defined by our roles often creates a toxic mindset that generates burnout and dissatisfaction in life. Instead, we want to introduce the idea that shifting our identity away from our role opens a more secure identity to contribute with (i.e., who are we and what do we bring to the table in our life, what are we built to do). This is not only a more effective and healthy way to advance a career, but also shifts our life focus away from just “our life and benefits” to “how our life benefits others’ lives”.
Many folks don’t have any habits set up when they start their career which can lead to wasting a lot of time that could otherwise be put towards something meaningful, like a personal project or a stretch assignment. Forming habits early in your career can have a significant impact on your success. In this episode, we explore how to think about our habits and the things we can do to optimize our time instead of waiting for an opportunity to become busy.
Cavemen knew one of life’s greatest secrets—there is power in storytelling. Storytelling conveys history, lessons, and connections to people and events regardless of time and place. We can often identify those who are master storytellers and yet often downgrade our own storytelling abilities. In this episode, we’ll go over some best practices for how to capture stories and share them with others so that you can best connect with those around you.
Have you thought about your career beyond the one-year mark? Learn how you can create a career development plan that you can refer to and adjust along the way. The goal is to be both focused and flexible so that you kind of have an idea of where you want to go but also leaves enough room to allow for opportunities that might come knocking on your door when you least expect them.
For many of us, we dream of a life where we pursue our “true” passions--maybe work is less of a burden or we get to enjoy a lifestyle we don't currently live. But, talk is talk until you walk the walk. Find out some simple strategies and tactics that you can use to start creating your "ideal workday." Learn how to pursue a system of successful work--creatively accomplishing your work not only just for your "dream" lives but also for your "day job" lives.
UPWARDS is an early-in-career podcast bringing you stories and strategies to help you grow 1% better in your personal and professional life. Sponsored by the Microsoft Aspire Experience. Join hosts--Zach Xu & Jay Li and Alex Kessel & Jake Hughson—as they talk to internal and external guests about topics ranging from how to navigate the Microsoft network to how to build “atomic” habits of vulnerability and empathy at work. UPWARDS is available on your preferred podcast platform.