The Microsoft Student Partner (MSPs) Recruitment for the year 2017 will be happening from 13th to 10th July. This is a shoutout to all the students out here… Don’t miss the chance for being a part of this amazing community… 🙂

Who’s a Microsoft Student Partner

From wikipedia:
“The Microsoft Student Partners is a worldwide recognizable program to sponsor students majoring in disciplines related to technology. The MSP program enhances students’ employability by offering training in skills not usually taught in academia, including knowledge of Microsoft technologies.”

Simply the Microsoft Student Program is a great way for students to get involved in the world of technology. It’s a great program by Microsoft to empower students who are passionate about Microsoft technologies.

Microsoft Student Partners do incredible things:

• Run workshops and hackathons
• Host tech events and give demos on campus
• Work alongside Microsoft professionals, assisting them during hackathons and events
• Join exclusive Microsoft training events to learn the latest technologies
• Grow and nurture a community of students and faculty on-campus and online
• Enhance their skills and career opportunities
• Get amazing jobs And much more…

Perks of being an MSP

This is a question that is asked by most students about the program. Is it worth something being an MSP?. Why MSP?, Let’s find out….

Exclusive event invitations

Being an MSP will increase your chances for being selected in Microsoft invite only events, conferences and meetups. You can meet amazing people in these events.

Free MSDN subscription

This is one of my favorite perks being an MSP. Being an MSP, Microsoft will give you a free MSDN (Visual studio enterprise) subscription (Which costs around $5,999). It will give you access to all Microsoft products for free. You can easily download and use genuine Microsoft products from your MSDN subscription portal. You can get up to 5 genuine serial keys for most products completely for free. What I liked most about the MSDN subscription is that it gave me Visual studio Enterprise and Windows 10 Enterprise for free. It also includes free tons of Azure credits to run up to 3 high end VPS VMs simultaneously. It also offers one to one support on all Microsoft products.

Learn new technologies and programming languages

Being an MSP, you will receive exclusive access to Many online learning platforms like Microsoft E-Learning, Xamarin university etc. It will help you to add up to your skillset and sharpen your current skills.

Networking opportunities

Being an MSP you will be added to an exclusive closed group of MSPs and microsoft employees. You will recieve a @studentpartner.com email ID, it will give you access to the Yammer network and the office 365 portal. Using this email ID you will be eligible for 1TB of microsoft one drive cloud storage space. You will also get a free office 365 with all of its 3rd party extensions. Participating in MS events will allow you to grow your network with MVPs & Microsoft Employees. Whether you have any doubts related to anything under the globe, there will be at least a single person to help you out in our community.

Internship & Recruitments

Microsoft may offer you internships if you perform well as an MSP. You may also land into a job offer if you are the best.

Boost your resume

Experience being an MSP will be surely the best thing to put in your resume. It will make you stand out from the crowd. It will surely catch the eyes of the recruiters.

Beta testing

Microsoft announces internal beta test for most of its products. As a student partner. if you apply for any of the Microsoft’s beta test programs, you have a high chance of being selected. I used my student partner ID to apply for Microsoft’s Zo project and I was selected as a beta tester. Being an MSP will keep you updated about Microsoft’s new products and its releases.

Swags, swags and swags…

Whether you are attending an MS event or hosting an event, Microsoft will shower you with lots and lots of goodies like tee shirts, headphones, or even a brand new windows phone… 😀

Eligibility criteria for MSP 2017

All applying students must be enrolled full time in an accredited academic institution from July 1, 2017 through June 1, 2018 and all students must have valid identification.

Anyone who satisfies the above requirements can apply to the program. The person need not have to be a computer science student to apply for MSP program. I know many MSPs who are B-School students, One of my friend MSP is even studying B.S in Botany.

Prerequisites

You must make sure that you have the following things in your hand (Taken from official page):

• Student Verification: Scan and upload your college ID Card in an Online Drive. The Uploaded ID Card link should be directly viewable and the image should be properly visible.
• Video Challenge: Please create a 1-minute or less video explaining why you should be a Microsoft Student Partner on your campus. Elaborate on technical skills, events you’ve been involved with, and describe how you would motivate students on your campus to learn about technology. The video should be uploaded on Youtube and made publicity visible. Only applications with completed videos will be reviewed. You can take reference as to how to upload a video on Youtube from here

If you have any questions about the MSP program or the application process, please contact: newmsp@microsoft.com

So what are you waiting for? Apply now! 😀

Know more: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-in/microsoftstudentpartners.aspx
Apply now: https://aka.ms/JoinMSP2017
Apply now (India): https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/campaign/msp2017/default.aspx

Originally published on http://www.gautamkrishnar.com/microsoft-student-partners/