business backgrounder | employment & workplace
a demand for excellence
Sgt. Josh Gray is another freshly minted Software & Systems Academy alumnus who earned a job at Microsoft. His
new position with the company’s Global Foundation Services, the network back-end that serves up billions of site
views each day, will be similar in many ways to his job as communications electronics technician and information
systems analyst in the Army.
“Part of why I joined the Army is it’s an institution that demands excellence and has a global impact,” Gray
said. “To be able to go from that to another institution that is known for excellence and has a global impact is
phenomenal.”
Gray, who served one combat deployment to Iraq and peacetime tours that took him to Korea, Thailand and
Singapore, hopes to keep learning and moving up, eventually managing his own team at Microsoft. In recounting his
journey, he still sounds a bit amazed. Taking a chance on this experimental program
that seemed too good to be true has actually allowed him to land the job of his dreams.
“It’s probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”
Army Career & Alumni Program:
www.acap.army.mil
“I need to be a part of what causes America to be great again.
This was not only eye-opening, it showed how much
corporate and government partnerships can mean to
American society as a whole.”
—Sgt. Bernard Bergan, who is transitioning from the
1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) to Microsoft
Hero 2 Hired: h2h.jobs
Hire America’s Hero’s Pipeline:
hireamericasheroes.org/pipeline-program
Microsoft Software & Systems Academy:
http://bit.ly/softwaresystemsacademy
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