Speaker 1: 0:08

Hello, welcome to Microsoft Community Insights Podcast, where we share insights from community experts to stay up to date in Microsoft. I'm Nicholas. I'll be your host today. In this podcast. We will dive into tech journey. Before we get started, I want to remind you to follow us on social media so you never miss an episode. So it helps us reach more amazing people like ourselves. Today we have an amazing special guest called Ajit Tuala. Sorry, I pronounced it wrong. Can you please introduce yourself, hi?

Speaker 2: 0:41

Hey Nick, Thanks for having me on the show. My name is Haji Dhaliwal and I'm based in Vermont, USA, so I work for Microsoft and former Microsoft MVP as well.

Speaker 1: 0:57

So before we get started, I'll just say happy holidays and Merry Christmas to everyone, so that's listening. Have, uh, happy holidays and merry christmas to everyone, so that's listening. And yes, so today's episode we're going to talk about uh tech journey and in particular, with project one. So before we get started, we want to just rewind. Rewind the time, and someone asked how, how do you, how do you get started in your tech journey to find your role in Microsoft? When did it start?

Speaker 2: 1:29

Yeah, so this is an interesting question. My tech journey started a long time ago, many moons ago. Basically, I got to thank my brother, who's not with me anymore. He's introduced me to computers back in the early 80s, right? You know the ones where you had to boot up with a five and a quarter floppy disk, right, and then you had to if you want to use a different program, you had to put a different disk in stuff like that. That got me really interested. Like, hey, what's this all about? How come I'm seeing things move around on screen and stuff like that? That got me really interested. Like, hey, what's this all about? How come I'm seeing things move around on screen and stuff? And, long story short, went to college in Canada and I migrated from Malaysia to Canada and I started doing some computer programming classes. I've always been very curious about technology and things like that. I'm opening up radios, I'm opening up all sorts of gadgets and stuff just to see how things look. Um, I started.

Speaker 2: 2:31

Eventually I landed, like I was in the hospitality industry, you know, I worked in restaurants and things like that. But I eventually landed a very sweet gig where I traveled around the country, um, working for a hotel a large hotel company setting up computers at various hotels, right, Programming, teaching them things like that. Then eventually I ended up at a K-12 school system and for those of you that are outside of the US, you don't know what K-12 is. It's basically kindergarten to high school, right? It covers all the grades. So I did everything right. I did computer repairs to networking, pulling wires, to sysadmin work and stuff like that.

Speaker 2: 3:17

And then, long story, ended up at Microsoft. I was actually encouraged to apply to Microsoft, being a Microsoft MVP. Before that, you know, some people saw the potential and said hey, you know you would be a good fit for Microsoft. You know we could really use you, your expertise and your experiences. And I was hesitant at first. To be honest with you. Right, you got that fear right. Hey, you know it's a cream of a crop that goes to Microsoft and stuff like that.

Speaker 1: 3:51

So, yeah, I was encouraged. What was your first PC for tax at your first role?

Speaker 2: 4:00

I can't remember it, but I remember it was in Malaysia and it was super expensive. I think my brother paid like $10,000 or something at that time. It's like the Matrix it's all in green and it's all text-based and things like that. You had a little bit of graphics but it was all like that one-dimensional things, stuff like that. I can't remember the name of it, but one of my modern, more modern first computers that I ever got was a packet bell. They don't exist anymore.

Speaker 1: 4:39

It's like HP's in it now Maybe right.

Speaker 2: 4:42

But what excited me was that I was able to get on the internet with aol the old one.

Speaker 1: 4:50

We're not the modem, isn't it? Yeah, right, with a 14.4 uh bot modem.

Speaker 2: 4:55

Um, it was very interesting. I had some friends who used to play some games, like especially duke newcombe, and we would play over the wire with 14.4 and it was amazing, it was great.

Speaker 1: 5:11

Okay, so how come it's cost that much? The PC 10 grand?

Speaker 2: 5:15

I think it was so new at that time it was so new, it was like a very niche market. At that time you must have gotten a loan or something for the bank and and needed it for the business or something. But yeah, now you can buy them for uh, for you know price of a candy, now you know yeah so.

Speaker 1: 5:40

So what inspired you to uh pursue that path to Microsoft, like join Microsoft? Did someone recommend you to it?

Speaker 2: 5:50

Yeah, I had, like you know, the customer success account managers or the account managers from Microsoft who used to. I used to work at the university for almost 20 years and this person used to come and say, hey, you know you should join Microsoft. I really man you, we need your, we need people like you and stuff like that. I had other people that recommend and put referrals and stuff like that for me to. But finding the right role was always a challenge, right, and a lot of people will say you know what Microsoft's really hard to get in, which is pretty true. It's like trying to get your foot in the door, like get something. But even then you know you want to get a position that you can feel comfortable and do your best work. So I joined Microsoft as a customer engineer, microsoft as a customer engineer.

Speaker 2: 6:47

I've always been a 90 pro, and customer engineers is what you call CSAs now cloud solution architects they just renamed it. So I joined that way. I was working with customers all the time, very large financial customers mostly and then I've always been passionate about community and social media and the things that you see me do you know today, I've always been doing them, but not in a formal capacity, right. And then there was a role that opened up. Someone internally said hey, this role is made for you, has your name all over it. You know you should, you should pursue it, and so I did, and that's where I am now.

Speaker 1: 7:30

Okay. So throughout your career, is there any challenging moments that you think that you would go back and do better? Oh boy, Whether I would just join another company or just aim for a different role.

Speaker 2: 7:46

Yeah, I think one of my. I'm not sure whether it's a challenge or not, but I had a few opportunities to join a company like Microsoft a few years before I actually joined. But, like I said, I was very comfortable in my old position, right? You know what time you go to work, you know what to do, you know how long it takes to get things done. You know things like that. The benefits were good. You know you're like, ah, I've got a very comfortable position and now going into something that's an unknown and you don't know how it's going to work, you know it's scary, so I should have pursued that.

Speaker 2: 8:27

Challenges, I think it's, I don't know. For example, if you're talking about challenges within Microsoft, it's a huge company, right? We've got over 200,000 people that work for Microsoft. There's a lot of rules and policies and procedures, Like what people see in the outside seems simple and nice, right. But we have a lot of protocols we have to follow. So you have to work with so many different teams and different people. That can be a challenge, right, but having the right connections and having the right relationships definitely help make your life better.

Speaker 1: 9:19

Yeah, so you said, would you recommend, if someone wanted to start their journey into tech career, to always build relationships with people?

Speaker 2: 9:29

Absolutely you have to. I think this day and age is all about I won't say like who you know, or more than what you know, it's really having advocates for you, right? Um, you start somewhere. Someone gets like a you know me and you, for example, right, as you and I build our relationship, we get to know each other and you know something will come up. I'm like, oh, my god, you know, I know this, this. This would be a good path for nicholas to to, to take, take, right, and I know already what you've been doing and and things that you're passionate about, so it'll be easier for me to make recommendations. It doesn't have to be microsoft, it could be another company, right? Yeah, um, things like that. It's always good to have those relationships, otherwise, you're an island on your own right. Nobody knows you, you don't know anybody.

Speaker 1: 10:32

So can you speak about?

Speaker 2: 10:32

how can someone get started to build those relationships? As you know, I do a lot of community work. For me, community is very important. I love my ITPro community. You see me, I'm so passionate all the time in chats and at events and things like that.

Speaker 2: 10:51

You have to come out of your shell. People talk about being extroverts and introverts. Sure, we all have that. But at some point you have to make the effort. You can't just have everything trying to come to you. You have to make the effort. You can't just have everything trying to come to you. You have to make that effort.

Speaker 2: 11:08

So, start small, right, like start with social media, you know, maybe join like blue sky, or maybe do a linkedin. Linkedin is a great, great place, right, create a profile, put all your experiences in there and then just start following people you know in your interest space. So if you're into I don't know Microsoft technologies, follow and, depending on what it is right, you may be a Windows person or you may be an Intune person or M365, or whatever Follow those people and then just start seeing, seeing and then start engaging with them and then start sharing their things. And they start like, hey, this person seems to care about what I shared, what I say and what I do. Let me see what they are all about.

Speaker 2: 11:58

And then you start from there. You start building your network right, and then it's just like a spoke right, like a wheel, and it just spreads and spreads, and spreads. You know, you and I are a good case in point here. Right, we didn't know each other before. I mean, we've known each other now for several months now, but last year I couldn't say that I knew you and neither you knew me.

Speaker 1: 12:28

But somehow, through our network Community, we met each other, exactly, exactly.

Speaker 2: 12:34

So networking is huge. Start from there, start baby steps. Social media is obviously going to be your entry point. There's nothing wrong with it.

Speaker 2: 12:44

Some people say I don't like social media. Well then, we're in an internet world right now, internet age. There's no more sending postcards and letters to each other and things like that. This is how you do it. I get people to be honest with you, people that I don't know, especially when they are on LinkedIn. They will message me and say people that I don't know, especially when they are on LinkedIn. They will message me and say, hey, I noticed you are in this, you're doing this type of work or you're in this role. I'm trying to pursue this. I'm just, you know, I'm a recent graduate or I'm going to be graduating soon or whatever, or I'm to get some ideas or guide me or something like that, and I'm open to that right. So random people will reach you and if they're legit and they have the right mindset and reasons, I don't mind being the mentor to give them that little push Direction, yeah, something we just need to head in the right direction with advice.

Speaker 1: 13:49

We all started somewhere At the direction when it's advice.

Speaker 2: 13:50

We all started somewhere. At the end of the day, we all started somewhere right. We didn't get to where we are today yeah you know, like, like I said, I started from.

Speaker 2: 14:00

Yeah, you know I didn't even do like when you asked me about my my journey. You know, one of my first really touched into technology was I was helping run the technology space in a very small scale in Indonesia, malaysia, singapore years ago. I was going to remote locations where you had to use satellites and stuff like that to get some kind of connection so people can communicate.

Speaker 1: 14:33

Okay. You know, yeah, what was that like? Because it's going to.

Speaker 2: 14:41

You said about satellite, yeah, so this was a long time ago as well, and I was helping again, it was my brother's, you know. He was running a business with a partner of his and he said hey, come on down, I'll set you up. You know, I just want you to run my office for me. You know, and some field workers you know he had like a small group of and then a lot of them were using Macs and things like that. A lot of them were using Macs and things like that, but sometimes they needed to send, they're like, but there's no. You know you were using like hardwired, you know phone lines to you know, with modems and stuff like that. But then you were out in the remote locations, like you know, in the timber, you know, plantations and stuff like that, where you need to get in there. So they had like, at that time there was this like satellite kind of contraption that you could set up with one computer.

Speaker 1: 15:41

You know you're almost like it was expensive, but it did the job right. Yeah, so I just want to dive into the community of things that you did. So I see you're quite active in the community. Can you share a bit more of what community work you've done and why you're passionate about community?

Speaker 2: 15:59

Yeah, like we talked, about it earlier, I do a lot of MVP work for the community. One of my other roles is I'm a product group lead for Windows MVPs, so I manage that group as well, for you know renewals and admissions and giving them support and encouragement or you know things like that right. So I do a lot of that kind of stuff. As a former MVP, I know how the system works and I know what it's like being on the other side of the equation, right. So I do a lot of that kind of stuff. As a former MVP, I know how the system works and I know what it's like being on the other side of the equation, right.

Speaker 2: 16:33

So, I'm like, hey, you know, you should do more of this because that's going to like enhance you or you know whatever. Or don't do this because that could get you into, you know, a little bit of trouble and stuff. Community is for me. I love going to events. I love, you know, just engaging there and people coming up and say, hey, you know, thank you so much for putting such and such content out there that helped me with my, my company, or save me some some trouble, and stuff like that. Or hey, you know that blog post that you did, that was amazing. That's exactly what we were looking for. I love your videos, you know, keep doing those you did. That was amazing. That's exactly what we were looking for. I love your videos. Keep doing those videos, because I learned a few things from that.

Speaker 1: 17:15

I think it's the feedback, because sometimes I get great feedback from messages from LinkedIn saying about your blog post. So that's my encouragement. So I think it's all about the feedback to encourage people to do more.

Speaker 2: 17:29

Yeah, you know, I think people like you and me are not doing it for any rewards or anything like. Oh no, I'm going to get you know whatever be a celebrity or anything like that, it's none of that stuff. It's just basically like I've been there already. I know what needs to happen. I know the struggles people have and you know what it what it needs to happen. I know the struggles people have and you know what. I also want to encourage and promote good stuff from other people, right? So if you posted something like this video or uh, blogs or content or whatever, I promote that stuff all the time because it needs to have visibility. We need people to see, hey, you may need something. This person just shared this stuff. You know this could come in handy for you and then that builds that person's you know, I don't know confidence or something for them to do more right, you know things like that.

Speaker 2: 18:30

Community is important. It's really really important because, from a Microsoft perspective me being inside now community also helps build and guide the products and solutions that we have right, the feedback that you said is what I hear all the time. People are telling me hey, I don't like this thing in, I don't know whether it's Intune or whether it's Windows or oh, you know what. We could use more of this type of feature or whatever. And I'm like, oh, that's interesting, I bring that feedback back in. You know, internally, talk to engineering, talk to the PMs and stuff like that. Hey, have you guys thought about this? Oh yeah, that's in the roadmap or we are working on that. Give us more, give us a business case for it. So I've become like the conduit between the community and the tech creators, right, okay, yeah, and also, you know, expanding.

Speaker 2: 19:29

Okay yeah, and also, like you know, expanding a little bit more, like I'm also very passionate about, you know, accessibility features and accessibility things. So a lot of people don't know about that stuff, so I try to use my abilities or my platform to share that with the community. Yeah, I think I lost you a second there but that's okay.

Speaker 1: 20:03

Yeah, I'm back. Sorry, I'm not sure what's wrong. So how did you get started in the microsoft's race? And 365 space is because of your, your, your role that leads you to microsoft, so you end up being a be, a join, a role in microsoft that does 365, like windows no.

Speaker 2: 20:25

So that's interesting, very interesting question. So when I joined microsoft, I was a customer engineer, right I. I was focused on things like Config Manager, intune, for the most part Windows clients to Windows servers and config manager, all that stuff, patch management, everything. So I was in that space. And then, as I'm working with customers, and I started noticing there's some other very cool technologies that people are not dabbling in yet. For example, like universal print, right, like what is universal print? So I started helping customers. Right, like what is universal print? So I started helping customers. Right, have you guys looked into this? You're managing you know five or six print servers with hundreds of you know printers and suddenly thinking them about it and stuff. And then that led me to other products as well. And then now my role in marketing is cloud endpoints, mainly. That I do from end to end. So windows, windows 365, intune, copilot and anything that comes in between, right, um, so I dabble in everything really okay.

Speaker 1: 21:48

So, throughout, since you're like a bit of each, like windows, office 365 or to the end point, is there any uh, any projects or achievement that you're feeling proud of? Doing your journey down, what, uh, which one is the best? Which one is the best that you like recommend? People like to get advice on?

Speaker 2: 22:14

so I, I would, you know, honestly, I would encourage people to really look into Copilot, right, yeah, it's literally phenomenal, Like just using it on a daily basis to do so much that you can do. Like you can create images you can create, you know, you can ask questions, you can, you know it'll find things for you. That is just mind blowing. My daughter is actually one of my daughters is still still in college right now, finishing a nursing program, and she uses it all the time to to do research and stuff for her nursing classes. Right, you can create PowerPoint presentations and so on and so forth. I mean, the world is your oyster with this thing. Right, you got to have an open mind and be curious about you know what it can do.

Speaker 2: 23:14

Other things that are other projects that I've worked on and obviously I had a hand in the launch of, like, Windows 11, you know Windows 11, you know, and then you know Windows 11 22H2, 23H2, 24H2, so on and so forth. So I'm also very passionate about that space, because Windows has always been part of my core area.

Speaker 2: 23:36

And then now.

Speaker 1: 23:38

Do you think that's going to be a Windows 12? No way. It's better than Windows 7. Do you think that's going to be at Windows 12?

Speaker 2: 23:44

No, it's better than Windows 7. No, it's Windows 11. As far as I know, it's Windows 11. It just continues to be a continuous innovation New features, new updates, new capabilities and stuff like that.

Speaker 1: 24:06

Okay, that's fine. So, aside from work, what do you do in your spare time, hujit? Do you have any hobbies, or do you just spend time with friends and families?

Speaker 2: 24:18

Well, it's a catch-22 because, you know, everything that I do seems to relate to either my phone or uh, computers. Because if I'm not working, I, you know, I do photography, like I love. I love to do tiktoks. I've been playing and dabbling with tiktok videos, uh, recently. So when I travel I try to capture some you travel videos and then I put them together and share them out. You know kind of a thing. It's fun. I, yeah, computers photography. I love social media, so I'm always also like dabbling with all the new things. Like, lately it's blue sky, so hey, what's blue sky all about? How does it work? Oh yeah, lately it's blue sky. So hey, what's blue sky? How does it work? Oh yeah, it's missing some features. It's gonna get there, but you know, let's uh things like that. Um, so, social media photography I, I make those model planes. You know those. Uh, motorplates, yeah, you know, uh, I have some back here.

Speaker 1: 25:20

I'm not sure that you can see it, but Wow, did you use a 3D printer for that, or something?

Speaker 2: 25:28

No, no, no, no. This. You buy a kit, right? You buy a.

Speaker 1: 25:31

Oh, is it like a Lego.

Speaker 2: 25:34

No, it's not even a Lego, it's what they call FX. So you basically come in little pieces with a diagram and then you gotta like okay, you know part one, you gotta glue it to part two and then you paint it.

Speaker 1: 25:47

yeah you need to be more accurate for that.

Speaker 2: 25:51

Yeah, you gotta be super accurate, so I make those um as well. You know, once in a while I just yeah, it's fun.

Speaker 1: 26:00

Yeah, that's. That's. That's brilliant. So are you? Are you going to any other events in the future?

Speaker 2: 26:09

Yes, for sure I'm planning to. I'm not sure how many events I'll get to go next year, but I'm definitely going to start with MVP summit. I'll see you there. I'll be much. I'm definitely going to start with MVP Summit. I'll see you there. Yeah, that will be in March. I'm hoping to do the Endpoint Summit in Paris, mms in Minneapolis and then so on and so forth for the rest of the year.

Speaker 1: 26:38

Yeah, yeah, that's perfect. So which one do you think is?

Speaker 2: 26:43

the best conference.

Speaker 1: 26:43

So just between me and you, you know they're all.

Speaker 2: 26:48

They're all unique in their own way. Um, yeah, it's very interesting. Like mvp, summon is very obviously very mvp focused, so you have the MVP focus. So you have the technology, diehards and the content and what you get out of there is obviously super MVP.

Speaker 1: 27:09

I think you must go for the social aspect.

Speaker 2: 27:11

It is, it is Right. But the thing is that a lot of things that you learn and hear, you can't talk about it. So you're like, okay, it's all in your small circle of bubble. So you're like, okay, it's all in your small circle of bubble.

Speaker 2: 27:24

So everything's different. I love MMS. I've always been part of MMS a long time. It's got a different vibe, very community focused, very generous, and you've got the cream of the crop that go there too, right, you got the the best of the best it pro speakers or mvps. You got the microsoft engineering folks that go there as well. Then you have things like uh, you got ninja summit, which is different. Right, it's the same. Yeah, you always have like the similar type of it pros, but the audience is different. You've got the European audience versus the North American audience. How they communicate and understand you is different. I could be speaking at a session. I could do the same session at this conference in the US versus the one in.

Speaker 2: 28:18

Europe, I'll get get different reaction, you know. I mean, I may say a joke and then I'll just get like you know yeah, different culture, different different culture, right. So you got to know how to how to balance that stuff. But they're all unique, they're all. They all all bring different things to it?

Speaker 1: 28:42

Yeah, I saw something about the TechNight. Was that ages ago, technight?

Speaker 2: 28:48

TechNight was actually Ignite. Oh, okay, so TechNight used to be very technical for many, many years and then that became Ignite, as you know today. So Ignite is also one of my favorites because it's big. It's huge. You got a lot of like vendors, you get to talk to a lot of people. For me, like you said, right, it's all about the community engagements. Right, you know you can go to sessions and stuff. There's some sessions you might not do, but you can always get that later on too.

Speaker 1: 29:29

Majority of the session I ate at night was recorded, so I pretty much spent the time catching up with people in the community.

Speaker 2: 29:35

So that's your opportunity, right, you hang out, you go for drinks or you go get a coffee hey, let's go get lunch. And then evening you have your social events. You know you're mingling, you're getting to know people of who they are and how they are in your elements, right Versus when you are like just meeting them online and stuff. You know everybody has a god and a persona and stuff. But when you see them real life and you talk to them, you pull them aside. You're like, hey, how's your family, what you do this, that, what did you like about this? How was your day today? Like, oh, I went to this one thing today and that really sucked. Oh, tell me more about it, you know? Kind of a thing.

Speaker 1: 30:20

Yeah, yeah, that's quite cool. So before we wrap up the episode, is there any last-minute advice that you recommend people for getting started in their career, or anything in general? I know you mentioned something about learning AI because that's hot in the market at the moment.

Speaker 2: 30:41

It is hot in the market at the moment. It is hot in the market, right? So, yeah, definitely have curiosity, be curious about all the different things you're seeing out there and stuff like that. It doesn't matter what, it is right. I mean, you know, I've always been a Microsoft fanboy, so that's why I'm into the space.

Speaker 2: 30:58

I like what I see. I like what it into the space, I like what I see. I like what it did for me, I like what it does for my community and the world right, but it could be anything. You could stick with another platform or whatever that you're passionate about. Technology is evolving so fast on a daily basis. What we know from last week is already different this week, right? So you always have to make sure, like, oh, just because you played with something and you read up on it, you're good to go. No, you're not. You've got to keep up on it. This is why you've got to stick with social media to try to get the right information coming to you. You've got to follow newsletters. You've got to follow videos like this, right to like oh, I didn't know about that. Oh, let me go check up on what that's all about. What are these guys talking about? And stuff like that. Be curious, be open-minded. Take criticism well, right, constructive criticism is very good for everybody.

Speaker 1: 32:06

Don't get emotional, yeah because people can see negative feedback is good feedback at the end of the day, because you're still improving yourself. You're still improving yourself, right? Yeah, I want to add something Always be consistent in what you do and if you can't find what you're good at like your passion, try different things. And you cannot always know everything, to be honest, because there's technology moving too fast.

Speaker 2: 32:33

You cannot know everything, and then you know. Lastly, I would say, try to find your tribe, meaning that, find your little bubble. Start with one person. Find that one person, whether it's you, me, whoever it is right. Connect with someone, whether it's you know, in person. From there, you're going to expand your reach, you're going to expand your network and then you're going to create a small bubble I have small bubbles of friends as well that we communicate different things and different bubbles, and that's how you get started and that's how you ask for. Never be afraid to ask for help, never be afraid to ask for support. You know that's what we're all here for.

Speaker 1: 33:18

Right, it's, it's uh yeah, and then we just all learning from each other in a way, because we can't know everything, and we just improve each other get each other better yeah, let's. Let's learn and grow together, that's yeah, so, hajit, thanks for joining this episode. Brilliant to have you. Merry christmas again, everyone, and happy new year. It's coming soon, so see you to next episode.

Speaker 2: 33:50

Bye yeah, thanks for having me happy new year.