Hello, World!

profile with text

Greetings and salutations. I’m Jonathan – the newest member of the Canadian DPE team, writing to introduce myself to you.

For as long as I can remember, I have been checking Microsoft Careers to give me something to target my career towards. I’d read through job postings for various different positions and I’d tell myself “Nah, that’s not really you...”

  • Could I have been a consultant? Probably;
  • A Marketing Manager? Definitely not;
  • A Microsoft Developer? Now we’re getting closer
  • ... but it still wasn’t the perfect fit.

Why wasn’t it the perfect fit, you ask?

Anyone that knows me will tell you that I’m a geek; I love my toys and technology, but what I love most is helping others. Whether it’s talking to people, helping them out with their projects, answering questions, or providing advice on careers. Apparently, this is a gene (completely not validated by medicine, but you know what I mean; something that is part of you that can’t be taught), which is a marketable skill, but more so, a job requirement of a technical evangelist.

Who knew that such a role in the technology world existed? I thought it was a religious thing. Then, I saw Joey’s post, Developer Evangelist. Toronto Area. Now Hiring. Maybe You? on the Canadian Developer Connection. I read through and did a double-take. I said to myself: “No way does this job actually exist. That’s too good to be true.” I finally knew that it was “the perfect fit”.

Let’s just say I got an early holiday present when John Oxley (@joxley) gave me the good news. This “Developer Evangelist” that I read about... that was going to be me! When I told my family, closest friends, and then co-workers (after explaining what the heck a Developer Evangelist does... Joey – thanks for the post... I just sent everyone there to read), no one was surprised. When I meet you, hopefully you won’t be surprised either.

Anyway, that’s the story. Now, about me:

Though I have done many things in my IT career (data centre management, architecture, development and then development management), somehow my work always came down to what is closest to my heart; the Microsoft platform. I speak “platform”, rather than “product” (first demonstration of “geeky-ness”) and have primarily worked with .NET (C#), SQL, and SharePoint to make behind-the-scenes magic happen. Now, I have the honour and privilege of rocking Canadian developers’ worlds with Windows Azure – being the “Cloud Dude” on the team – throwing yet another way of doing things into your toolbox.

JR vPrevious (me... you can call me Jon, Jonathan, JR, Microsoft Guy, whatever you’d like...) came from a world of enabling people through process to run as a dynamic, yet effective, development shop. JR vCurrent has the pleasure of continuing to work with people and companies throughout Canada in developing their Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) methodologies and implementing them through the tools available on the platform.

Like most of the team, I am a geek and will take playing with servers and code over sports any day! Adding to that, you also have my Trekkie-ness (all of my machines at home (and yes I have several) are named after Starfleet ships!), and my social networking addictions. You can catch me on Twitter , Facebook , LinkedIn , Windows Live Messenger ( jonathan.rozenblit@live.ca ), and others.

I can’t wait to work with you. Together, we’ll demonstrate the awesome-ness of the Microsoft development platform by designing and developing apps that deliver business value (that’s what we have to tell those who pay the bills).

Drop me a line at jonar@microsoft.com or follow me on Twitter (@jrozenblit)!