Brad Abrams graduated from N.C. State in 1997 with an undergraduate degree in computer science. Abrams began working for Microsoft in 2004, where he was a Product Unit Manager. His first experience at Microsoft was his internship in Test. In fact, Abrams landed the job after helping his interviewer and future boss debug an issue during the interview. Abrams remembers falling in love with his work in the field of computer science during this internship that jumpstarted his future with Microsoft. Abrams worked as a part of the engineering team that designs the .NET Framework, the tools that help build new applications. A regular blogger, Abrams writes, “This is important to Microsoft, as it helps build our tools businesses as well as our platform services.” After his impactful first interview, Abrams continued to outperform with his duties at Microsoft. He led a group of software developers and quality assurance managers who deliver features for the dynamic frameworks that Microsoft offers. The work his team does with the company involves Abrams being online with developers every single day, building tools to make it easier to build applications. The frameworks his team of 60 people work on daily are used by almost every Fortune 500 company. Their specialization is called ‘the plumbing code’. This code, according to Abrams, is “the system that every application needs, but is not necessarily specific to their business.” By working with developers directly, Abrams was able to stay grounded as well as further his communication skills within the workplace. In 2007 he was honored with Microsoft’s highest honor, the Chairman’s Award for Engineering Excellence. The award was for his work on FxCop, an application that enables developers to quickly and reliably scan their code to help catch errors before they become part of the source tree. Not only did the award itself honor Abrams, but was presented to him by the company’s co-founder, Bill Gates. Abrams also authored the 2004 Framework Design Guidelines with a 2nd edition published in 2005. The timeless book is used all throughout Microsoft and beyond. Abrams is now Group Product Manager on the Actions on Google team, which is the platform for the Google Assistant where he is responsible for the developer experiences on the platform. He has been at Google since 2011 and has led platform efforts in Google Cloud and Chrome and now on the Google Assistant team. Brad has spoken at developer conferences around the world including nearly every major Microsoft developer event during his tenure and many Google IO and GCP LIve events since he joined. Abrams credits N.C. State with giving him the fundamentals of computer science that has placed him in the position he is in today. He is thankful for the courses he took at the University that fostered his communication skills as well as computer science considering how often he finds himself communicating with others on a daily basis. Today, Abrams encourages people coming out of the computer science program to think broadly about the kind of experiences they need to have. He pushes students to gain valuable people skills and communication talents as well as their firm understanding of programming and algorithms.