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.

𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:
• Transcript: developing.dev/p/intern-to-microsoft-distingui…
• YouTube: youtu.be/d8tRM8RJ52M
• Apple: podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod…

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: linkedin.com/in/davidfowl
• X/Twitter: x.com/davidfowl

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻:
• Newsletter: developing.dev
• X/Twitter: x.com/ryanlpeterman
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman
• Threads: threads.com/@ryanlpeterman
• Instagram: instagram.com/ryanlpeterman
• TikTok: tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman