Emilian Baragan is a former winner of Imagine Cup – Short Film Brazil 2004 (actually the section is called Digital Media ). His team Midia came from Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Romania. Team members: Adrian Baragan, Emilian Baragan and Marius Patrascanu.
 Emilian Baragan, Brazil 2004 |
 Emilian Baragan, Bucharest 2010 |
1. Where are you working right now (Company, Job position, Responsibilities)?
A. Currently I work for Microsoft as a Support Escalation Engineer in the Romanian Global Technical Support Center in Bucharest. The Center operates as part of Microsoft Customer Service and Support (CSS), one of the largest service and support networks in the industry that helps nearly 1 billion customers around the world each year. As part of the SQL Developer and SQL BI teams, I’m responsible with handling Critical customer Situations that reach the last level of Support and provide deep technical assistance by employing advanced troubleshooting resources. I’m also responsible for engaging with the Product Group when their technical input is required and also when issues are discovered within the product, and will also follow each raised concern to its resolution (implementation of a fix, release of service pack).
2. Did the Imagine Cup have an influence on your career/life? If so, what impact (hopefully positive) has it had in your career or life experience?
A. Imagine Cup definitely had a positive impact on my life both professional and personal. It has been the first big worldwide event to which I had the opportunity to take part. It was of great inspiration for me to meet people from all over the world, all driven by their passion for what they were doing, fueled by the youth’s energy and determined to achieve great things.
It had also been the first real contact I had with Microsoft’s culture, values, and vision of empowering and enabling people throughout the world to realize their full potential and it made me want to be part of this experience.
3. What do you feel was the hardest part of Imagine Cup competition?
A. For me it was the last two days before the project submission deadline, when we still had what seemed to be a lot of work still to be done, even though in the last 2 weeks we pushed ourselves to the limit and hardly even slept, in order to finish our project in time. Even harder were the last hours before the deadline, when we were struggling with some upload bandwidth problems that jeopardized our attempt to upload the project in time.
4. Did you discover a special strategy that worked for you in the Final Round, or if you were to do it all over, what would you do differently in the Final Round?
A. Our special strategy was to have fun and enjoy every minute of it. I think that as long as you’re really enjoying what you’re doing, you can’t really go wrong. Everyone is at their best when doing what they really LOVE.
5. What is the most memorable moment from the Imagine Cup competition?
A. For me it was the point where we were on stage for the awards ceremony, with all 5 finalist teams on stage and realizing, as the announcer gave away the awards one by one, that we’re not on the 5th place, and not on the 4th and not on the 3rd and then not on the 2nd…
6. Can you describe into one single word the Digital Media section?
A. Inspiration
7. Would you encourage someone to participate in the Imagine Cup? If so, please explain how.
A. It is a unique opportunity to team up with your peers from the farthest corners of the world, create together, compete together and have fun.
You will be inspired by all the combined creative and positive energies of all the people involved.
[Update] The Short Film Winner – Brazil, 2004
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Enjoy!
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