Intern to Microsoft Distinguished Engineer in 11 Promotions (Career Story)

David Fowler went from an intern to a Distinguished Engineer at Microsoft. That’s 11 different promotions all at the same company. I asked him about everything he learned by going through that process. We cover his full career story and go over general advice he has for software engineers. I was also curious to ask him about Microsoft culture and big company tips he has since he's been there for over 17 years. 𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/intern-t... • Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0MX9Pye... • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast... 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: (00:00) Intro (00:53) Microsofts leveling system (03:17) Joining Microsoft (10:18) First successful project (16:22) Bootstrapping his own project (25:44) His principal promotion (37:10) His distinguished promotion (49:51) Engineers he looks up to (53:40) Expanding on his top tweets (1:05:20) Big company tip on reorgs (1:08:25) What keeps him at Microsoft (1:17:22) Microsoft culture after Satya (1:23:04) Career regrets and work life balance (1:29:51) Advice for his younger self 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗱: • LinkedIn:   / davidfowl   • X/Twitter: https://x.com/davidfowl 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn:   / ryanlpeterman   • Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram:   / ryanlpeterman   • TikTok:   / ryanlpeterman