ARRAYA'S ALLSTARS
What makes you proud to work for Arraya?
Arraya cares about its people. I've been through a lot during my time here, but I truly feel leadership actively listens to my opinions on how to improve my practice and build better engagements.
What’s one skill that you’ve improved in the last year? How did you do it?
Time management. I've gotten so much better at determining how long it will take for a task or report to run. I built some logic into my code to determine the time remaining and now I don't have to guess when it will be done. I can see ahead of time that a report will take a few hours and I can step away to do something else in the meantime.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve received?
I learned this at an early age when I was running a karaoke business in San Antonio, TX with my father. It was a hard lesson to learn but it’s been engraved in me ever since. It was a long and hard day of running around town to prepare for a night of six different venues hosting karaoke. One of our employees wasn’t available at the last minute, so I jumped in. I had to pick up all our equipment from the venues that hosted karaoke the night before and set it up at the new locations for that night. I was working non-stop and driving around for 12 hours, and I'll tell you, the Texas heat and traffic will tire out anyone. I finally got home, and my dad pestered me about something else that I was supposed to do. Exhausted and frustrated from the long day, I got upset and told him "I worked for 12 hours straight! How do you think I got any of those done?" He asked me softly "Well, did you ask for help?" I told him I was too busy. He said, "Look, son, you have people employed to do these jobs to help you, so you have time for your own responsibilities. Remember to use your resources. That's what they are there for." Remember to use your resources. That advice has helped me tackle so many challenges and turned them into adventures.
What’s a part of your job that you particularly enjoy?
I deeply appreciate the dynamism and variety that comes with each project I undertake. Every project I encounter as an Office 365 engineer has a distinct flavor, presenting its own set of challenges. This not only keeps me engaged but also nurtures my passion for devising creative solutions tailored to the specific needs of our clients. Though every task is unique, I've enjoyed the balance of creating standardized approaches where possible, which streamlines our workflow. On the technical side, there's an undeniable satisfaction in utilizing PowerShell coding to simplify intricate projects. It's like solving a complex puzzle and watching all the pieces fall into place. Beyond the technicalities, what truly amplifies my experience is the camaraderie I share with my team. Our mutual trust and collaborative spirit enable us to cohesively address any challenge that comes our way. Lastly, the continuous learning curve associated with Office 365 ensures I'm always growing, adapting, and staying at the forefront of technological advances.
What’s one moment of success you experienced this week?
I was able to optimize more of the code I’m writing for an Automation project. We're making a script to run for the pre-sales and initial discovery phases of our engagements. The one I'm currently working on is for Tenant-to-Tenant Migrations. I recently built out a cleaner way to manage the error handling and export an error log for review. This and other portions of cleaned-up code removed 400 lines of unnecessary code.
Outside of work, what activity makes you lose track of time?
I enjoy spending time with my friends and playing some games. Sometimes we’ll get into heated discussions about a rule or that some are "colluding" with others. We'll joke that we are "experienced players" if we forget to do something that would've helped us. Then we'll go off and do karaoke, and that's when we really lose track of time.
