The Road Ahead

As many of you may know, I started a job with Microsoft this past April. Today, was the last official day of work at Microsoft for our most famous employee - Bill Gates. It really is amazing to think about all the accomplishments of Bill Gates and Microsoft since it was founded in 1975.

I first was introduced to PCs in High School with our Apple II+ computers in the computer lab. However, I quickly was introduced to the initial IBM PC and spent my Summers and evenings after school working at a ComputerLand store teaching DOS to grade school kids. It was this experience that led me to choose to go to college for Computer Science at Georgia Tech. At Georgia Tech, I obtained an incredible education (though sadly most of it is completely worthless in my career today - PASCAL, Assembler, Lisp, APL etc not to mention Calculus, Chemistry and Physics) and a great fondness for technology. As I ventured into the working world, I built my career around software and Microsoft was always at the center of it - from DOS to Windows to Office to Outlook to Internet Explorer.

I always admired Bill Gates and am inspired by what he has accomplished and how he now plans to devote his life to philanthropy and giving back to society about 99% of what he has gained over the past 33 years. I'm still thrilled to be a part of Microsoft, but am saddened by the "loss" of someone who has done such amazing things. I suppose the bright side is that the potential now exists for him to make an even more incredible impact of the world and the road ahead looks bright indeed. Good luck, Bill!