Escalating to Mom

The two brothers quickly joined forces to recruit their sister. But she was skeptical. "I like to plan everything to the end," said Aylin. "I'm the opposite of Milad—whom Aydin and I both admire for taking big risks. But it's really hard for me to accept fast changes." Plus, she wondered what in the world a civil engineer could possibly do at Microsoft. Milad and Aydin were convinced that it would be a good fit, considering Aylin's passion for customer management in the civil engineering space. "I would visit her office and look at what she was doing, and I thought that she could do way more with her talent," said Milad. Aylin felt like she was making a bit of an impact, but she was worried that her work didn’t have enough meaning. She didn't want to just make products, ship products, and support products for the products’ sake. She wanted to start with people first. And the way Milad spoke about Microsoft's breakthrough technologies to help people in the private sector, in government, and for consumers finally got to her. She applied to Microsoft and figured that would be enough to satisfy her brothers' pestering; she did not think she'd get a call back. But then Microsoft reached out and eventually hired her, eager to make use of Aylin's people and project management skills. Suddenly, it was all in the family. For the first few years, the siblings worked in Dubai and Hamburg in the same organization, Milad as a premier field engineer, Aylin as a technical account manager, and Aydin as a support architect, all under Microsoft's services group. They joke about those days, when Aylin as the project manager would dispatch Milad to a customer, and if he didn't go, she'd escalate . . . to their mother. "It was effective," Milad said, laughing. [caption id="attachment_36027" align="alignleft" width="420"] Girl looks at computer screen with wide eyes and a smile

Girl looks at computer screen with wide eyes and a smile

The next generation of Aslaner children (like Aydin's daughter Emilia pictured above at a Minecraft coding event) have already set out their career paths toward Microsoft. Milad Aslaner heard his nephew once annouce, “I want to travel and explore so I want to work for Microsoft."[/caption] At the dinner table, the trio suddenly developed a private language almost like twin speak. Acronyms flew across the table as their mother’s and other family members' eyes glazed over. "I'm sure we were intolerable," Aylin laughed. But they all soon found that the ability to talk to each other both as coworkers and as siblings enriched their perspective of work. Aylin said that she can go to Milad with a problem she's stuck on and get his out-of-the-box ideas, while she goes to Aydin for his dependable experience and support. Milad relies on Aylin's ability to hold everything together and see the big picture. And Aydin admires both of his younger siblings for the way they've embraced the sudden and sometimes challenging changes in their careers. They no longer work in the same organization—Aydin is in the support organization responsible for partner innovation, based in Dubai; Milad is part of the new experiences and devices organization, responsible for Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection as a program manager in Hamburg; and Aylin is a segment leader for higher education and university clinics, also in Hamburg. But they still share their passion for Microsoft. The family-style recruiting hasn't stopped there. Aylin and Aydin both have children who are also enthusiastic about Microsoft, down to planning their careers at the company that their family is so fond of. "For us, Microsoft events are a family reunion," Milad said. And a few years ago, all three siblings presented together on stage at Microsoft's free technical learning event. "I love how Microsoft changes," said Aylin. "That's not something I saw in other companies I worked for. I feel at home." "Our mother is so proud," said Aydin. "We feel really lucky to be here all together."

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