I have been sitting on this article for a while now. I have been tossing around some

thoughts and finally it is time to share some of those thoughts with the masses. I hope to provoke further thought on the topic of being an MVP.

I want to preface all of these thoughts first by saying that I believe there are many great people out there who are not an MVP who deserve to be an MVP. These are the types of people that do a lot for the community and strive to bring training and increased knowledge to more people in various platforms under the Microsoft banner.

Now for some obligatory information. While it is true I am an MVP, I feel obligated to remind people that I have zero (yup that is a big fat zero) influence over the MVP program. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to retain the position of MVP along with all of the rest of the MVP community (there are a few of us out there). Not only am I grateful to the program for allowing me in, I am also grateful to all of those that nominated me.

Work – and lots of it!

One of the first things that strikes me is the nomination process for the MVP program. There are two parts to the process. The easy part comes from the person making the nomination. That said, if you are nominating somebody or if you are asking somebody to nominate you, read this guide from Jen Stirrup. Jen has listed a bunch of work that has to be done on the part of nominator. Or is it work for the person making the nomination?

When you really start thinking about it, the nominee is really the person that needs to do a fair amount of work. Yes, it is a good amount of work to do. Then again, maybe it is not very much work for you at all.

One of the things that really bugs me about the process is all of this work. Not specifically that I get the opportunity to do it. No, more specifically that there seems to be a growing trend in the community of entitlement. I feel that far too many people, that do a lot within the community, feel they are entitled to being accepted into the MVP program. And of course there are others that do much less and also exhibit the same sentiment.

Entitled?

When you feel you deserve to be an MVP, are you prepared to do more work? I have heard from more than one source that they will not fill out all the extra information requested when they are nominated. The prevailing reason here being that they are entitled, because they do some bit of community work, to be automatically included. Another prevailing sentiment, around this extra work, is that Microsoft should already be tracking the individual and know everything there is to know about the contributions of said individual.

These sentiments couldn’t be further from the fact. If you are thinking along the lines of either of these sentiments, you are NOT an MVP. There are a ton of professionals in the world doing a lot of community activities who are just as deserving of becoming an MVP. It is hardly plausible for Microsoft to track every candidate in the world. Why not tell them a bit about yourself?

RESUME / CV

When applying for a job, how do you go about applying for that job? Every job for which I have ever applied, I have needed to fill out an application as well as send a resume to the employer. I hardly think any employer would hire me without knowing that I am interested in the job.

That sounds fantastic for a job right? Being an MVP surely has no need to send a resume for that, is there? Well, technically no. However, if you treat your community work like you would treat any other experience you have, you may start to see the need for the resume just a touch more. When nominated, you are requested to provide a lot of information to Microsoft that essentially builds your resume to be reviewed for the MVP program.

One of the prevailing sentiments I have heard from more than one place is that filling out all of this information is just bragging on yourself. That sentiment is not too far from reality. Just like any resume, you have to highlight your experiences, your accomplishments and your skills. Without this kind of information, how could Microsoft possibly know anything about you? Do you have the paparazzi following you and sending the information along to Microsoft for you? If you do, then why even bother with the MVP program? Your popularity is probably on a bigger scale than the MVP program if you have your own paparazzi.

Invest in your Professional Self

The more effort you put into your candidate details the better chance you have at standing out within the review process. Think about it this way, would you turn in a piece of paper with just your name on it for a job? Or…would you take hours to invest in your personal self and produce a good resume that will stand out in the sea of resumes that have been submitted?

If you ask me to submit you as an MVP and I do, I would hope that you complete your MVP resume (candidate profile) and submit it to Microsoft. If you don’t take the time to do that, then I would find it hard to ever submit you again. The refusal to fill out that information speaks volumes to me and says either you are not interested or think too much of yourself for the MVP program.

Leadership

One of the attributes of an MVP is that of leadership. A simple measure of leadership actually falls into the previous two sections we just covered. If you are contributing to the community, that would be one small form of leadership. If you are willing to follow, that is also a form of leadership. If you are able to complete your information and submit it, then that is also an attribute of leadership.

Leaders demonstrate their leadership by being able to take direction, teaching others (community work), completing tasks when necessary, and reporting back up to their superiors on successes and failures (the last two can be attached to the completion of the nomination data).

Don’t believe me about leadership being an attribute of an MVP? Take a gander at this snippet from my last renewal letter. Highlighted in red is the pertinent sentence.

You can run the phrase through a translator or take my word for it that it pertains to exceptional leaders in the technical community.

It’s not a Job though

I am sure some of the pundits out there would be clamoring that if the MVP program were an actual job, then they would perform all of the extra work. I have two observations for this: 1) it speaks to the persons character and 2) MVP really is more like a job than you may think.

The MVP program is not a paid job and probably falls more into the realm of volunteering than a paid job. Despite that, if you treat it more like a job with full on responsibilities you will have greater success in getting accepted and you will have a greater sense of fulfillment. Additionally, you will get further along with more opportunities within the MVP program just like a traditional job.

Just like a traditional job, there are responsibilities, non-disclosures, internal communications, and annual reviews. Did any of those terms raise your eyebrow? The community contribution paperwork does not end with becoming an MVP – that is just the job application / resume. Every year, you have to provide an annual review. This review is a recap of the entire year with your personal accomplishments and is basically a self-review that would be provided to the manager. I am sure you are familiar with the process of providing a self-review to document reasons why you should remain employed or even get a raise.

Non-traditional Job

As with a regular job, you must continue to accomplish something in order to maintain the position. The accomplishments can come in any form of community contribution such as blogs, speaking, mentoring, or podcasts (as examples). What is not often realized is that this takes time. Sometimes, it takes a lot of time. When you consider the time as a part of your effort, I hope you start to realize that being an MVP really is a lot like a part time job (and a full time job in some cases).

When we start talking about being an MVP in quantity of hours contributed and tasks accomplished, it is not hard to see it as a job. So if it really is just like a job, how much time are you willing to invest in the documentation for this award? Is it at least comparable to the time you invest in documenting your professional career when applying for a paying job? If you don’t take that kind of pride or effort in documenting your worth to your personal career development, then I dare say you need to rethink your approach and re-evaluate whether you should be an MVP candidate.

Being an MVP is not just an award – it is a commitment to do more for the community!