Richard Barrett, Senior Copilot Solutions Engineer at Microsoft

Deciding how much to specialise, and when, is one of the biggest choices in an SE's career. I think Richard Barrett’s approach is spot on. Richard has spent almost 17 years working with Microsoft's productivity and collaboration technologies, so you might think he's the archetypal specialist. And yet, alongside that consistency, he's done a real range of roles, from implementation to sales to pre-sales, across very different companies: a boutique SI, a global SI, and now a hyperscaler. In our conversation, we get into: - Why it’s important to try different things out, particularly early on in your career - What carrying a number taught Richard and why he’d recommend it to other SEs - How a specialist SE role is different to being the only SE on an account If you're weighing up how deep to go versus how broad to stay, this one's for you.