Senior Consultant at Delegate Magnus Gether Sørensen has just received the title of MVP (Most Valuable Professional). A title that is only held by 42 people in Denmark and approximately 3000 around the world.
Within Microsoft, it is definitely one of the biggest recognitions you can get, and I was told by some other MVPs that if you only chase the title to become MVP, you won't get it," says newly appointed MVP and Senior Consultant at Delegate, Magnus Gether Sørensen.
To be considered for the prestigious title of Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP), there are three parameters that must be met:
- You must have distinguished yourself among many people - that is, what you do must be read or heard by many.
- Whatever your contribution is, it must be distributed throughout the year, so you continuously add value to the community.
- And your content must be professionally relevant with technical depth.
Despite comments from colleagues in the industry, Magnus continued, in his own words, to "slave" through to achieve the title of MVP - until he burned out.
"The things I did in the Microsoft community, I did solely to become an MVP, but it is not fixed what it is that earns you the title. There is no specific measure, for example, that when you have written x number of blog posts, it's done. But I continued to chase the title and ended up burning out. I couldn't see the point anymore and didn't really feel like it anymore," he says.
After that, I found someone in the community who was doing something interesting and was a nice person. I still wanted to be an MVP, but now it was more about the things I did being fun. So, since I did something I thought was fun, the motivation came from somewhere else. And then I happened to be rewarded with an MVP title. So getting the title after such a journey has been really cool.
To be considered for the title, one must first be nominated, and then the nominated person must explain in writing what they have done for the Microsoft community - outside of work hours.
The winner is not told why they have won, but Magnus's own guess as to why the MVP title was won now is due to his newsletter Power Platform Weekly and his role in organizing the conference Nordic Summit.
What do you get out of the title?
"There are some very practical things. You get some "MVP swag" - some t-shirts and various subscriptions. But the biggest bonus is the information you get available. As an MVP, you get a lot of information from Microsoft that is under a NDA (non-disclosure agreement), but I can personally use it to become more knowledgeable about a product and strengthen my own skills. If we have questions about how a product is going and what direction it is heading, we have a more direct way, MVPs are more directly connected to the product groups at Microsoft. And it's a good selling point. Few customers know the title, but those who do know that it can make a difference," Magnus says.
The news that one has been appointed an MVP comes by email, and Magnus still has the big celebration to come:
"By coincidence, I was out eating pizza. So it was celebrated that way. The real celebration will probably be at New Year's when I get together with a larger group of friends,"
Every year, Microsoft evaluates whether the title should continue to be given to the individual. It is not enough to rest on your laurels when the title is in place. Delegate is now proud to have a total of four MVPs, as Principal Specialist Erik Ejlskov Jensen, Distinguished Developer Egil Hansen, and Distinguished Developer Christian Resma Helle also hold the title.
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