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How to become a MVP?

Most likely if you are reading this post you already know what a MVP is.   If not, a MVP is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional.  What does that mean?  To quote Microsoft's MVP home page "Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) are exceptional technical community leaders from around the world who are awarded for voluntarily sharing their high quality, real world expertise in offline and online technical communities. Microsoft MVPs are a highly select group of experts that represents the technical community's best and brightest, and they share a deep commitment to community and a willingness to help others."

How does one become a MVP?   I have seen this question posted on various newsgroups and I get asked this a lot.  Well, first of all the MVP award is just that, an award.  As one of my fellow MVPs states "It is an award not an entitlement".  I am proud to be a MVP and have been one for the last 6 years but each year I get nervous wondering if I will get re-awarded.  Yes, I answer a lot of questions in the newsgroups and yes I blog but like I said each year I worry if it is enough (some might say our wonderful MVP lead April takes pleasure in making us suffer Surprise )

So here are some things that you can do to help your chances of becoming a MVP.  There is no hard formula like if I answer X questions and post Y blogs I will get the award but these are some guidelines:

  • Active with UserGroups  (not as a simple member but one that presents / runs / heads up committees)
  • Blogging  -  Actively posting “USEFUL” information about the product  (not simply referencing other peoples post and claiming them as your own although if someone else has posted useful information feel free to tell others about it)
  • Writing and Publishing  - Books, Trade Magazines (SharePoint Beagle, SP Advisor, TechNet, MSD2D)
  • Speaking events – Conferences, code camps
  • Donates his or her time freely and willingly to help users in the community doing things like posting useful code in places like CodePlex
  • News Group participation ( MSD2D, MSDN)  Providing more answers and less questions
  • Recognition as a knowledge expert in thier discipline.

The SharePoint MVP community is a very tight nit group but we are always willing to accept new members that demonstrate the willingness and ability to become a MVP.

Posted: Nov 16 2007, 06:26 AM by gary | with 10 comment(s) |

Comments

Bob Fox said:

Good post Gary and very timely.  I too am honored to have been given this award and its funny sometimes that I am approached by people (recently as last week) who asked.  How can i get an MVP.  My question is always... what are you doing in the SharePoint Community... reply i got was nothing I just want it to help my career.  Wrong answer and that person was misguided and looking to get her MVP for ALL the wrong reasons.  

Thanks for posting this

# November 16, 2007 7:22 AM

Jerry Rasmussen said:

Gary I remember when you first became an MVP.  Congrats on six years.

# November 16, 2007 7:31 AM

Eric Shupps said:

Great post.  As a new MVP, I feel that the most important qualification towards receiving the award is ATTITUDE.  You have to want to share your knowledge and genuinely enjoy helping people learn more about your area of expertise (in our case, SharePoint) without any expectation of reward.  Of course, this demands that you first prove that you are an expert in the field before what you know has any real value.  This takes work - lots and lots of hard work - most of which is done for free or even at our own expense.  We don't do it because we have to, or because we've concocted some scheme to further our careers, or to feel like celebrities in our own little world - we do it because we love it and we want others to share our passion.  

# November 16, 2007 2:43 PM

Waldek Mastykarz said:

I don't know if you are an employee but if so, how do you deal with sharing your knowledge knowing your boss is the official owner of all the things you make and develop (unless stated otherwise in your contract of course). You see me and my employer have been thinking a while on it and didn't really come up with a good answer. On one side he encourages me to share my knowledge and experience. On the contrary I work for an IT company that still has to make money and profit from the ideas I help to develop and that become unique selling points in our region. So how would you deal with it?

Recently I've started blogging on SharePoint as the company I work for has started realising project on this platform. Yes, I would love to become an MVP and yes, I do know it takes a lot of effort to become one. How can I share my experience without giving away the 'gems' and allow my employer to still make profit of it?

# November 18, 2007 4:10 AM

gary said:

I have always found that the companies I have worked for as a MVP realize that my MVP designation is much more important (and profitable for them) than hoarding information.   If a customer does a search for me knowing that if my company gets the contract I am going to be on it and sees my blog then they will get a much better idea of what I know then what is just on my resume.  We all know that what people put on resumes may not actually reflect what has happened.

# November 18, 2007 5:18 AM

gary said:

Both Stacy and Eric make great points about the MVP program.  It is something that I seem to take for granted since I deal with my fellow MVPs almost on a daily basis.   These people really enjoy helping others!!!   Granted, some of their jobs deals with help the user community at large but if they did not enjoy what they are doing they would not be in those jobs!

And yes, a MVP award can help your career, but if that is the reason you are trying to get the award I would suggest other routes.  It is just like everything else in life, if you do not enjoy doing it, it will show.  

Hope this helps.

# November 18, 2007 5:24 AM

Adam Buenz said:

Gary, you are just spoiled because you get to see shining examples of what a SharePoint MVP should be daily in Stacy and I.

:)

-- Adam Buenz

# November 19, 2007 7:26 AM

Yvonne Harryman said:

You can also find the following guidelines at: sharepoint.microsoft.com/.../default.aspx which may help provide some additional information to user’s that are interested:

•Provides a significant number of useful answers on a regular basis to questions in SharePoint team blogs, community forums, and/or newsgroups.

•Publishes original content (e.g. via a blog or website) and/or tools (e.g. via CodePlex) that are useful to a significant number of people in the SharePoint community.

•Presents or co-presents SharePoint oriented sessions frequently at major conferences (e.g. MS TechEd, MS SharePoint Conference, SharePoint Connections).

•Leads or actively participates at SharePoint oriented user groups or code camps.

•Nominated and vouched for by at least 3 current SharePoint MVPs.

I also had a chance to speak with April about this same topic at DevConnections. One interesting comment she made was about finding unique and creative new ways to teach the community. I hope this helps add on some additional tips for your readers ;)

# November 19, 2007 10:02 AM

gary said:

The line that is missing from the URL in the above comment is "one or more of the following contributions on a regular basis to the SharePoint community".  Just remember, you do not have to do *All* those things.  I have not done spoken at a major conference on SharePoint in quite a while but I do newsgroup/forums answers and blog.

The big thing to remember and the point I am trying to make is it about the user community, not just yourself.

# November 19, 2007 4:25 PM

gary said:

"have not done spoken"!?!?!?!   Sheesh, I have been in the South too long  ;)

# November 19, 2007 4:31 PM
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