Sunday, October 19, 2008

A Microsoft Student Partner Experience

Back in my college daze, I was invited to join Microsoft’s rather interesting program for students and become a Microsoft Student Partner.

In this program, MSPs are basically Microsoft’s ambassadors in different countries. The program’s goal is to encourage and sponsor students who are enthusiastic about technology. So, you really don’t have to be a Computer Science student or an engineer to be a part of this program.

As a MSP, you are given activities to execute in your area, such as giving seminars on a Microsoft technology you are passionate about. Of course, Microsoft provides you with the material required and a few giveaways. You do not get paid to do this, but there are a few promised benefits:

• Welcome Kit
• Certificate of Recognition
• Invitation to local Microsoft Events
• Microsoft Recruiting Opportunities
• Promotion for most active ADE
• Microsoft Internship Opportunities
• Exposed to Latest technology trainings
• Expense Budget on activity basis
• MSDN Premium Subscriptions
• Continuous Reward System

Let’s just say, getting all benefits depends on who your Academic Developer Evangelist (ADE) is and how quick and responsible he/she is. I was assigned to Lana Khalaf, who is the Gulf ADE and working with her was an experience itself. Sometimes your ADE is very cooperative but even they face trouble getting things from Microsoft Corp. Of course I dealt with other MS Employees in our region that were very helpful and supportive. A special shout out goes to MS Office in Bahrain!

Several months after my graduation, I was assigned to become the first MSP Lead in the Gulf area. This has exposed me to a much higher level of the MSP program. I got to administer the Student Partner’s website and was able to reach out to the few MSPs in the Gulf region. I was also planning the Gulf’s first Student Summit which will be held in early November this year.

I have left the program as life has had a few different turns for me.

I love talking to students about the new technologies and then being able to hear out their ideas and questions. This program made it easier for me to do that. For other MSPs that I have met, it just made it difficult because their teachers and Deans were not Microsoft fans. Meeting other MSPs online also was one of the highlights of the program for me. We were able to discuss our problems and our achievements. We also go off topic and talk about other technologies such as the latest Ubuntu distro, installing Windows on Mac or even talk about how cool Leopard is! So, it’s not limited to Microsoft only! I loved how in my sessions I can talk freely about competitors’ products and even recommend them whenever I feel so.

One of the perks of being a MSP is that you get to know about the cool things coming out before they do. Usually, our hangout is the student-partners forum and MSDN Channel 8; a website dedicated to students. I prefer the latter because it was our window to Redmond and the forum, in my opinion, was horribly designed and maintained. It is being upgraded now, so everything is going to change, which is exciting for MSPs. My favorite way to communicate with MSPs is through MSN Messenger.

Now, the downside of the program is that sometimes you do not get what you want, or you may get your materials later than expected which can cause problems. I was upset in many situations about some delays but I guess that’s a part of life. Also, MSPs from different regions get rewarded differently which can cause a few problems. In the gulf region, there aren’t any sessions for MSPs to attend for free as it is one of the benefits. So, they just select the MSP in our region with the highest number of activities reported back and send him/her to TechEd Conference.

I was invited to Microsoft Corp in Redmond to attend a special 2 day conference with 14 other MSP leads. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend as it was bad timing, but you can see how cool it could get being an MSP.

I very much recommend this program to any student who is very active and enjoys extra curricula activities in the IT field. It’s very fun and challenging. Even with the pros and cons, students interested in IT in general are bound to receive a great deal of experience from this program. 

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