Success story: Celeste Sipherd nabs full-time spot at Microsoft

Success Stories | Mar 06, 2012 | Nicole Gesualdo

Accounting major Celeste Sipherd (GSB ’12) will heed the call of the West Coast after graduation as she joins Microsoft’s Financial Rotation Analyst Program at the company’s headquarters in Seattle, Washington.

Appropriately for the graduate of a globally focused business program like Gabelli, however, Celeste will spend six months of her two-year program overseas. She has the chance to be placed in China, Germany, France or the United Kingdom, and she already has her eye on Beijing.

The Microsoft program will give Celeste a thorough immersion in the inner workings of the technology giant. Rotations include the Xbox, Microsoft Office and Microsoft Servers divisions, among others. When Celeste cycles through each one, she will work in a different capacity, such as product development or pricing strategy.

That diversity of work was part of what drew Celeste to the program, which she discovered through Microsoft’s own web site. “I was extremely interested in the fact that I would be able to work in multiple divisions with the ability to help create and finance products that will impact billions of people,” she said.

Microsoft’s setting — both at its main office in Washington State and in its overseas branches — proved attractive as well. “The headquarters sits on hundreds of acres with soccer fields, basketball courts and more; there were even people playing soccer during lunch when I went there to interview,” Celeste recalled. She said that other perks of her new position include excellent healthcare benefits and extras that can keep employees away from the doctor in the first place, such as a top-notch gym and competitive intramural leagues.

All of us at Gabelli congratulate Celeste on this fantastic placement at Microsoft and wish her luck in the future — not only in her full-time work, but also in those intramural leagues, which we have no doubt she will dominate as well.