Trevor Wilson Goes To Work for Microsoft

Trevor Wilson, 2010 graduate and STAR student of Piedmont Academy, has been hired by the Microsoft Corporation. Mr. Wilson graduated from the University of Georgia Honors program in May of this year.

Upon entering UGA, after being an avid bulldog fan his entire life and coming from a family of UGA graduates, Mr. Wilson planned to major in Political Science.

“I was pre-law planning to go to go to law school,” he said.

However, his interest in technology soon won out over his legal interests when he took a computer science course recommended by his roommate his second semester at UGA. This class aligned with Mr. Wilson’s pre-existing talents.

“I had become the stereotypical family computer guy that everyone calls on to fix their computer problems,” he said.

He decided to change his major from Political Science to Computer Science. He also double-majored in Economics, which he considered a practical pursuit in addition to Computer Science.

“[Economics] is extremely interesting subject material about how the world works at its very basics,” he said.

When it came time for him to consider his future after graduation, Mr. Wilson applied to a variety of companies.

“Computer Science majors are almost always expected to apply to the ‘big four’ companies: Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and either Apple or Facebook,” he said.

He also applied to Epic, a healthcare software company, and a variety of other midsized companies, eventually receiving offers from both Microsoft and Epic.

He first encountered representatives from Microsoft at a UGA career fair. A friend who had interned at Microsoft the previous summer also helped him connect with a Microsoft recruiter, which helped him stand out from the crowd.

Mr. Wilson’s first interview for the position was on campus, where he engaged in a typical computer science interview consisting of a problem solving portion where he was presented with a coding problem to solve. The second round of interviews was just outside of Seattle. Here he had four interviews, each about an hour in length.

“It was a much longer, much more intensive process,” he said. “They were highly technical interviews with a lot of really tough questions.”

After the interviews, all of the candidates were gathered in one room.

“They took us out of the room one by one and told us if we got an offer,” he said.

Mr. Wilson described his interview experience as being unique. He was originally interviewing for a software development position. Mr. Wilson was the last candidate to be called out of the room. He was then told that they thought his personality would be a better fit for a program manager position. After an additional interview, he was offered the position. He accepted the offer last October.

Mr. Wilson said he was persuaded to take the program manager position at Microsoft because the workers there were “making a difference and doing something important with their jobs.”

“Every company is going to make themselves sound good,” he said. “I was looking for a culture and personality fit . . . I was pretty location agnostic. After living in Georgia all my life I was ready to live in a new place.”

Mr. Wilson is adjusting to that new place well.

“It’s a lot different, that’s for sure,” he said. “I’m someone who kind of thrives on new experiences and throwing myself out of my comfort zone . . . Overall it’s been a very positive experience. It’s starting to feel a little more like home.”

Mr. Wilson encourages students from his high school alma mater to be well-rounded in order to pave the road to success.

“Try a lot of different things,” he said. “Keep an open mind and get to know people who think differently than you, who have different backgrounds than you.”

Mr. Wilson himself was an active student during his days pre-college, heavily participating in debate and a variety of other activities headed by Bobbi Sauls, who he noted as a strong influence on his academic success.

He remarked on the importance of maintaining perspective on the importance of school and grades and developing a strong work ethic.

“It’s not always going to be fun, but as long as you have something on your mind that you’re working toward, you can push through those times,” he said.

When asked about his future career plans, Mr. Wilson said, “I’m happy where I am for the moment. I’m having an amazing work experience where I’m surrounded by some of the smartest and hardest-working people I’ve ever met.”

Mr. Wilson graduated from UGA with about 50 other computer science majors, and two of them, like him, are now working for Microsoft.