How Microsoft women play

By Michelle Feder

We asked Microsoft women around the globe: What are you doing for fun this summer? We recently asked geek guys the same question. Now it’s HER turn to talk. Whether it’s something technical or getting outdoors, heading to San Diego Comic Con or GenCon, some female Microsofties share their plans and hopes for the coming summer.

To start us off, Joy Lin, who works in service operations on Search in Bellevue, thinks big:

“I would love for my kids to learn how to develop online games. Games are their passion. If kids can get lessons on how to get started, we will turn these kids into game developers, software engineers. Kids are sometimes bored in the summer, with too much free time on their hands.  I know tech camps can make an impact.”

Here’s what other women of Microsoft are thinking:

Lori Woehler, Principal Program Manager, Compliance, Redmond

I ride my horse competitively on a national circuit and I attend a few hacker conferences, including DefCon in Las Vegas in late July– the world’s largest hacker conference.

Here’s a picture of my horse and me, taken at a show in April: We won a circuit championship. His registered name is Get Lucky Sensation. Lucky is his barn name.

There will be other Microsoft attendees at DefCon, from various internal security teams.  I most look forward to networking and sharing ideas with a really diverse group of people who are similarly curious and very collaborative.

Lakshmi Saranath, Senior Solution Manager, India

We moved from Redmond to India two years ago. My daughter Rhea, who is eight, absolutely loves learning to use the computer. Her newest craze is using PowerPoint to build presentations about every country she visits.

She attended summer camp in Hyderabad. She loved every bit of it. She loved going to the planetarium and learning all about the planets, the sun, the moon, and stars. And she wants to read up on astrophysics because she feels that’s uber cool. ; )

Cheryl Platz, Senior UX Designer, Bellevue

This is my third summer performing in “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” a family-friendly improv parody of original Star Trek episodes. I love spending summertime with geeky audiences! Performances are August 16th and 17th in Seattle, WA.

Summer’s also a great time to get kids interested in technology careers with hands-on workshops – DigiPen in Redmond, WA has a ton of summer workshops in game design and technology, some with open spots. 

Ana Lampret, Consultant in Global Delivery, Poland

I love science in action. One of my favorite things to do is visit science and technology museums, such as Deutsches Museum Munich, one in Vienna, and the Technical Museum of Slovenia.

I recently moved from Slovenia to Warsaw, Poland, and I plan to visit the Copernicus Science Centre at least twice this summer.

June Blender Rogers, Senior Programming Writer, Server and Tools Business, Escalante, UT

I'm taking a bunch of Coursera classes and perhaps a Udacity class. I'm also trying to find a RailsBridge conference nearby. I do these things all year, but I love doing them in the summer when I can work outdoors and "on the rocks." (I live and work remotely in Escalante, UT, near the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.)

Jessica Campbell, Briefing Consultant, Redmond

We will visit the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle and Pacific Science Center. We will build robots. We’ll play a lot of Euro-style board games, as a family and with grown-ups only: Carcassonne, Kingdom Builder, Agricola, SmallWorld. We also have Tea & Croquet parties in the park. (These have nothing to do with science, but my husband and I are geeky and it is something we do every summer.)

Share this story with friends and family (and fellow coworkers of course)—so everyone can benefit from these great tips and activities.

Come summer, what’s YOUR favorite way to play? Give us a shout @MicrosoftJobs on Twitter or Microsoft Careers on Facebook.