The following blog post was written by Avanade alum Brandon Nolan.

I joined Avanade just 18 months ago after more than 12 years working in consulting focused on Information Systems and Cyber Security. I had heard of Avanade, and after doing research, I knew this was the company I wanted to work for. When I received a call from a recruiter in December of 2014, I jumped at the chance to join the team and really make an impact with my career.

At Avanade, each person is part of a Talent Community, which is a group of similarly skilled individuals. These talent communities foster a culture of continuous learning and sharing, even with colleagues half way around the word! I was surprised when I was asked to take on the leadership Talent Community champion role for my region. I had only been with the firm a short time and found that I was already given these amazing opportunities to develop and grow myself. I absolutely love the stretch roles and opportunities that Avanade has provided me, and I don't believe that this would have happened in any other company.

I take my role as talent community champion seriously. I am passionate about helping our people foster a growth mindset. And, because everyone counts, I created a global workgroup with representation from each level to develop our new skill training and growth tracts for Infrastructure. These tracts are so important because they align consultant levels internally with the responsibilities and expectations associated. Also, it enforces what they need to learn technically and guides them to where they need to start, and what growth is projected for each level.

I believe in keeping in constant communication with my fellow talent community champions and team members to ensure I understand needs and challenges of our region. Through this process we realized that we didn’t have enough Solution Architects in place—so we designed our own apprenticeship program. This apprenticeship program will be my next big focus as I work to change things for the better.

On top of my Talent Community responsibilities, I get to work on projects with large global clients, and am fully billable! My days are busy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. And while I my crave rest when I go home at night, with three children (ages 7, 10 and 12) there's very little down time. I couldn’t do what I do without the support of my best friend, my wife. My other passion is playing music with my kids, especially guitar and piano. This allows me to switch my brain away from work…at least for a little while!