Microsoft Innovation Podcast
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Dive into the future of work with the "Microsoft Innovation Podcast," exploring the intersection of People, Business, Technology, and AI.
Engage with expert guests—including thought leaders from Microsoft, industry innovators, and community specialists—who are redefining the world with advancements in AI, Cloud technologies, the Power Platform, Dynamics 365, and beyond.
Every episode delivers a blend of in-depth discussions, practical insights, and actionable strategies tailored for professionals driving enablement and innovation.
Join us across our five shows:
- The Power Platform Show
- The MVP Show
- The Copilot Show
- The Ecosystems Show
- The AI Advantage (coming soon)
Microsoft Innovation Podcast
Crossing Industries: How a Technical Lead Found Success in Power Platform
Get featured on the show by leaving us a Voice Mail: https://bit.ly/MIPVM
FULL SHOW NOTES
https://www.microsoftinnovationpodcast.com/671
Prashant Chaudhary shares his journey from automation engineering to Microsoft MVP, highlighting how a passion for programming and community support shaped his successful career in Power Platform.
TAKEAWAYS
• Working at EY as a technical lead with expertise in Power Apps, Power Automate, and Dataverse
• First awarded Microsoft MVP status in 2024
• Started in automation engineering before transitioning to IT through a programming aptitude test
• Specializes in Power Automate after about 5-6 years working with Power Platform
• Successfully implemented desktop automation projects for financial data processing
• Career influenced by a startup owner who taught him to think beyond a single domain
• Joined EY through networking connections made by helping others in the community
• Planning to expand community involvement through speaking engagements in 2025
• Values networking as a critical component of career growth
OTHER RESOURCES:
Microsoft MVP YouTube Series - How to Become a Microsoft MVP
90 Day Mentoring Challenge - https://www.90daymc.com/
This year we're adding a new show to our line up - The AI Advantage. We'll discuss the skills you need to thrive in an AI-enabled world.
Accelerate your Microsoft career with the 90 Day Mentoring Challenge
We’ve helped 1,300+ people across 70+ countries establish successful careers in the Microsoft Power Platform and Dynamics 365 ecosystem.
Benefit from expert guidance, a supportive community, and a clear career roadmap. A lot can change in 90 days, get started today!
If you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.
Thanks for listening 🚀 - Mark Smith
Welcome to the MVP show. My intention is that you listen to the stories of these MVP guests and are inspired to become an MVP and bring value to the world through your skills. If you have not checked it out already, I do a YouTube series called how to Become an MVP. The link is in the show notes. With that, let's get on with the show. Today's guest is all the way from India. He works at EY as a technical lead. He was first awarded as MVP in 2024. His expertise spans Power Apps, power Automate and Dataverse, leveraging Azure services to deliver holistic solutions to his customers. You can find links to his bio and social media in the show notes for this episode. Welcome to the show, prashant.
Prashant Chaudhary:Thanks for that good introduction to Mark Smith for me, like even I haven't prepared that much a long discussion about myself, so thanks for that.
Mark Smith:So hey, everyone awesome, tell me, tell me Prashant food, family and fun. What do they mean to you?
Prashant Chaudhary:okay. So whenever we talk about this food, family and fun, I would say when we are not doing any work, so what we can do at that time, so obviously I'll go for the fun. Like what I generally do is like I like this web series, like that we that is available on the netflix and all, and I personally like crime and thrillers because, yeah, because I belongs to the backbenchers family of from the school. Okay, so that's how I invest or I waste my time. Food, yeah, food is like if someone has prepared something for good for me, I can take it easily, but it's not like I want to prepare this for myself yeah, but do you have a favorite?
Mark Smith:what's? What's your favorite dish?
Prashant Chaudhary:my favorite dish is a milk cake. Uh, it's a sweet. That is available in india and it's not that costly, but yes, little bit nice.
Mark Smith:So if I came and visited you would be going and having milk cake. Sure, nice sounds good, sounds good, maybe this year, maybe this year.
Prashant Chaudhary:Um, tell me about your family okay, so, uh, I currently live with my family. My family has a people that belongs to multiple professions. Okay, like my father is a graphic designer, my mom is a housewife, who take care of the home. Obviously my mom, my sister is, belongs to the medical, like she's a government nurse, my brother is a planner and I belongs to this it industry. So it's like everyone belongs to different, different domain and then when, whenever they just sit together, it's like it's hard to just talk on a single topic.
Prashant Chaudhary:Yeah, I bet that's exciting because everyone has a different, different interest and different, different areas to work and different type of knowledge that they are having. So, yeah, I like it.
Mark Smith:That's the background tell me, tell me about, uh. Why did you know, with such a diverse choice of careers that was happening in your family and your father being a graphic designer, what made you decide that, uh, it was going to be where you built your career?
Prashant Chaudhary:okay, see, uh, when I was in my 12th, standards okay. So I used to do the programming in in the computer language. Okay. Later, uh, since my uncle belongs to the automation industry like automation people who are doing the programming for the microcontrollers okay, so they wanted me to go to the automation industry. So I did my uh graduation from that domain automation.
Prashant Chaudhary:When I was working in that automation, one of the manager noticed me and he said you like programming? I said yes. He said okay, you are not interested in in assembling of it. I said it's not like that. But yes, if you ask me, like what is my priority or what is my top preference, then I would be doing the programming. Then he said prashant, then your career would be like, if you go to the it, there you will find your type of people. And also, like in my 12, like I used to deliver lectures to my tuition peoples, like I was living some tuitions for some, some kids, so I used to train them in programming at that time.
Prashant Chaudhary:So that's how I decided okay, let's try to give interview to some IT industry and see if I would be selected or not. If I would be selected, then I would go for the IT industry, otherwise I will continue my automation. When I went, when I go to this it industry for my interview out of around 22 people were there and the person who was taking that interview he just gave me some sort of a logic that needs to be implemented, okay, and he asked me okay, prashant, that you don't belongs to the it, that you haven't done your graduation from any programming language, but if you tell me the logic how you can build that type of a system, I will hire you. That's how he just took my interview. So I said, okay, but I know that programming. So I wrote a program and it worked accidentally and, yes, I was selected out of 22 candidates. So then I just decided, okay, now I might play a better role in IT as compared to automation. So, yeah, that's how I moved into this industry.
Mark Smith:How many years have you been now working with the Power Platform?
Prashant Chaudhary:no-transcript. I was enrolled as a Dynamics people. Okay, and if you remember this Power Platform, like, I categorize this Power Platform as a child of Dynamics CRM okay, because many concepts, whatever you are utilizing in Power Platform maximum, are coming from the Dynamics itself. Okay, although Dynamics is a vast field to explore if you have time or if I have time. So, like, I started with dynamics and at the time, like PowerApp was just growing, like it was in the starting of 2019, like PowerApp coming to the market in 2016. So it took three years to just settle. And in 2019, we were having some demand. Okay, so that's how I started in 2019. Were having some demand? Okay, so that's how I start in 2019. And then, yes, it's around 2025. So you can assume five to six years that I've invested here that's cool.
Mark Smith:That's cool out of all the tools in the power platform uh, which is your favorite, as in power apps, automate pages, power effects, dataverse, uh co-pilot studio, my preference.
Prashant Chaudhary:Like then I would say power automate would be my, my top choice. Because the thing is like, if I uh, it's not just like delivering something, it's, it's about what value it is giving to the customers. Okay, I'm not saying like the something, it's about what value it is giving to the customers. Okay, I'm not saying like the other components are delivering less values, it's not like that. The thing is like, whenever we are talking about the automation since I was coming from the automation, so I might be a little inclined towards the automation, okay. So when I found, okay, like many days, we are doing some repetitions of work, okay, so, okay, like mind is we are doing some repetitions of work, okay, so why can't we just deliver an automation that can do that work, although, like the power app, a low code platform through which you can deliver some sort of a user interface for your client, that is also a important pillar of this power platform. But personally, I feel power automate is my choice interesting.
Mark Smith:That's cool. I mean, everyone has the one that they excel in right and power automate is is one of those rock solid tools out there. Are you doing any robotic process automation rpa? Are you using uh, power automate rpa? Have you done anything with the desktop flows?
Prashant Chaudhary:Yeah, like we were asked to do some sort of a desktop automation. So, yes, we delivered a project in that area. So desktop automation is like where you would need a machine where things would work and cloud is something that it would run on the cloud side, right? So if you are asking any example, then if I give you the interesting example that I did for the desktop automation. It's like a company is uploading their data on the Dynamics AX.
Prashant Chaudhary:Before this financial operation, people used to use this Dynamics AX to upload their finance data, to upload their finance data. So we were fetching that data and they have given us some sort of a template, some sort of excel template that is a compact form of their finance. Okay, so we were downloading some reports from the ax, pasting it to the excel and then preparing a single, single line of a summary from it. Okay, so there we have used this desktop automation. It's like downloading, pasting some excel, running some, running some, some some sort of macros on the excel so that it would it would prepare a single line of a summary of whole, of whole financial data. Okay, and then sending emails to the owners of the stakeholders. So that's sort of a thing that we did who's had the biggest influence on your career?
Prashant Chaudhary:influence. Okay, I would say the person to who has interviewed me into the it industry ah.
Mark Smith:So do you still work with them? Are they still a friend, or do they guide you, do they mentor you?
Prashant Chaudhary:okay, the thing is like he was the owner of our organization. Okay, and since that organization was a startup, so you can understand that in every startup, you always have the budget issues. Okay, yes, so I used to. I used to go with him for every sort of action that, whatever is going on in any organization, whether that belongs to delivery, whether that belongs to operations, whether that belongs to marketing sales, at every other place I was, I was with him. So he used to train me like it's not, like there's a two type of fishes one fish that live in a small pond and the fish is big, and another one is like a big ocean, but this fish is small. So how you want your career to be, whether you want a face in a small sea or you want a big fish in a small pond. So that's how, like he said, we don't get every time all the resources or all the things that we need, but it's on us how we are going to manipulate our things in order to achieve what we actually need.
Prashant Chaudhary:Like he too was a good software or developer, but within two or three years, he decided to start his own business in that area and later he just shifted his business. Okay, like, after some years he he got bored from this IT industry so he decided to move his business into the food industry and later he moved to the real estate. So that's how I was like a person should not be limited to one area. Okay, he should be covering things from multiple places. Okay, what other people are doing? How they are doing what we can do in order to contribute in that in their domains? Okay, so, yeah, I liked his mindset and that's how I started my journey, like, okay, I should not be just doing the office work, I should be doing something for the communities. Okay, yeah, so that's how, like, he just impressed me and he just gave me that mindset to go with this path.
Mark Smith:So how did you end up at ey?
Prashant Chaudhary:okay, see, um, when I was in that startup, um, I served to so many mncs like, like, okay, like some Infosys, pwc and many others, okay, and some small corporates too. Later I found like I should now like I invested there around three and three, three plus three plus years there, only Okay. Later I decided, okay, I know how this startup actually works. But that would not be sufficient. I should know how the big corporates work. So I decided, okay, now let's try my career in some other MNC. So I thought, okay, I can just try in Essentia, I can try in TCS, many more. So I decided, okay, let's try to take a jump. That would be good. So I decided, okay, let's move to the big four.
Prashant Chaudhary:Like you know, like this EY belongs to big four Of the world, right? So that's how I I even I I was when I was delivering some work into the communities I got a person like I can't just tell the name of that person here. Like, I helped her. Like I used to help people whenever they just struck into the implementation of Power Platform. I was open for everyone through my social medias, like, if you get struck, you can just ping me. If I get some time I will definitely help you out. So I helped a person through my LinkedIn and she asked me Prashant, if you want to explore your career in EY, please let me know. I said, okay, let's try then. So that's how I come to this EY.
Mark Smith:Okay, so without saying her name, what was the question that she had?
Prashant Chaudhary:that you solved okay, uh, if I remember like it was in the 2022 somewhere around april. Okay, uh, she needed to build some sort of a filtration process in the, in a grid that we can add inside our power app, and some sort of automation that she wanted to implement for her client, and she was confused whether that implementation would be reliable or not. So I said, okay, I provided her two different types of approaches to implement his scenario and both were reliable. So I gave her the chance okay, you can just proceed with any one of them and it would be good. So that's how I started. She was my friend and then we used to talk and I used to solve her queries not on a regular basis, but, yeah, like once a month or maybe twice a month and then, after some months, I moved to EY. She belongs to EY already.
Mark Smith:Now, when you look at 2025, what's your big goals for this year?
Prashant Chaudhary:Okay, nice question, if I understand this last year when I was awarded for this mvp. Okay, so I got to know that this mvp is not just a reward that you got. It's about more type of a responsibility that you will get and people would expect you that you would continue your, your, your delivery in addition to the community helps. Okay. So I decided, okay, I will be start doing some sort of uh, communities entertainments, not just entertainment, like right now I just provide support through some online medium, but people just ask me like, why can't you just come to some events and deliver some lectures or deliver some trainings? I do that trainings, but in in my internal e-y. Okay, so, yeah, that's my goal for 2025, that I should start focusing to go to events as a speaker. Like, yeah, so that's my goal?
Mark Smith:are you speaking engagements? Are you just just restricting your focus on India, or are you going to go abroad?
Prashant Chaudhary:Based on the chance that I got, I'll look into that. Obviously, if you get a chance to just talk globally or just to move out of EY and then deliver that lecture, that would be also good because that's how you would increase your network and network has a different, a key for your career. I would say, like network is a key in your career.
Mark Smith:Prashant, I've really enjoyed having a chat with you today. Thank you for coming on the show.
Prashant Chaudhary:Thanks same to you, mark. I really, really wanted to just talk to you because I used to listen to your podcast. Some years back, like in 2021 or 22. I I heard your, your feedback because, like in 2019 and not 19 2020 I I was in a in a in a podcast where I was doing some comparison between the modeling and the canvas. Okay, because that time we were having so much difference between these two apps. Okay, so the person that belongs to some other country were there in the podcast and we were doing that, and after that, like around three or four years later, I'm coming back to another podcast now.
Mark Smith:Hey, thanks for listening. I'm your host business application mvp mark smith, otherwise known as the nz365 guy. If you like the show and want to be a supporter, check out buymeacoffeecom forward slash. Nz365 guy. Thanks again and see you next time. Thank you.
