Hi! Welcome to my first blog post. I've been delaying starting to write for a long time, and now I finally have the strength to do so. For this first article, I've decided to tell a bit about how I ended up living in Canada. Since I started at Microsoft, people have been asking about my hiring process and the methods I used to prepare for it.

So I gathered all the information I could in one place, making it easier to point to people and benefit those shy to ask. I must be upfront and say that my experience was individual, and the market has changed quickly. Many of my colleagues are not sure about their place in the industry and question themselves every day if they will have jobs in one or two years from now. So take this article with a grain of salt and adapt to your situation.

Getting into Tech

From the very beginning of my teenage years, I knew I wanted to live abroad. I dreamed of experiencing life and work in another country, experiencing other cultures, and interacting with people worldwide. I believe being overly exposed to YouTube made me romanticize living outside of my country, and this search for a better life made me pursue this goal.

In Brazil, we must decide on our major before enrolling. At that time, I struggled to determine which path to take, and ultimately, I decided to do Computer Engineering at the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB). Technology was the most flexible and global path to achieving my goal. You can code from anywhere worldwide, and software engineering opens doors internationally. I had a clear path when starting my undergrad: first move to São Paulo, then eventually work outside Brazil.

Growing Up in Paraíba: No Clear Path

However, growing up in Paraíba meant my exposure to tech companies was limited (especially big tech companies). There were no local offices for the famous FAANG, no alumni from my university who had interned at Google or Amazon, and no role models nearby I could contact. UFPB's Computer Engineering program was still new. I was the first student from my university to intern at Amazon, and later, the first to join Microsoft as a new grad.

Most Paraibanos who had broken into big tech had studied at the more established Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), like Mariane Linhares, a research engineer at DeepMind. She was the first person I saw who came from a similar background and made it to a global tech company. That changed everything for me.

The Podcast That Changed My Life

In my second year, the professors from my research lab launched a podcast interviewing people they knew and who had brilliant careers. When I listened to the episode featuring Marianne, it was like someone turned on a light. For the first time, I realized it wasn't impossible. If she did it, maybe I could too. That podcast gave me direction. I decided to prepare seriously for FAANG interviews.

Creating My Study Process

At first, I joined a study group with friends. But we were lost; we were just grinding LeetCode without structure. After six months of failing miserably, I realized I needed a better system. I created a spreadsheet to track my studies:

Field	Description
Problem title and link	The name of the problem and a link to it
Topics covered	The main concepts or algorithms involved
Problem type and difficulty	Classification (e.g., array, graph) and level
Status: solved or not	Whether I have solved the problem
Short explanation in my own words	My brief summary of the solution

Example:

Problem title and link	Topics covered	Problem type and difficulty	Status	Short explanation in my own words
Two Sum (LeetCode #1)	Hash Table, Array	Array, Easy	Solved	Use a hash map to find complement in one pass
Binary Tree Inorder Traversal	Tree, DFS	Tree, Easy	Not solved	Traverse the tree in-order (left → root → right) using recursion or a stack. Collect node values in sequence and return the result list.

Every day, morning or night, I would pick two problems and try to solve them in under an hour. Whether I solved them or not, I'd summarize the solution into one or two sentences and revisit the problem after a week. Over time, I followed the NeetCode channel on YouTube, attempting every problem before watching his explanations.

I would say staying motivated was the most challenging part for me. The support network I built helped me the most; friends who were also studying, people I met online invited me to do mock interviews, and peers who pushed me to apply for opportunities. Some of these people are still my friends today. Some now also work at Microsoft, right next to me!

Breaking In: My Amazon Internship

Eventually, I landed an internship at Amazon during the pandemic. It was completely remote. I joined the team that worked on tax calculation systems for Fulfillment by Amazon. It was an incredible opportunity to experience what working at a Big Tech company was like and realize that I could actually contribute.

I had a mentor on the team who played a massive role in my growth. He gave me projects, helped me navigate the codebase, answered my questions, and even introduced me to others across the company. We still keep in touch today. That mentorship made all the difference.

And perhaps most meaningful of all: after I interned there, I started seeing more students from UFPB following a similar path. That made everything feel even more worth it.

Testing the Startup Life

After Amazon, I became curious about startups. I wanted to experience a faster-paced, less structured environment to compare the two worlds. I applied using the same interview prep strategy and landed a position.

Startups are a whirlwind. On day one, you're pushing code to production. There's very little onboarding; you just receive access to the code and quick context about the problems you need to solve. It's chaotic, but the learning is intense and rapid. You use open-source tools, widely known technologies, and you move fast.

But eventually, I realized I preferred big tech's structured, long-term growth environments. Startups move fast, but often lack transparent processes. Things moved quickly at a startup if I needed resources or had a question for another team. However, I missed the thoughtful planning, documentation, and mentorship opportunities I had experienced at Amazon.

Aiming for Meta, Landing at Microsoft

I decided to apply for big tech companies again. My goal was to get an internship at Meta along with my friends. They have an excellent internship program in London, and it seemed like everything I wanted for my career.

As part of my prep strategy, I also applied for a full-time New Grad position at Microsoft; my philosophy was: with each interview, you get better at it, so even if I get rejected (which I thought was certain for me at the time), at least I would be better at interviewing.

In the end, I didn't get the Meta internship. But I did pass the Microsoft interview. Ironically, I think it worked out because I went into the Microsoft interview with no pressure or expectations. I was calmer and more focused.

From Redmond to Vancouver

Initially, Microsoft offered me a full-time role in Redmond, WA, at their headquarters. But I wasn't selected in the H-1B visa lottery. Because of that, I was offered a position in Vancouver, Canada, through Microsoft's Rotational Program, a partnership with the Canadian government. The program allows engineers to start in Canada for 18 months, after which they may transfer to the U.S. via H-1B or L-1.

Microsoft handled all the logistics: visa interviews, health checks, and housing. They even paid for the first two months of rent while I found a place to live.

Moving to Vancouver was my first time truly living far from home. I was initially nervous but fell in love with the city.

Discovering Vancouver

Vancouver completely exceeded my expectations. For the first time, I experienced distinct seasons: spring, summer, fall, and winter. Each one brought its activities and sports. I tried new things, explored nature, and met incredible people.

Despite the high cost of living, Vancouver has one of the world's best quality of life ratios. It encourages you to live actively, eat well, and be present. It's a city that makes you want to grow.

Working at Microsoft

Since January 2024, I've been working on the** Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Infrastructure** team. My work focuses on predictive modeling: forecasting future demand for compute clusters, predicting how many cores we'll need, and automating decisions for infrastructure scaling. In short, I help figure out when and how we should expand AKS capacity.

We use Linux, Go, open source tools, and now machine learning. The team is incredibly senior (many have 10–15 years of experience), and they go out of their way to mentor and support younger engineers. The most important lesson I've learned came from my tech lead:

Being in Microsoft is a marathon, not a sprint. You can't expect to know everything right away. Focus on pacing yourself, learn slowly but steadily, and be patient.

That advice helped me manage the feeling of being overwhelmed. There's so much information in a company like Microsoft, but you learn, bit by bit, as things break, as you ship, as you reflect.

Final Thoughts

What has surprised me most about Microsoft is how much it values learning, autonomy, and collaboration. It's been the perfect place for me to grow. If I could leave one piece of advice to anyone trying to break into Big Tech, it would be this:

Consistency, community, and patience.
Build a process that works for you. Surround yourself with people on the same path. Trust that even if it takes time, every bit of effort compounds.
And yes, luck matters too. But the more you try, the luckier you get.

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Thanks for getting until the end! It was a long article, but I hope it helps someone out there!