Hi! My name is Chris Pietschmann, and I’m the primary person behind BuildAzure.com and the Build Azure Weekly newsletter. I started BuildAzure.com back in June 2015 after I passed the Azure MCSD certification as an effort for me to be able to focus my Azure blogging efforts into a more targeted fashion. Over time, as a result of my many community contributions, including the success of sharing information on BuildAzure.com, I was awarded the Microsoft MVP award in 2017 in the expertise category of Microsoft Azure.

Most recently, on July 1, 2018, I was re-awarded the Microsoft MVP award for 2018 in the category of Microsoft Azure. While this is my 2nd Microsoft MVP award for Microsoft Azure, it’s actually my 7th time winning the Microsoft MVP award!

My Microsoft MVP Award History

Way back in 2008 I was awarded Microsoft MVP for Bing Maps (formerly known as Virtual Earth). Not the consumer Bing Maps site, but rather I was awarded for the category that included the Enterprise features of integrating Bing Maps into any custom application code across ASP.NET, JavaScript, REST APIs, and other integration points. I was awarded Microsoft MVP for Bing Maps for a total of 5 years from 2008 through 2012.

In 2013, I was not re-awarded and lost my Microsoft MVP status. This was around the time where I just wasn’t contributing to the community as much as I had previously. I never held anything against Microsoft for this, as my path diverged from theirs and I wasn’t providing the community value that I previously was.

In 2015, I started to kick up my community contributions again, as I realized after 2 years of less activity that Community is extremely important! Even though I was no longer recognized by Microsoft as an MVP, it didn’t belittle my contributions in any way. I’ve always done what I do, because I enjoy and have a passion for what I do. Winning the Microsoft MVP award previously was just icing on the cake. Plus, each time I was re-awarded I was surprised, since it’s just an honor to be recognized as an expert in your field by your peers.

My time from sometime in 2012 until 2015 (probably about two and a half years in total) are sort of a “dark time” in my community activity. During this time, my involvement in my startup Carto LLC (a SaaS-based CRM system with GIS / Mapping integration) had consumed my time, and my personal focus was on making money more than helping the community. I learned a big lesson from this time. If you want to be successful, then you really need to help others and help the community. The “what comes around, goes around” and “paying it forward” expressions are reality, and it’s amazing what will come your way if you put stuff out to help others while expecting nothing in return.

Starting BuildAzure.com back in 2015, among with many other things I now do regularly, have grown into being awarded Microsoft MVP again 2017 for the expertise category of Microsoft Azure. After 5 years of not being an MVP, I was now a Microsoft MVP again!

Now in 2018, I was just re-awarded Microsoft MVP in the expertise category for Microsoft Azure. From 2008 to 2018, in an eleven year period, I’ve been awarded the Microsoft MVP award 7 times. The first five times were for Microsoft Bing Maps (the mapping service formerly known as Microsoft Virtual Earth and the precursor to Azure Maps), and the latest 2 times are in the category of Microsoft Azure.

You can see a screenshot of the email notification Microsoft sent me to notify me that I’ve been re-awarded the Microsoft MVP award for the Microsoft Azure expertise category.

Once a Bing Maps MVP, now an Azure MVP. What will the future hold? Well, for the foreseeable future I’ll continue on my path with Microsoft Azure, and imagine any future Microsoft MVP awards to be in that same category. However, as my interests change, and technologies change, time will tell what my future award status and/or category will be. For now, I’ll humbly take the Microsoft MVP award and the benefits it comes with.

It’s been a great time over the years being able to be a part of the Microsoft MVP Award Program. Over this next year I will enjoy taking part in the program for yet another year, but I don’t do what I do for this award. I do what I do regardless, and the Microsoft MVP award is amazing validation and recognition that I am providing value to the technology community through my various activities.

If you’re interested in reading more about what it takes to become a Microsoft MVP, then please go read my “How to become a Microsoft MVP” article. I really look forward to many of you joining the “club” in the future. Please contact me on BuildAzure.com or other places if you have any questions about the Microsoft MVP program, presenting to conferences or user groups, blogging, or anything else. I’m always more than happy to help!

About the Author

Chris Pietschmann

Chris Pietschmann is a Microsoft MVP, HashiCorp Ambassador, and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) with 20+ years of experience designing and building Cloud & Enterprise systems. He has worked with companies of all sizes from startups to large enterprises. He has a passion for technology and sharing what he learns with others to help enable them to learn faster and be more productive.