Entries tagged 'evangelist'
Lynn Langit: Evangelist and Intrapreneur
The ‘Softie in Question: Lynn Langit
Job title: Senior Developer Evangelist – US/West.
As an evangelist, Lynn Langit’s job is to share her passion for technology with others. But it is not just a job for Lynn. At Microsoft, Lynn has molded her passion and lifestyle into a thriving career.
From her early days as a budding linguistics student in a North Dakota farming community to running programs that introduce young women to technology from Southern California to South Africa, Lynn cuts her own trail and brings 100% of her electric presence to everything she does.
Microspotting sat down with Lynn (actually, we sat down while she logged a few miles at her treadmill-desk) to discuss women in technology and her idea of intrapreneuring.
{in-tra-pre-neur (In¹tre-pre-nur) n. A person within a large corporation who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea <they are passionate about!> into a finished product through assertive risk-taking and innovation [intra(corporate) + (ENTRE)PRENEUR.] -intrapre-neuri-al adj. -intra-pre-neuri-al-ism n. -in'trapre-neuri-al-ly adv.}Lynn, tell us about your work with young women in technology.
I work on two programs. The first is “Teaching Kids Programming” (TKP), which I co-founded. There I design and teach courseware to introduce middle-school aged girls and boys to programming. I work on TKP with contributors from Microsoft as well from the open-source programming community.
Second, I teach at and contribute courseware to Microsoft DigiGirlz, which is a series of events that showcase tech careers for high school girls. I have taught my TKP courseware in 15 US states and in places such as Denmark and South Africa.
What‘s the greater goal of these programs?
There are still very few women in programming. With TKP and DigiGirlz, we’re trying to provide a pipeline of technical women from which Microsoft and other tech companies can hire. Pipelines for female programming talent simply don’t yet exist, particularly in the US.
Using LinkedIn to find a job at Microsoft: Part I of III
Dear JobsBlog:
These days, everybody’s talking about how important it is to use social networking to find a job. That sounds good and all, but I don’t know where to start. Any suggestions?-Overwhelmed by Social Networking
Dear Overwhelmed by Social Networking:
Think of it this way: How many times do we run into someone who knows the same people we know and proclaim, “It's such a small world!”This phenomenon is not as random as it may seem. There is, in fact, quite a bit of science underpinning these "coincidental" events and experiences. This short path-length connection between people is seen in pop culture as the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon and in business social networking as LinkedIn. Business social networking is simply uncovering and utlilizing these connections to find employment.
Microsoft employees are the most active in social media and some 90% of our employees use LinkedIn's 75-million-member site. If you are a looking for a job at Microsoft, connecting with our employees on LinkedIn is a smart first step.
However, simply opening a LinkedIn account is not enough. You must learn to utilize LinkedIn for "finding" information and for "being found."
Today, I'm going to discuss “finding” - the investigative aspects of the LinkedIn platform that help you to gain information and connections that will put you closer to a job at Microsoft.
Using LinkedIn to find a job at Microsoft: Part I of III
Dear JobsBlog:
These days, everybody’s talking about how important it is to use social networking to find a job. That sounds good and all, but I don’t know where to start. Any suggestions?-Overwhelmed by Social Networking
Dear Overwhelmed by Social Networking:
Think of it this way: How many times do we run into someone who knows the same people we know and proclaim, “It's such a small world!”This phenomenon is not as random as it may seem. There is, in fact, quite a bit of science underpinning these "coincidental" events and experiences. This short path-length connection between people is seen in pop culture as the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon and in business social networking as LinkedIn. Business social networking is simply uncovering and utlilizing these connections to find employment.
Microsoft employees are the most active in social media and some 90% of our employees use LinkedIn's 75-million-member site. If you are a looking for a job at Microsoft, connecting with our employees on LinkedIn is a smart first step.
However, simply opening a LinkedIn account is not enough. You must learn to utilize LinkedIn for "finding" information and for "being found."
Today, I'm going to discuss “finding” - the investigative aspects of the LinkedIn platform that help you to gain information and connections that will put you closer to a job at Microsoft.
Laura Foy: pioneering online media
‘Softie in Question: Laura Foy
Job Title: Video Production Goddess (aka Senior Technical Evangelist).
Laura, it’s hard to miss you online here at Microsoft and beyond. I’ve seen you in everything from an interview with Craig Mundie about NUI to a Justin Timberlake spoof music video about Xbox. Tell me about your role here.
I host and produce stories about what’s going on with Microsoft and technology. I have a weekly show called Ping!, I share breaking technology news, I talk about Windows Phone 7, make kitsch horror movies, music videos, travel all over the place… you name it. There are so many things going on at Microsoft and so many places to create content that I never have a shortage of ideas or material.
I recently saw the award-winning documentary We Live in Public about internet pioneers and I noticed you in a couple of scenes. Tell me about how you got in on the ground floor of online media.
I had just graduated from NYU. The late 90s .com bubble was in full swing and a friend told me about a job at Pseudo.com. The job was just cataloging tapes and basic stuff like that, but I was bartending at the time, so I was like “sure, I’ll give it a try.”