Yes, I'm a Microsoft MVP, HashiCorp Ambassador, and MCT - and I Still Build Real Stuff

Over the years, I’ve had the privilege to be honored with community recognitions, like Microsoft MVP and HashiCorp Ambassador, as well as other certifications like the Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT). I’m proud of my accomplishments and humbled to be considered at the level of other Microsoft MVPs and HashiCorp Ambassadors that put so much great content and work out into the community. These awards and recognitions reflect years of building, shopping, mentoring, teaching, and contributing to the tech community in all kinds of ways for me. But despite all the community work that I do, which I would do regardless of these recognitions anyway, I’ve surprisingly encountered some skepticism from time to time.

There are people out there that look at those of us with these recognitions and assume we don’t actually build things; as if we can’t actually do stuff. They assume all we do is talk about the shiny new stuff and can’t put it into practice. That we’re just “tech influencers” who are incapable of getting out hands dirty in real implementations and production environments. And to be honest, this perception couldn’t be further from the truth in my experience. Not just for me individually, but for other Microsoft MVPs, HashiCorp Ambassadors and similar that I’ve met.

I Write Code. A Lot.

My day-to-day still involves architecting systems, writing code, solving real problems, and deploying real solutions. There have even been many times where I read documentation, figure something out, and my solution gets put out there as a recommended best practice of doing something. People like me fill in the gaps between product documentation and the communities understanding of implementation. These best practices get percolated out to the community through blogs/articles, courses, books, dev guides, solution accelerators, and even official product documentation that I contribute to.

I’m often in the trenches building things that go to production too.

Just recently, I’ve personally worked on multiple projects that include the following:

• Leading the migration of an entire enterprises on-premise datacenter and it’s VM and app workloads into Microsoft Azure using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with both HashiCorp Terraform and Azure Bicep, Hub-Spoke networking, ExpressRoute, cloud networking appliances, and custom apps hosted in PaaS services
• Develop custom developer guides and solution accelerators for Microsoft PostgreSQL and Cosmos DB product teams to showcase new features and building custom Copilot / Generative AI solutions in Microsoft Azure

These Titles Are Earned, Not Given

Recognitions like Microsoft MVP and HashiCorp Ambassador are NOT handed out casually. These are hard earned credentials that consist of years of consistent, meaningful contribution to the tech community. Sure, each award is given on an annual basis to recognize the previous years contributions, but it takes years to build up the expertise needed to make the community impact that is recognized with these awards.

These awards are not simply about being the loudest voice, but being an impactful voice in the community.

Visibility Is Not Vanity

There is skepticism by some that comes from the misunderstanding that if someone is visible and promoting themselves that they must be all talk. That somehow writing blog posts / articles, speaking at conferences, creating course content, or teaching classes somehow means you’re not also able to apply the knowledge.

But the truth is, sharing knowledge is part of mastery. Helping others avoid the same pitfalls you ran into, or opening up tough technical problems to community discussion - that’s not ego. That’s generosity and leadership.

Also, self promotion is how to convey to others what you know. Being an active member of the community makes finding new job opportunities much easier.

We’re All Still Learning

There’s a quote that says, “Those who can’t do, teach.” This couldn’t be further from the truth. If you truly want to master something, then you need to teach it.

It’s one thing to get to know a topic or technology by being able to implement it once. But it’s an entirely different level of understanding if you’re able to concisely and affectively communicate it to another person well enough so they can understand and implement it as well.

Through all my years as a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) and mentor, I’ve learned technical topics much thoroughly and completely than I ever would have before.

Those who agree with that quote have likely never attempted to teach someone how to do what they themselves already know how to do. Sure you can teach a single perspective of a topic. But in order to teach of affectively, you need to have topic understanding that transcends multiple perspectives so you are able to answer the questions others will raise and help them understand the answer.

You don’t get to understand other perspectives without other people. We are all still learning together. Even those considered experts by others because of their Microsoft MVP, HashiCorp Ambassador, or other credentials and recognitions.

One Community

At the end of the day, I’m a problem solver, communicator, and builder. These recognitions are humbling and awesome, but they aren’t what make people like me an expert in what we do. The awards are just a side effect. It’s what I do that, day in and day out, that makes me an expert. All the blogging, speaking, mentoring, sharing, and contributing to open source. The Microsoft MVP, HashiCorp Ambassador and others are the communities recognition of the expertise that already has been built and earned.

People like me do what we do because of other people. If you weren’t there, we’d have nobody to share what we’ve learned. We are all members of the same community, and we are all learning together.

So if you’ve ever felt intimidated by titles like Microsoft MVP, HashiCorp Ambassador, MCT, or others - don’t be. We’re all figuring this out together. And if you want to build cool stuff, I’m right here beside you doing the same.

Also, don’t be afraid to put things you create or write out to share with others. Some may criticize, others will appreciate, but the community will always be better for what you contribute that lifts us all up together.