Maria Magambo ’27 wondered what a career in product management entailed, so she used social media to connect with Naadia Sayed ’11 MS, a University of St. Thomas alum in the field. Sayed is a product manager at Microsoft. The two hopped on a virtual call and Magambo left the one-hour conversation feeling inspired.
“Naadia navigated the start of her career as an international student and a woman working in tech. This deeply resonated with me,” Magambo said. “I wanted to learn the steps she took to become who she is today, hoping to take away valuable lessons I could apply to my own life. Her advice was incredibly encouraging, and hearing her perspective played a huge part in helping me find my footing in the industry.”
Magambo found her niche in artificial intelligence and machine learning when researching that path within computer science. This led to landing an internship as a machine learning engineer at Microsoft.
Magambo is vice president of the St. Thomas chapter of ColorStack, a non-profit tech community of over 4,500 Black and Latinx computer science students from over 700 schools across the country. When she invited Sayed to provide insight to the group, Sayed jumped at the opportunity to help her fellow Tommies.
During the session with ColorStack, Sayed reflected on her journey from being an international STEM student at the University of St. Thomas to becoming an employee at Microsoft for nearly 15 years and counting. In her current role, she’s credited for launching the security ecosystem for Microsoft Copilot and a security store, which is a marketplace connecting customers to their affiliated security partners.
“The group really appreciated how openly she shared her career journey, the wins, the challenges and the key lessons she learned along the way,” Magambo said. “Her practical tips on product management, navigating big tech and making strategic career moves gave everyone a much clearer picture of what it takes to succeed.
“Because she has worked across so many different sectors in the industry, I truly believe everyone walked away with something valuable. Plus, she walked us through the specific opportunities students can actively seek at Microsoft. That kind of direct, actionable advice is amazing for our community.”
Sayed shared how artificial intelligence is impacting her field, why she implemented business courses when customizing her master’s of science degree in software management at St. Thomas and how, in her experience, there’s not a linear path to move up the food chain.
Here are three memorable topics from her virtual visit with ColorStack.
St. Thomas served as launchpad for success
“St. Thomas let me pick and choose what I wanted in my master’s program,” Sayed said. “Counselors helped me customize my M.S. so it would work best for me. When I talk to people about this they are surprised that this kind of one-to-one support existed.”
Sayed used her education to give her both a technical foundation and business skills needed to excel in her career. This gave her an edge over candidates from other universities who focused solely on the technical side.
“It’s great I understand technology, but I need to be able to explain technology to people who do not,” she said.
Continued Learning
With artificial intelligence changing the technology industry, Sayed told the students it’s important to have the skills to adjust to new developments.
“Learning never stops, that’s the beauty of our lives,” she said. “If you’re in technology, you always have to update your information.”
Sayed said she made it a point to gain a base knowledge of technology and learn how to interpret that to an audience. That’s where her business studies came into play. She still makes an effort to learn different facets of her industry to gain technical credibility and business strategy. She shared that the strongest careers often combine both of those traits. This is why curiosity catapulted her career growth.
Explore Different Paths
Before landing at Microsoft, Sayed completed internships at startups where she performed coding and development.
“That really opened my eyes,” Sayed said. “I knew I didn’t want to be a coder.”
When Sayed compares the experience of working for a startup versus corporate America, she prefers the established and structured environment of the latter. With this realization, there’s a message she wants students to hear.
“If you can, have both experiences so you at least know what you like and don’t like, so when you step into your career path you can have a feel for what the grass is like on the other end,” Sayed said. “Make the right decision for yourself. At the end of the day, you are the one who will wake up in the morning and go to the job day in and day out. It’s important that you like where you are working.”
