My background
I grew up in Bangalore aka the Silicon Valley of India. Therefore, it was no surprise I chose to study Engineering after High School. In 2017 I got married and my wife got the opportunity to work at the Dutch office of the ING in Amsterdam. This is why I also came to the Netherlands to live and work.
My path to Macaw
Before I started as an employee at Macaw, I worked via a third party for Macaw. During my time as a freelancer, I visited the headquarters in Hoofddorp two or three times. Walking around there, I was really drawn to the culture and the people. People at Macaw are kind and helpful. I also saw how Macaw takes care of its employees. For example, Macaw has an excellent study compensation plan. Back home I would have to pay for those expenses myself. This plan enables me to keep developing my skills. That is why, when in 2019 my colleague Kai asked me how I would feel about joining Macaw, I did not hesitate and was happy to join Macaw fulltime. Fun fact: I was the first non-Dutch speaker to join the Macaw Netherlands team.
Typically Macaw
Like I said, people at Macaw are super helpful. You can ask them for anything, even the smallest things. They like to share their knowledge and help you broaden yours. This is different from some other companies and cultures I previously worked for. At those companies only the people you are close to will help you, others are too busy.
Also, I get a lot of freedom within my career path at Macaw. Within our department there are different projects for different customers running at the same time. Sometimes a project just does not suit you or your ambitions. In that case you can go to your People Manager, explain the situation, and look for a solution together. This can be that you will work on another project, find help from your colleagues, or do additional training. It is never expected of you to hold your tongue and just do your work.
Memorable work experience
Since I started working for Macaw I have been assigned to a project for one of the major Dutch brewery companies. This company has been a customer from Macaw for many years. I find this project interesting because it has a larger global presence than any other brewer in the business. One thing I am particularly proud of is the work I did for one of their projects. There is a department that is responsible for ensuring that all global projects are within their budget scope. This means I get data from various sources and countries. For example their costs, how many people are put on the project and the duration of the project. I use Azure Logic Apps to collect the data and Azure Data Factory to do all the ETL processing. My role is end-to-end: during meetings with the client, I determine all requirements, collect, and combine data, create logic, and make dashboards and charts for the customer.
My added value is that I helped create a lot of insight and automated tasks to improve efficiency. Before they had many and lengthy Excel lists and had to do everything by hand. Now they can get their insights with the click of a button
Developing my skills
Every day I still learn new technologies. My goal is to become a Microsoft Cloud Architect. Right now I work a lot with Microsoft Power BI. To reach my goal I will focus on expanding my Microsoft Azure Platform knowledge. Within my current project we also get the chance to work more with Azure in the near feature. This aligns perfectly with my ambitions.
