Cesar M.
5.0
Microsoft Ex-Software Engineer, Senior PM, 10+ Years Coaching Big Tech Devs
Studied at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Works at Microsoft
Available Monday at 11:30 PM UTC
Usually responds within 12 hours
Questions? Start chatting with this coach before you get started.
Cesar's Coaching Offerings
Land a Software Engineering Offer — Getting Started
Streamlined coaching for fast, focused SWE job prep
Starting at $6605h+ of coaching
Nail Your Software Engineering Interviews
Crush the interviews with mock sessions, key frameworks, and tailored prep.
Starting at $6605h+ of coaching
Craft a Winning Software Engineering Resume
Build a resume that highlights your technical skills and impact
Starting at $2702h+ of coaching
Pay as you go
Get help with Skill Building, LinkedIn Review, and .
Cesar also coaches for Career Coaching, Communication & Public Speaking, Product Management, and Life Coaching. View all.
Cesar’s Software Engineering Qualifications
Coaches professionally
Experience level: Associate
20+ people coached for Software Engineering
I started my career at Microsoft as a Software Engineer, where I built a strong foundation in software development, problem-solving, and delivering high-quality technical solutions. With over 10 years of experience in Big Tech, I’ve since advanced into leadership roles, including my current position as a Senior Product Manager at Microsoft. This journey taught me not only how to excel as an engineer but also how to leverage technical skills to drive business outcomes. My experience spans Technical Support Engineering, Software Engineering, and Program Management, giving me a comprehensive understanding of the software development lifecycle. I’ve worked directly with development teams to deliver impactful software, informed by both technical perspectives and end-user needs. I help aspiring engineers get their first role, navigate career transitions, or level up their skills to stand out in competitive environments. From mastering coding interviews to improving core skills like system design, debugging, and collaboration, I provide actionable insights to help you succeed in your software engineering career. Whether you’re looking to break into the field, grow as an engineer, or move into a leadership role, I’m here to guide you. With a practical, no-fluff approach, I’ll help you confidently achieve your career goals and unlock your full potential as a software engineer.
Cesar can help with:
Skill Building
LinkedIn Review
Promotion Strategy
Cover Letters
Resume Review
Networking Strategy
Salary Negotiation
Technical Interview Prep
Behavioral Interview Prep
Cesar also coaches for Career Coaching, Communication & Public Speaking, Product Management, and Life Coaching. View all.
About Cesar
👋Hi! I’m Cesar Martinez, a Senior Program Manager and Professional Coach at Microsoft. Over the past decade, I’ve combined technical expertise, leadership acumen, and my passion for people to help clients reach their full potential. As someone who has held dream roles across Big Tech and thrived in competitive industries, I know what it takes to succeed. My coaching journey stems from the belief that the right mindset paired with practical steps can create transformative growth. I grew up in a working-class family, which taught me resilience, empathy, and the value of hard work early on. Those lessons became the foundation of my coaching philosophy: a pragmatic, no-fluff approach to tackling challenges and achieving goals. What sets me apart is my ability to connect deeply and authentically with individuals, wherever they are in life or career. Whether it’s professional breakthroughs, personal clarity, or building confidence, I’m here to help you thrive🫡
Why do I coach?
At my core, I am a coach. It’s who I’ve always been—a person driven to help others discover their potential and thrive in ways they never knew they could. I’ve been blessed with the right coaches at the right moments in my life, helping me unlock clarity and success. That motivates me even more to do the same for others, because I know firsthand the transformative power of a great coach. One of my gifts has always been knowing exactly what people need to hear, and how they need to hear it, to fire them up or shift their perspective completely. I’ve helped clients move past internal blocks and discover extraordinary levels of purpose and joy. From late nights pulling all-nighters in engineering and finding motivational speakers on YouTube, to working with business coaches who helped me align my passions, I know the value of guidance and clarity. It’s about knowing not just the “formulas” but how to apply them to solve real-world problems—and that’s what I bring to every coaching relationship. My coaching is pragmatic, authentic, and empathetic, and I thrive on seeing my clients experience life-changing breakthroughs. There’s nothing better than watching someone flourish, reach new heights, and achieve success beyond what they thought was possible. I truly believe the world becomes a better place when we all figure out what we’re best at and step into that with confidence. That’s what I help people do, and that's why I do what I do!
Work Experience
Senior Business Program Manager – Innovation & Enablement
Microsoft
October 2024 - Present
Digital Customer Success – Customer Experiences & Success (CE&S) team ✓ Spearheading agile solutions to bridge gaps between customers and partners, accelerating business outcomes. ✓ Developing strategies to align user interactions with business priorities, enhancing value delivery and satisfaction. ✓ Leading the development and scaling of digital initiatives, from ideation to production PoC, maximizing impact.
Professional Internal Coach
Microsoft
January 2024 - Present
Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions (MCAPS) – Worldwide Learning & Development ✓ Group-coaching cohorts of 20+ emerging leaders and managers for Cloud Operations & Innovation org. ✓ Designing and delivering internal coaching programs to FTEs across entire worldwide sales organization.
Professional Career Coach
Exec
July 2022 - Present
Job Search Coaching, Career Coaching, and Life Coaching ✓ Including career direction, job search strategy, networking, personal branding, LinkedIn and resume reviews, mock interviews, values identification, skills and strengths discovery, goal clarification, career transition, professional development, personal transformation, work life balance, relationships, emotional wellbeing, health and wellness, clarity, confidence, and more.
Founder, Clarity & Confidence Coach
No-Fluff Coaching, LLC
August 2020 - Present
✓ Attracting coaching clients and speaking opportunities through effective organic social media marketing. ✓ Produced engaging daily content that reached 130,000+ people per month within two months of launch.
Professional Coach - Google Tech Equity Collective (TEC)
Management Leadership for Tomorrow
September 2024 - December 2024
✓ Coached a cohort of aspiring tech professionals, providing tailored career management guidance to prepare them for high-trajectory opportunities within the tech industry. ✓ Collaborated with the Google TEC to develop and deliver impactful content for virtual and in-person sessions, ensuring participants meet the bar for success in top tech organizations.
Senior Career Development Program Manager – Early in Profession (EIP)
Microsoft
April 2024 - September 2024
Employee Skilling, Grow Your Career team ✓ Cultivated influence with key stakeholders and partners to gain buy-in for EIP learning and skilling strategy. ✓ Partnered with HR teams to define and understand talent trends, development needs, and investment strategies. ✓ Collaborated with global teams to design and implement innovative experiments exploring the future of work.
Senior L&D Program Manager – Worldwide Learning & Development
Microsoft
December 2022 - April 2024
Employee Skilling, Cross-Program team ✓ Led team and program enabling 2500+ field experts collaborate in sales academy learning content development. ✓ Innovated, automated, and fully operationalized the program, increasing FTE capacity by +4 for the organization. ✓ Launched globally inclusive community and recognition & rewards, incentivizing and increasing engagement.
Program Manager II – Azure Customer & Partner Community
Microsoft
May 2020 - December 2022
PMO & Product Improvement team ✓ Fostered engagement in community of 10,000+ priority customers, partners, and product engineering teams. ✓ Translated customer sentiment feedback into actionable feedback and delivered to respective product teams. ✓ Automated community management processes to expand team bandwidth, visualize data, and surface insights.
Software Engineer II – Azure Portal User Experiences
Microsoft
January 2017 - May 2020
IaaS Compute UI Development team ✓ Drove accessibility compliance, adoption and collaboration across engineering, vendor, and partner teams. ✓ Built new end-to-end user experiences and improvements across the Azure Portal web UI (100K+ loads/day). ✓ Led as Core Code Reviewer, Accessibility Champion, and MSFT Intern Leader (budget & events for 40+ interns).
Technical Support Engineer - Enterprise MDM
VMware
July 2015 - November 2016
Education & Mobile App Management teams ✓ Provided expert support to sustain and enhance district-wide device deployments for education customers. ✓ Consulted with customers to understand business needs and optimize deployment implementations. ✓ Successfully resolved high-pressure escalations with top-tier customers facing business-critical incidents. ✓ Selected as a speaker to deliver day-long workshops enabling 100+ admins at VMware national conference.
Program Manager Intern
Microsoft
May 2014 - August 2014
Azure Storage team Outlined strategies that simplified migration for prospective customers of a new cloud feature Managed setup of internal testing environment and pushed production to meet tight deadlines Awarded Microsoft Leaders in Diversity Scholarship for leadership in STEM field diversity
User Experience Intern
John Deere
May 2013 - July 2013
User Experience team Created and facilitated first-click usability tests to examine element visibility within prototypes Analyzed resulting data and proposed solutions that were implemented in following iterations
Software Engineer Intern
Cummins
May 2012 - August 2012
Simulation and Test Tools team Developed software simulating engine unit behavior that cut previous process times by ~95% Integrated microchip optimizing engine data logging system that cut costs by ~80% per unit
Cesar was also given offers to work at
Accenture
Cerner
Salesforce
Goldman Sachs
Microsoft
VMware
John Deere
Cummins
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Management Leadership for Tomorrow
Education
Microsoft Coaching Center of Excellence
ICF-Certified ACC Coaching Education, Professional Coach (Internal)
2023 - 2024
Internal coaches supporting Microsoft's MCAPS organization meet their highest performance and quality bars around professional coaching. ✓ Completed at least one professional coaching training program accredited by one of the biggest coaching organizations in the world (ICF, EMCC, AC) ✓ Attending internal and external courses on a plethora of coaching topics. ✓ Volunteering time on internal coaching and group coaching programs. ✓ Receiving ongoing coaching supervision and coach mentoring.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Bachelor of Science (B.S.), College of Engineering, Computer Science
2010 - 2015
✓ Minor in Business ✓ Specialized in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), psychology of perception, and negotiations. ✓ Leadership roles for Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE|UIUC).
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