Jose

Image Jose

Jose Rodriquez:

The saying is ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know’ and Jose Rodriguez knew no one at Microsoft. He had no connections; Microsoft was outside of his network so finding a job that ticked all his boxes was going to be tough. Plus, Jose may not have originally considered Microsoft because he is a ‘high school drop-out’ and didn’t think he would qualify for the jobs he wanted, .He was excited about the shift in culture and change in reputation Microsoft has experienced over the last few years.

When Jose was 16, he left high-school and got his GED. He joined the army working in a technical communications team, providing access to class networks in different sites around the world, which ignited his passion for technology. While stationed in Korea and driven by a desire to learn the local language, Jose joined a Meetup group. Once Jose moved back to New York, he continued to learn Korean with a Meetup group in his neighborhood and under the GI bill he got his Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering. He then used that BS degree to get an internship with Meetup!

Jose’s journey through tech eventually led him to the CSE team at Microsoft and within the first 4 months, he joined the team working on the joint effort between Microsoft and the CDC to help build a Healthbot that would help people self-diagnosis potential Covid-19 symptoms. They were able to be agile and pivot their efforts and resources to where the impact is most needed and has been incredibly fulfilling for Jose.

Outside of work, Joe is very into DIY. He prefers to live outside of NYC so he can have a garage to house his tools and workbench. He considers himself an amateur woodworker and he has an ‘adopt open source first’ mentality approach to life – he believes in sharing his knowledge, solutions, and projects. He shares his woodworking on social media and publishes his coding on github, all under the umbrella name of jrodbeta. Sharing his woodworking and coding fulfills his personal passions and enables others to glean from his knowledge and experience.