S A Shofiee, Sylhet:
Anika Tahsin Chowdhury, a resident of Surmabank in Sylhet, has joined Microsoft Ireland’s Dublin office as a ‘Software Engineer’. She graduated in Computer Science from a leading university and started her professional life at Samsung. Then she moved to Ireland. How did she join Microsoft after going through various ups and downs?
Anika moved to the European country of Ireland in 2022. At that time, hiring was stopped due to layoffs at Microsoft. At that time, the target was to find a suitable job within six months. However, no job was found within a year. She is non-European. In addition, her visa status is also at the bottom. All in all, she had to go through a difficult time in the beginning. She started applying to Microsoft in early 2024. Then she applied with the referral of her husband at Google. In March, a rejection email came from an organization. Interestingly, that day, the recruiter contacted Microsoft for the same position. Anika agreed to the interview in one sentence. The recruiter asked her to quickly give the assessments. Then, she fixed the date and sat for the first interview. Half an hour after the interview, the recruiter said, “You have passed this assessment, fix the date for the next interview.” Then, he fixed the date for the onsite interview. There were three rounds of coding, object-oriented programming, and system design during the onsite. Her interview went well. The results were supposed to be announced in three-four days. Since there was no news in the meantime, she was worried. After seven-eight days, the recruiter called her. She said that she would have to sit for a behavioral interview with the hiring manager. This was her final interview. After five days, the recruiter said, ‘I did well in the interview…’ A few days later, she received an offer letter from Microsoft. The matter seemed unbelievable to Anika! After going through so many ups and downs, she felt that she had been able to turn a long-standing dream into a reality.
Anika’s journey at Microsoft has now been more than a year. Very skilled people work here. Anika said, ‘It is a matter of luck to be able to work with them. Initially, it was a challenge to adapt. However, I dream of moving forward with the support of everyone in the team. Moreover, I get cooperation from senior engineers. With their guidance, direction and support, my confidence level has not declined. I have learned technical topics in a year. I have mastered these topics, how to run a product with great skill. I have matured in these topics – system design, product design and feature design. What needs to be done to improve the product, the products go to the customers. You have to create products thinking about them. I work as a software engineer in a team of 30 people. Their services work for consumers. Currently, I am working on Artificial Intelligence or AI focus.’
Anika said, ‘A job at Microsoft gives stock bonus along with basic salary. There is 25 days of leave in a year. Girls are given maternity leave or good support for mental health. They also provide life insurance along with health insurance. For mental health, Microsoft has opportunities to prove oneself through gym, sports, hackathon. Besides, there is a good work environment here.’
A century ago, Anika was reading a newspaper. As she turned the page, she saw news of a sister’s job on Google. At that time, she often saw news of her elder sisters’ higher education at MIT-Harvard. Besides, she used to hear news of her elder sisters’ jobs in institutions like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft at the university. Seeing them, Anika thought, if only I could work in these organizations like them! In the meantime, Anika completed her graduation in computer science. Then she took a job at Samsung. She also prepared for a job abroad. Initially, she wanted to work in any tech giant organization. In addition, an organization where she would have a place to learn, know, and improve was on her list of favorites.
Anika was born in Sylhet city. She grew up in a joint family as a child. Being the only girl in the family, she grew up under the shadow of everyone’s love and affection. She did not have a dream of becoming anything specific as a child. Her grandfather once asked Anika, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ She replied, ‘I will become a pilot and fly planes.’ When she was in eighth grade, she wanted to study science. Since then, she dreamed of studying computers. She got the idea of ​​studying computer science from a neighbor. Leaving the country causes people to suffer from depression. Being away from her family was very difficult for Anika. Earlier, he used to leave his family and live in Dhaka. Now he is far away, and even if he wants to, he cannot go to his family. In Ireland, he had to fight to adapt to new people, environment, weather, and surrounding conditions at first. Moreover, he had to face challenges to become mentally normal.
Anika Tahsin Chowdhury said about her future dreams, “Currently, I am working on how to make people’s lives easier using artificial intelligence. In the future, I want to be involved in something bigger with AI. However, I want to implement it so that people can retain their humanity with AI. I also dream about the country. If I get the opportunity in the future, I want to contribute to the country’s technology sector.”
