Today marks fifty years since the founding of Microsoft - the company I have worked for the last eleven and a half years.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded the company in Albuquerque, NM, on April 4, 1975, before moving the headquarters to the Seattle area shortly after that. I have been working with Microsoft technologies for over 30 years. I enjoyed their tooling enough that I joined the company in October 2013!

Here are some highlights from my journey!

1992

I bought my first PC - a Gateway 386 running Windows. I used it to look for a job, using the mail merge features of Microsoft Works.

1993

I accepted a job offer with a small company and moved to Cincinnati. The company was all-in on Microsoft technologies. All desktops ran Windows 3.1, everyone used Microsoft Office, and the network operating system was Microsoft LAN Manager, a long-forgotten competitor to Novel Netware. Within a year, I was the entire IT department. I wrote all the custom software (which I programmed in Microsoft FoxPro), administered the network, was the help desk, purchased and configured new hardware, and managed the data entry staff. Shortly after joining, I upgraded all the workstations from Windows 3.1 to Windows for Workgroups.

1995

Microsoft announced a new operating system - Windows 95. I was unsure if it was appropriate for our company. To learn more, I attended a launch event at the local opera house, which featured product demos and a live feed from Redmond of Bill and Steve dancing to the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up." The demos impressed me enough that I drove straight to Micro Center after the event to purchase a copy and install it on my PC. Within a few months, I had upgraded all the company's PCs from Windows for Workgroups to Windows 95!

1999

I accepted my first consulting gig with IS Research, a company focused on software development using Microsoft tools. Here, I learned to develop applications using Visual Basic, SQL Server, and Active Server Pages. While at ISR, I taught classes on these topics.

2000

I visited the Microsoft campus for the first time when I attended a class on XML.

2010

I took over the leadership of the Great Lakes Area .NET User Group in suburban Detroit. During my time, we more than quadrupled monthly attendance and invited Microsoft experts from all over the world!

2007

Brian Prince and Josh Holmes introduced me to the local tech community, especially those focused on Microsoft technologies. I began speaking at code camps and user groups across the Midwest.

2009

I was named a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional.

2012

I was elected Treasurer of INETA, an organization that supports .NET User Groups around the world.

2013

Microsoft hired me as a Technical Evangelist. My job was to teach others about Microsoft technologies. It remains the best job I have ever had.

Microsoft and its software products and services have been a big part of my life for many years. Interacting with this company has changed my life significantly. I wish all involved a happy fiftieth!