Back to School

It's Friday and raining in Gatineau. There is a little bit of electricity in the house because my daughters are getting ready for a brand new school semester starting next Tuesday. My son on the other hand just started college for the first time last week. These are always major stress time for parents. Getting the books ready is one thing but offering advice, helping with the stress of a new school, new friends, new professors is another ballpark.

You're probably reading this and going, "What is Christian talking about? This is a developers Blog." Well, I'm willing to bet many of you have kids. New babies, kids who will be going to kindergarten, entering primary schools or high schools, or even making the jump to the big leagues like colleges and universities. How do you help them make the right choices and give them advices. You probably also interact with students in other ways, nieces and nephews, coop students, interns or new hires. They're looking up to you, the high tech guy or gal for some advice as well and mentoring. You may also be a professor or faculty member that teaches to this next generation of young minds, helping shape the future workforce.

You may be reading this blog for yourself but the realities are that students also read this blog. I've met students in my travels over the last year who tell me that they attend our events or read our blogs and MSDN Flash. I've asked them why. And the resounding answers are: Because we need to hear what our future employers hear. Because we need to connect with these futures employers. Because we need to learn about the technologies they use.

To all these students I want to be your voice. I remember how exciting it was learning about technology. I was cleaning my office over the weekend and I stumbled upon two copies of Radio Electronics magazine from January and February 1987. They had a project on how to build a robot called RE Robot that I wanted to build. I may not have built it but I can tell you they shaped me by sparkling my interest in technology. I'm sure you may now be looking at some Internet web site as your source of inspiration and I'd love to know and tell your story if your willing.

Consider this post as the first one in a series on students learning about the world of Developers. You can help me by telling your story of mentorship or by sharing links that might be useful to students or even just sharing your passion for the world of software developers. Help me make this a great conversation.

As a parting word, I'd like to remind all post secondary students out there that if you want to learn more about the Microsoft technology, out of schools, we have a great vehicle called Dreamspark to get you the developing tools at no cost. All you need is an ISIC card number and then you can download the software.

Have fun and a great Back to School. See ya next month.