AMY TURNER, Associate Consultant

I have been a MACH in Services for 1 year now and so far, genuinely couldn’t imagine ever wanting to work somewhere else. Throughout the course of the MACH program, which lasts 2 years, there are 4 training sessions for which you meet with your region’s MACHs; which for me is EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). The first of these sessions is Winter School, which this year, took place in Dublin in March. Although, for the UK MACHs this takes place 6 months into the MACH program. This is the first kick-off of your MACH program, especially at an EMEA level and gives you an amazing opportunity to meet fellow MACHS, possibly even in the same job as you, from all over EMEA, ranging from 6 months to 1 week’s experience with the company.

The training covers core skills you will need to be successful in your career such as dealing with customers and working in teams. It sounds very generic, but is taught in a way that is really relatable to your roles at Microsoft, whether they are technical, in sales or in marketing. For me, although the training was insightful and there are definitely aspects of it I use in my day to day work, the most beneficial aspect is the networking. It is an amazing opportunity to network not only with people across EMEA, but also within the UK. Although you are introduced to the company with these people, you spend quite a bit of time with them, especially at the start, you do start to drift apart as you develop into your roles. The MACH community is one of the few at Microsoft which covers roles from sales, through to highly technical and it is this network that will continue to open doors for you throughout your career.