My Profile
I'm Indian by birth, but I've lived over half my life outside of India – making who I am today the product of a variety of geographically dispersed cultures and life experiences, first as a child and then an adult.
But, without a doubt, I wouldn't be where I am today without the sacrifices my parents, John Koshy and Susan John, made while my brother and I were younger to ensure we got the best education that they could provide. My successes are not my own - they are a manifestation of the person my parents painstakingly moulded me to be. That someone so thoroughly average like me could do as well I have is a reflection of the sacrifices they made.
Today, I'm doing what I love at Microsoft. While I've had my share of painful misfortunes, missteps and low points, I recognize how blessed I've been – and it drives me further to give back (a family-imbued value).
My Life's Journey
If you're wondering, Koshy is a derivative of the name Joshua used by Christians in the south Indian state of Kerala (where I was born), and as a surname among families from Kerala in the United States.
My dad has spent most of the last 31 years working on various airport projects in the Middle East including KAIA in Jeddah and KFIA in Dammam (which opened in 1999 to become the largest airport in the world at the time), and later at NDIA in Doha, Qatar. He is currently with the Abu Dhabi Ports Company managing the Khalifa port. [SHOW MORE]
After 6 years in the Middle East, my younger brother and I moved to India in 1997 with my mom in light of the better educational opportunities there. For the next 12 years, we spent our vacations back with my dad and he came home a few times a year to see us. During this time, I completed middle school and high school, followed by a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Engineering.
In 2009, I moved to New Zealand to pursue my Masters degree. I completed a two internships there, presented a paper on the results of my Master's thesis in Sweden and went on to a full time role at a financial software services company. After a year in that role, I moved to the United States in 2012 to take up a job offer in Microsoft's Cloud + Enterprise engineering group.
I've now completed 10 very rewarding years in my current role. You can read more about my career here.
Technology and Me
Why do I like technology so much? One word: Curiosity. Most people like technology because of how it makes life easier for them. While I do appreciate that, for me it is more about, "Wow. Now, how does this work? How could it be better? Can I make it better?"
Technology has always kept me captivated. From the day I first touched the keys of a computer way back in 1992 all the way till today. I've logged many tens of thousands of hours in front of computers. This captivation (some call it dedication) made me install, use (and trash, in my experiments) just about every version of Windows since Windows 3.1. I've fine-tuned my programming skills and I've written software that have been installed many millions of times world-wide.
Somewhere along the way, my life-long hobby and passion became the focus of my education and then my career. You can read more about that here.