Margarita Naumova: Microsoft Women Worth Watching.
Title: SQL Server Consultant, Microsoft Consulting Services
What’s Your Typical Day Like? Lots of customer team meetings involving project delivery. She work both at big enterprise customer sites and in her home office. “I do more design, disaster recovery, SQL Server architectural work and performance optimization” than anything else, she says. “I usually play the role of project architect,” more than doing any coding, Naumova says, “so I often create teams of people comprised of customers and partners.”
Did you always want to be involved in technology? If not, what steered you this way? “I do things I like and follow things with emotion,” says Naumova. Math was her favorite discipline in school, leading to a focus on technology and databases at the University of Economics in Varna, Bulgaria. Science, mathematics and analytical thinking “was natural for me,” she says.
Advice for women (and/or men) considering a career in technology? “Women can become successful in any sphere as long as they can overcome the restrictions in their minds. They need to focus on and create opportunities, not focus on the obstacles,” says Naumova. “There is a place for every person who likes challenges.”