Empowering The Next Generation Of Leaders: An MVP Mentorship Story

[caption id="attachment_23475" align="alignnone" width="900"] Juan Carlos Ruiz and Carlos Rojas pose with the DX team at Community Connection in Lima[/caption]

While it can be great to meet with a mentor over coffee, online connections have proven to be just as powerful - especially for the global MVP community! Through sharing content and expert knowledge, each MVP is in an incredible position to mentor those eager to learn about Microsoft technologies, and empower them to become the next-generation of leaders.

Just ask Carlos Rojas and Juan Carlos Ruiz.

Now a Lima-based Senior Technical Evangelist, Carlos says the knowledge Juan shared as an MVP online (he’s now the CPM for Latin America) made a big impact on his technical career.

Back in 2010, Carlos was a 19-year-old engineering student interested in learning about Microsoft technologies. He was part of the Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) program in Peru, and frequented Juan’s popular blog, called Ideas de un Conejo. Carlos said that in particular, Juan’s free online course XAML for App Development gave him the fundamentals he’d use for developing Windows Apps for the years to come.

Now seven years later - after both being MVPs - Juan and Carlos are Microsoft employees, and say sharing content is as important as ever. “Online content democratize learning because it gives the opportunity to everybody with an internet connection to learn directly from experts like MVPs,” they wrote to the MVP Award Blog.  

“On the other hand, sharing content is also positive for the contributors because it gives them visibility in the community and people recognize them as experts in their fields, and eventually they can get some consulting opportunities or job offers.”

All in all, they say mentorship ensures the community remains strong as the years go by.

From MVPs to Microsoft employees: how did the MVP Program shape their careers?

“The MVP Program was an important milestone in my professional career, but once I received the award for the first time, that recognition also became a challenge. I was surrounded by high skilled technical people and [I wanted] to be at the same level that they were. So once I became an MVP [my growth accelerated, along with] my professional connections and my visibility not only in the community, but in the industry...to reach new opportunities.” - Juan Carlos Ruiz

“Being part of such an important program was an opportunity to connect with very talented people around the globe, not only from Microsoft but also from the community. It gave me the opportunity to amplify my impact and to learn from other experts that are part of the program.” - Carlos Rojas

Follow Juan on Twitter @JuanKRuiz, and Carlos on Twitter @Karlitoz007.