Microsoft Atlanta

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the Atlanta chapter of the Hispanic/Latinx Organization of Leaders in Action (HOLA) employee resource group! HOLA serves as a resource for promoting products and services to Hispanic and Latinx communities and organizations worldwide. The group also helps inspire future Hispanic and Latinx employees and advances the careers of current ones.... To learn more about our ERGs, head to https://bit.ly/3tDGiMg.

How am I? It’s complicated. After the year we have all had, a simple answer to that question is hard to come by. Our GLEAM (Global LGBTQI+ Employees and Allies at Microsoft) ERG hosted a virtual Mental Health Awareness event to provide resources to help employees care for their mental well-being and make sense of everything they are feeling. ... Well-being isn’t extra, it’s essential. #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth

Last month as we continued the celebration of Volunteer Month. Over 300 Microsoft employees came together for Together We Rise’s virtual event to give back to children in foster care. For this event, our employees decorated panels to add to duffel bags filled with teddy bears, blankets, hygiene kits, coloring books, and crayons that would be sent to foster homes.

#HBCUtoMicrosoft Meet Desmond Smalls, an Azure customer engineer here at Microsoft Atlanta. Desmond joined Microsoft a year and a half ago, coming to us with extensive tech knowledge and skills. He comes from a large family with 10 aunts and uncles and over 50 first cousins a majority of which attended HBCUs including Howard University, Florida A&M University, and North Carolina A&T State University. ... The HBCU culture in my family is heavy, he tells us. His aunts and uncles were all first-generation college graduates all 10 graduating from HBCUs. When it came Desmond’s time to attend college, he was accepted into almost every college that he applied to but the choice was easy for him. Following in his mother’s footsteps, he attended and graduated from Savannah State University, the oldest public HBCU in Georgia, with a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science Technology. It seems to me that sometimes when you’re at an HBCU and you’re getting ready to graduate, you don’t know the opportunities that are open to you, Desmond tells us. I take a lot of pride graduating from an HBCU representing an HBCU and showing them that someone can be successful. When he was a college sophomore, there were no internships available for him. While working a part-time job, he networked with a fellow employee to jumpstart a tech internship for himself. If I hadn’t taken the initiative on my own to find an internship, I probably would have never gotten one, he tells us. So with Microsoft being in the equation of giving internships and scholarships to HBCUs, I think the opportunities will be endless for HBCU graduates. Interested in joining our team? Head to https://bit.ly/3mn7mw5 for current career opportunities.

Thanks to Senator Jon Ossoff and Congresswoman Nikema Williams for visiting Microsoft's Atlantic Yards and Quarry Yards sites. We are excited to grow our presence in the region and simultaneously create new opportunities for and reinvest in the community.

Meet Vyankatesh Kulkarni, a software engineer here at Microsoft Atlanta. Vyankatesh started working at Microsoft in early 2021. The previous year was challenging for all of us but one of the best things that happened to me was getting hired at Microsoft Atlanta, he tells us.... Before joining the Atlanta squad, he worked on a small team of just a couple of developers. He was initially apprehensive of making the move to a huge organization with high visibility and greater responsibilities. But all that changed when he started. He tells us his amazing team made him feel welcome from the start, and the virtual onboarding was smoother than he could've imagined. For Vyankatesh, a typical work from home day starts with tea with his wife and catching up on the news before starting the workday in his home office. A year ago working from home seemed very odd, he tells us, but now it feels normal. Vyankatesh keeps himself engaged by focusing on high-priority tasks and always learning something new. Microsoft has been my dream company and I feel blessed to be here in Microsoft Atlanta. Microsoft has shown me great care and affection and I can't wait to start working in the new Atlanta building that I can view from my home windows! Interested in joining our ATL squad? Head to https://bit.ly/3mn7mw5 for career opportunities.