UMC Grads Build Careers at Microsoft

While they’ve never actually spoken to Bill Gates or had an opportunity to shake his hand, University of Minnesota, Crookston (UMC) graduates Gwen Hoie, Chad Weber and Corey Hanson all admit to being tempted to drop their boss, Bill Gates (“Boss technically,” Hoie is quick to add.), an e-mail just to say hello.

“But I have a strong feeling there are a lot of people who filter his e-mail for him and only send the real important stuff his way,” Hoie said. “I don’t think an e-mail from me would qualify.”

(from left) Chad Weber, Corey Hanson, and Gwen Hoie

The folks back in  Bagley, MN – no doubt proud to call Hoie one of their own - might dispute her humble belief that an e-mail from her wouldn’t be worthy of at least a glance by the richest man on the planet. The same likely goes for the folks in Weber’s hometown of Thompson, ND, and Hanson’s hometown, Erskine, MN. Whether or not Gates ever meets Hoie, Weber or Hanson or even so much as glances at an e-mail from them, all three rural communities can boast that one of their best and brightest works for the largest software company in the world, Microsoft.

“It is pretty cool to say I work for Microsoft, and the fact that I work for a company like this never really gets old,” Hanson said while sitting in a conference room with Hoie and Weber at the beautiful Horizon Building, one of three Microsoft Great Plains locations in Fargo, ND. “To live in a perfect-sized community like Fargo and be able to work for probably the best known company in the world…yes, I do feel fortunate.”

While both are quick to say that they have no plans or desire to leave the company anytime soon, Hoie and Weber added that having work experience at Microsoft placed prominently on their résumés would only help as they travel down their future career paths.

“It would take a great opportunity to make me leave here,” Hoie said. “Fargo is a fun place for three small-town people; it has everything the Twin Cities has, but with a five-minute commute.”

Not that Microsoft is happy to let its employees leave for greener pastures.

“This company does have a very high interest in your career path; they’re very good at letting you try new things because they’d rather have you move within the company than leave for another company,” she explained. “They love being there for you, and it’s empowering for their employees.”

“It’s tough to get your foot in the door here,” Weber added. “But once you get here, if you’re motivated and put in the effort, you’re in good shape.”

So just how did they get hired? Weber said it quickly became clear in his interview that Microsoft was interested in his personal people skills more than his technical skills.

“Their thought process is they can teach anyone about a product, but they can’t teach you how to be good, effective people. They can improve on those skills, but not create them,” he explained.

But when two candidates for employment both possess excellent people skills, are great communicators and have glowing personalities, Hanson said it probably comes down to technical skill level when determining who is hired and who isn’t.

“At that point, UMC’s reputation for technology has to come into play,” he said. “You have that background and baseline knowledge to build on that someone else probably doesn’t have.”

As students, Hoie and Weber both worked with UMC instructor Bruce Brorson at the Red River Trade Council (now Northern Great Plains, Inc.), located at Valley Technology Park on the UMC campus. Combining that hands-on experience with the integrated technology in their classes and UMC’s personal atmosphere gave them a leg up when it came to entering the post-graduation workforce, Weber said.

“Other schools have laptops and say they’re cutting edge, but they’re not,” he said. “At the Trade Council, we had daily interactions with customers, as students, and built relationships. You can’t beat the overall experience at UMC and the opportunities available there.”

All three were friends at UMC, with Weber and Hanson being one-time neighbors. Hanson and Hoie kept statistics at men’s basketball games, and Hoie played on the women’s team. Weber played football and baseball.

“We all just kind of hung out,” Hoie said.

Weber and Hanson both recently married. Hoie rents a townhouse with two other UMC alumni, siblings Kyle and Karla Thormodson. Karla owns the townhouse.

What they do

All three have bachelor’s degrees in Information Networking Management (INM) from UMC, with Hoie graduating in 1999 and Weber and Hanson graduating one year later. Both technical support engineers, Weber and Hanson are on the same Customer Relationship Management (CRM) team, while Hoie is in sales operations on another team.

“Without getting all technical, we support clients when they have issues with their software. When they have problems they call us,” Weber explained. “We help with ongoing implementation, customization and work flow…a little bit of everything.”

The technical assistance that Weber and Hanson provide is considered “second level.” On the first level are the “partners” like Hoie, who sold the software in the first place. If the problem is beyond first level expertise, second level support kicks in, Weber explained. If the problem is even more complex, the levels go all the way up to the people who actually developed the software.

Weber and Hanson joined the Microsoft Great Plains team at the same time, in December 2000. Hoie followed in December 2001. While Microsoft is Hanson’s first job, Weber worked for Northern Great Plains, Inc. - located in Valley Technology Park just north of the UMC campus - prior to landing at Microsoft. Hoie made two career stops, both technology companies, before joining Microsoft. She was laid off from the first one when the company was bought out, and the second one was an Internet start-up company.

“I prepare our customers to purchase a product by putting together quotes and pricing so everything is known up front,” Hoie said, explaining her main duties. “All the sales managers have goals and quotas to meet, so they come to us a lot because they really like our help. It makes a person really feel necessary.” She has 25 people on her sales operations team. Weber and Hanson have 35 people on their team, up from 15 when they started at Microsoft a little more than two years ago. In all, approximately 2,500 people work for the Microsoft Great Plains operation in Fargo, Weber estimated.

While many associate summer with vacations and lazy, sunny days, the atmosphere is a bit more charged at Microsoft Great Plains. August is annual performance evaluation time, Weber said, and raise amounts and stock options are riding on the outcome of the evaluations. As for Hoie, she’s still recovering from a 100-hour work week in late June.

“At month-ends, quarter-ends and year-ends, you have to stay and process all your transactions,” she explained. “Microsoft is very much a family-oriented company, but at those times you are required to be here until you’re done.” Hoie’s not complaining. She knows ahead of time when the long hours are coming so she can adequately prepare, and the overtime pay certainly eased the strain of the marathon week, she said.

So she won’t be e-mailing Gates to complain about the long hours every now and then?

“No, definitely not,” Hoie said. “I have no complaints. I don’t see how anyone could complain about the situation we’re in.”

“I don’t know if ‘lucky’ is the right word, but I know I’m in a good place,” Weber added.

Written by:
Mike Christopherson, Assistant Director of Service Learning, UMC