Why I left HPE and joined Microsoft

I recently made the decision to take a role at Microsoft, leaving HPE after 12 years to step into an Individual Contributor position. It was not an easy decision, but one that I felt was necessary. I wanted to get back to my roots, focus on building again, and gain exposure to hyperscalers, an area I have not had the chance to work in before.

A big part of that decision was also driven by my desire to get real world exposure to AI training workloads and gain experience solving problems at scale. It is one thing to understand these systems in theory, and another to be directly involved in the environments where they are actively being built, optimized, and pushed forward.

First week at Microsoft

Now one week in, I’ve officially wrapped up my first week at Microsoft, working on the AI Customer Experience team, and it’s been quite the experience already.

If I had to sum it up in a few words, it’s been energizing, humbling, and honestly a bit entertaining.

The people I’ve met so far have been incredibly helpful and responsive. That has made a huge difference stepping into a brand new environment. There is always that initial uncertainty when you join something already in motion, but having approachable and supportive teammates makes it much easier to get started.

Right now, I’m very much in learning mode.

My focus over these first few weeks, and probably the first month, is to really understand the landscape. I want to learn who the key voices are across each team, what each team owns, how their work connects to mine, and how everything fits together at a bigger organizational level.

I’m also being intentional about building relationships early. My goal is to connect with two to three people across different teams as often as I can. Not just quick introductions, but real conversations that help me understand both the work and the people behind it.

It has been refreshing to meet new faces and hear different perspectives. There is something about being new that sharpens your awareness. You start to notice gaps, inefficiencies, and opportunities in ways that might not be as obvious when you have been somewhere for a long time.

I have already started to see a few areas where I think I may be able to make an impact.

What stands out is that the problems here are not just complex. They come with unique constraints, which makes the problem solving that much more interesting. It is not just about finding solutions, but finding the right solutions within real world limitations.

There is still a lot to learn, and I am very much at the beginning of this journey, but that is part of what makes it exciting.

Right now, it is all about listening, learning, and laying the foundation.

The impact will come.