2021 was undoubtedly the year that made me grow and develop. There were some ups and downs but at the end of it, there was a lot of learning.
As I was scrolling through LinkedIn, a colleague of mine just posted her 2021 in Review article, as I read through her experiences coming from Ghana to the US working for Microsoft as a Program Manager. I encourage anyone who reads this article to check out her story. Ivy has contributed a lot of her time in the start-up space as well as supporting African organisations. After reading Ivy’s article, I felt inspired to reflect on my own life and what I have done in 2021.
I am quite a reflective person who likes to share my experiences and parts of my life in bits and pieces.
Disclaimer: All views expressed in this article are of my own and not of the employer I work for. I do share experiences of Microsoft but some experiences and tips I have shared are from personal experience and not of Microsoft.
1. Landing a gig at Microsoft
In January 2021, after having to wait until the new year to start my new gig, I landed a Masters Aspire role at Microsoft NZ. The role was in the Customer Success Unit as a Cloud Solution Architect in Data and AI.
The role taught me a lot of things, it taught me about the Enterprise customers that Microsoft looks after as well as the importance of listening to our customers. There are many things that being technical doesn’t solve when it comes to building relationships with customers. At times, customers just want to be heard and not go into straight solution mode.
In the Cloud Solution Architect role, it was a mix of presales activities and onboard activities. I did enjoy running the Power BI Dashboard in the Day and running demos with customers.
After 9 months of the role, I was missing the deeper relationships with the customers and I wanted a new experience. During the CSU offsite, I was chatting to the CSU Lead and CSAM Managers who told me of an upcoming role. I was approached by the Global Account Management Delivery team CSAM Manager to see if I wanted to interview for an upcoming position. After a month of interviewing, I moved into the GAMD team (Global Account Management Delivery) and went from CSA (Cloud Solution Architect) to CSAM(Customer Success Account Manager).
It was the best decision I had made because I have the most supportive Manager who is a non-stop cheerleader, I have an awesome team that is super diverse and across different countries. I get to use the skills I already had previously from moving to Microsoft. The skills that I already had and brought over to the CSAM role are:
- My ex teaching skills (Planning and Change Management)
- Supporting our customers through challenging times (Customer Service and Counselling)
- Support cases (Incident Management and Cybersecurity)
- High-level technical discussions (Cloud Solution Architect and Engineering).
2. D&I Projects at Microsoft
As someone who has been involved with various D&I projects outside of Microsoft over the years. It has been interesting navigating D&I projects at Microsoft as opposed to doing D&I projects outside of Microsoft. There are many D&I pillars at Microsoft and I am involved in 2 of the pillars.
The two main pillars I support are GLEAM and the Indigenous ERG pillar. I had selected the GLEAM pillar to support the LGBTQI+ community because I have a few family members who identify as LGBTQI+ and I want to be more of an ally towards them. I had selected the Indigenous ERG — Aotearoa pillar was because I am someone who is of mixed race, I have been involved in many initiatives that support Māori and Pacific peoples in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Those two pillars are doing an amazing job in D&I and the leads have a lot of passion when it comes to initiatives targeting marginalised groups.
I have a few takeaways from being in various corporations, this is a disclaimer this is just an observation that I have seen over the years and not targeted towards a particular corporation.
My key takeaways from doing D&I projects in a big corporation are:
- Join initiatives that align with your values.
- Be selective in what initiatives you join.
- It is ok to say NO! When you join a big corp, you want to do everything!
- Everyone is learning as they go, so practice patience and tolerance.<- I am still learning how to navigate with this tip.
- Be vocal and stand up to things that do not align with cultural customs.
- Join initiatives because you believe in the purpose and outcome.
- Call it out if you see people who are not aligning up to D&I core principles or doing stuff that does not align with tikanga or values of indigenous people.
As I reflect back on initiatives that are targeted towards a marginalised group of people, whether that is women in tech (technical women) or towards BIPOC people. If those people leading those initiatives do not fit into those categories, especially if it is people targeting Māori or Pacific people or people that are from a low socio-economical background. The people leading lack cultural context and experiences that the targeted group are living day by day.
If you are joining D&I initiatives and you are from marginalised communities, make sure the people who are leading that initiative listen to you!! If you are not being heard, make it a big deal that your voice is not being heard.
From my experience, as someone who has been in various D&I initiatives and have led initiatives in and outside of corporations, if my voice is not being heard, I just leave the project team. Especially if the initiative is targeted towards Māori or Pacific People. I want to make it really clear to let Māori lead, especially give us the space and support to lead the work with our own people. Be an ally but give us the space or co-lead and not overbear our voices.
That also goes for initiatives targeted towards technical women or targeting women to be technical. Lead by example.. for example, if you are telling women they need to upskill and code but you cannot code yourself but you want women to learn to code and you are running these initiatives. It will be quite hard to relate without lived experiences. Especially if you aren’t technical, you will lack context and will not understand the struggles that those women face, day to day in a male-dominated field.
If you are reading this and you are like wow, this is direct. If anyone knows me, you know I call it out and I am direct. Because what I have described is my lived experiences and what I have personally gone through as a Māori wāhine that used to code, constantly learning technical skills, is technical and that have lived experiences working in tech on all-male teams.
This is because, at the end of the day if D&I is not done right, and you work for that organisation and you are known in the community. So if things do not align up with the values of the community, and you are from that marginalised group, then it affects you who is a member of that community.
What happens is it affects the community you are trying to represent because it has rubbed the community the wrong way. While the other person who is leading it, got their clout and did not take on any feedback is getting their 2 mins of fame. While you who is a representative of that marginalised community have your values tested because you are left defending the actions of the people who did not listen to your feedback. So as I say, Stand Up! Do not be a Bystander and Call it out!
3. Building and Buying a Home
I have been back in New Zealand for 5 years after living in Mexico, US and Australia since 2010. I left teaching and went back into studying in 2016 and graduated with Bachelors and Masters in the technology field in 2020. I landed my first IT gigs in 2017 and since then haven’t looked back.
As I navigated my career into the IT corporate world, there comes some privileges and perks. I got some promotions and special awards which helped me with a deposit for my first home in New Zealand.
It took a while to save with the deposit, this is because I did not have financial support from my family. I did get some help with awesome housing organisations that support families in landing their first home and a lot of resilience.
2021 gave me the opportunity of owning my first home in my city Auckland, New Zealand.
4. Family, Friendships and Growing Connections
Blessings
While New Zealand was in and out of lockdown, I was blessed enough to have a role and be able to work from home. This gave me the opportunity to build stronger relationships with my children. I realised I missed spending time with them when they were at school and I was going to the office. I travelled a lot and was away most of 2018, 2019 and 2020 with work.
Boundaries and Letting Go
I also learned that it was ok to put more boundaries up with family members or friends who are quite toxic. I used to get calls constantly from family when they were intoxicated. The calls I get would be quite abusive and this year I finally built the courage to say that is enough and do not call me when you have been drinking or I will block your number. It took several months but eventually, they learnt their lesson and I was able to have proper conversations with them.
As I reflect on the whole experience, the older I get the more I realise that I want deeper and meaningful connections. I want to build a stronger connection with my family members and the friends that I have in my life. I am also ok with only having a few people in my life that I can call true friends and be myself. I no longer want superficial friendships where you see friends only for parties, shopping or drinks and I definitely do not want anymore Regina from mean girls types of friends.
5. Health and Wellbeing
This year I could have worked more on the physical aspect of my health, I did download Noom which has helped me with the psychological aspect of losing weight. Noom has really interesting articles about food and what you put in your body. It has an easy to use meal tracker similar to other apps that track calories. However, I could have pushed myself with cardio and weights to build up my stamina and strength.
Let's see what 2022 brings, I am going to try and push me and my family into more outdoor activities where we are closer to nature.
6. Accomplishments
A big achievement for me this year was learning more about my reo and culture. Microsoft was in partnership with Te Wananga o Aotearoa which had a special corporate class to learn te reo Māori for 38 weeks. It was a good achievement for me and it helped me because I had good role models and leadership from the CSU that were making the effort in staying in the course and finishing the course.
A lot of people at work do not realise that I actually co-founded an organisation called the New Zealand Network for Women in Security with Sai Honig. The New Zealand Network for Women in Security is a community that unites and supports the advancement of women in all areas of security.
This year Sai and I were acknowledged for the work we did in the community. We both received awards from the DefSec Women in Security Awards Aotearoa (WiSAA) awards in December 2021. The category I got acknowledged for was for the women in Security Awards Aotearoa: Indigenous Advocate. I also had an article written which was quite cool!
As I was reflecting on 2021, I would have loved to do more D&I outside of Microsoft. Going forward, I think for 2022, I would focus more on initiatives that are community-focused. I do love the work that Microsoft does in D&I. However, going forward I want that deeper connection with the community again.
7. Lessons Learned
- Embrace Change, I started 2021 in a new company and near the end of the year moved into a new role that aligned more with my values.
- Boundaries, I think this going into 2022 I will continue this for the rest of my life. As someone who was always enthusiastic and supportive, I was a huge people pleaser. It is ok to say No and put my well-being first.
- Never stop learning, whether it's upskilling in technical skills, taking on a new hobby or learning a new language. Never stop learning and growing.
- Embrace Kindness, we are still in this pandemic and people are on the edge. Showing a bit of kindness does help when things are spiralling.
- Growth, reflecting on what happened in 2021 and learning from all the experiences. Helped me grow.
- Value, I am privileged with the opportunities that have come my way this year and value the people I have in my life.
8. Going Forward
Next year I will focus on my community collaboration outside of work, I read a post on LinkedIn this year of someone highlighting the importance of what their legacy looks like. The author highlighted that her legacy was what she did outside of work and what she did for the community.
As I look forward to 2022, which I already have my twelve grapes ready (las doce uvas de la suerte, “the twelve grapes of luck"). I will welcome 2022 with any challenges it has ahead.
