Getting to know datacenter employees: Tina Jang
Microsoft’s success depends on our people. We are proud to introduce some of the talented folks in your community who work in our global datacenters. Discover what inspired them to pursue a career in the tech industry, the different pathways they pursued, and what a day in the life of a datacenter employee looks like.
Introducing Tina Jang
Logistics Technician
Boydton, Virginia
Employee since 2020
Early days
Tina was born and raised in Taiwan by her hard-working and attentive parents. As a child, she watched her older brother put computers together which inspired Tina’s curiosity about technology and unlocked a strong interest area. Tina vividly remembers the first time she successfully performed a ‘Jailbreak’ on her first-generation iPod touch.
Contrary to her tech hobbies, Tina’s college major was Foreign Languages, a decision that helped her tremendously later in life. Tina comments that with English as her second language and survival tool, studying Foreign Languages, widened her horizons even more.
The path to technology
After graduation, Tina didn’t work in technology right away but held office support roles as a receptionist, secretary, and later an assistant manager. Still, throughout her early career, Tina’s interest in technology continued but she wasn’t sure if she would be able to shift to a career in IT and thought making a living with it would be ‘too far of a stretch’. Tina’s husband, however, had a different perspective and encouraged her to keep pursuing jobs in technology. Tina recounts, “He was the one always encouraging and helping me over all the hurdles when we arrived in America.”
In 2019, Tina was awarded the Microsoft Datacenter Academy Scholarship in the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center. She views this as a turning point in her life. Later, Tina was selected as an extern for Microsoft and eventually was hired to work at the Boydton datacenter campus. Tina shares, “Using a second language to do everything is hard. I am so thankful because it was much easier with everyone who has supported my career path.”
Superpowers
Tina is good at paperwork and organizing information. She says she always takes notes and documents everything, a tactic that saves her from her self-described “bad memory”. Tina also likes to find inconsistencies in systems because these corrections help improve workplace efficiencies.
When asked her about her superpowers, Tina said, “I enjoy the investigation part of Logistics. I guess you could say my superpower is that I like some of the tasks that people might find boring, like resolving discrepancies and other unsolved mysteries. According to my co-workers, I am always looking for the next thing to do. I am willing to learn anything.”
A day in the life
Tina reports that her morning doesn’t start until she has a cup of coffee. After that she warms up by checking out what was left on the dock and catches up on email. Tina avoids feeling overwhelmed at the start of her day by determining priorities. She shares, “If I can come up with a plan, I feel it’s much easier to start. I like to regularly sync up with my lead about what to do next. Therefore, the team is on the same page and can move forward in the same direction.” Tina also enjoys tackling pending items and feels a sense of accomplishment if she can solve those items.
Favorite childhood food
Shaved Ice with fruit (Shuiguo bing)
Taiwan is an island with abundant fresh, tropical fruit like mangos, guava, and watermelons. Shaved Ice with fruit, condensed milk and sugar syrup is Tina’s favorite childhood dessert. She told us it can be served in a ‘Party size’ and shared with 10 or 12 people but for Tina, sitting on a beach, having Shuiguo bing with her friends is her favorite childhood memory.
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