Too many links, and too little time? This blog post is intended to be a comprehensive list of Microsoft resources on software, jobs, discounts and more for students of any age!

In this blog I will share useful links for

• Coders or those interested in learning to code? Beginners and Experienced Coders
• Deals on Microsoft office or other Microsoft products? Hardware and Software
• Looking for a job? Undergraduate, Graduate student, MBA
• Non-profit resources for students or organizations who help students? Software donations

I have listed everything I could think of, but I am sure I missed something! So please add your comments to let me know if this provided you with the information you were looking for or with suggested content to add.

Coders or those interested in learning to code?

Whether you are a complete beginner or an expert visit imagine.microsoft.com to find out about how you can access free developer software, learning resources for developers of all levels, contests, and more…

Beginners

You can find some great courses on learning how to code aka.ms/learn2code . Check out tools such as

• TouchDevelop – an open source tool you can use to build a video game, mobile app, website, or IoT with only a web browser
• Kodu – great place to build your first ever 3D video game, runs on Windows
• Windows App Studio – to explore building apps for Windows without coding using only a web browser
• Minecraft – Yes, Microsoft does own Minecraft and I will find some cool resources to share to help you get going with this amazing place to create worlds! Our Minecraft content is being developed as I type!
• Project Spark – to build amazing 3d worlds and games, runs on Windows and Xbox

Experienced coders

For more experienced coders you may want to check out

• Visual Studio Community to develop web apps, mobile apps, IoT and more in .NET, Python, nodeJS, Unity, C++, and more…! runs on Windows
• VS Code to develop web and cloud apps, runs on Mac and Linux
• Free cloud access in Microsoft Azure for students
• Where do you look to find the most recent training and courses on everything from bootstrap to databases to how to build apps or use SDKs for Microsoft devices such as HoloLens and Microsoft Band? Check out Microsoft Virtual Academy and Channel 9 . As soon as there is content available or a big announcement, this is where you will find it!
• If you are a Canadian and want to see what’s happening near you, keep an eye on our blog Canadian Developer Connection

Starting your own company? Selling apps or software?

• Find out how Microsoft supports startups at BizSpark

Continue here to read full article

Editor’s Note:  The following article was written by Stephanie Walden,  and first appeared on Mashable.

Mentorships can be hard to come by — and even more difficult to hold on to. Given busy schedules and fluctuating lifestyles, it's a challenge to put in the time and effort to maintain a mutually beneficial mentor relationship.

But it can be done, and when done correctly, mentorship can have immense rewards for both parties.

We spoke to a pair from WomenAdvancing to get their take on how professional women can maintain a successful mentorship relationship that stands the test of time and tribulations.

A model mentorship

Kathy Aaronson and Julia Robinson originally met through a formalized mentor-matching program, and later continued their friendship and mentorship at WomenAdvancing, an organization that offers an inclusive and supportive environment for professional women to further their careers.

Robinson, who now works at Twitter on the brand strategy team, says that she instantly clicked with Aaronson, currently the chief executive at Sales Athlete Executive Search.

"From the moment we met, we got each other," she says.

Camaraderie and mutual understanding has blossomed into more than simply professional guidance — the pair considers the relationship a friendship to boot. Below are five tips on how others seeking a thriving mentor relationship may be as lucky.

1. Be open and honest

A strong foundation based on honesty and mutual respect is key to a genuine mentorship.

"We have an agreement that we'll tell each other the truth. There's no such thing as bad news, just taking that and working with it. That's the basis of our relationship," says Aaronson.

Robinson backs up this sentiment — she dates this mentality of openness and honesty back to before the pair even met in person. "I specifically remember when Kathy and I got matched, she was looking for a mentee who felt 'stuck.' She couldn't have found a more perfect person than me. When we entered our relationship, I was in a very 'stuck' place," she says.

"It was amazing how quickly we became friends; our communication just skyrocketed."

The pair says that their relationship goes through a natural ebb and flow; at times they are in pretty constant communication — by phone, email, text and whatever means necessary. Other times, they meet and speak on an as-needed basis. "At this point I feel like we just kind of have ESP," says Robinson. "[Kathy] always swoops in just at the right moment."

Continue here to read the rest of the article and for more tips

For more info, check out the Visual Studio Code Site: https://code.visualstudio.com

Or follow their newly created Twitter account for the latest updates:  https://twitter.com/code

Let the app development commence!

Over the years I've had many conversations with folks who were curious about pursuing a career in technology but lamented the fact that they did not have a technical background or degree. These people are typically asking me for advice because I've been there. That was my story. Having no training or background in technology, I've built a successful career in a relatively short amount of time. In fact, in some very real ways, the fact that I don't have a tech background has actually been a valuable advantage. I'd like to share my story and some of the insights I've gained along the way, including key traits and activities that have contributed to my success.

I have a degree in jazz trombone (ok, you can stop laughing now) from the Manhattan School of Music. Both before, during and after college I played music as my primary source of income. And I was not technical - not even as a hobby. These days, if you do a search for me on Amazon you’ll find jazz CDs and SharePoint books!

My introduction to tech came from an unexpected source. As many musicians in New York City do, I would sometimes take temp jobs to smooth out the ebbs and flows of a musician's income. At one point my temp gig was working as a Desktop Publisher for a large investment bank. I was basically responsible for creating presentation materials for bankers and I became an expert in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and I learned to type very fast (all skills that continue to serve me well every day!). The files I worked with included many macros (automated steps) that would allow you to, for example, click a button and build a chart in the standard format and size for the bank. One day I became curious how the macros worked and via a book (VBA for Dummies if I recall) and the internet, taught myself how to create my own macros. For me, the first time I created a little "hello world" program, I was hooked! I became the guy that people turned to when they needed to troubleshoot our macros. I soon made friends with the folks who created the macros and finally asked to be transferred into their department (which I was). So just like that I became a Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) developer. I still knew literally almost nothing, but in my late twenties I had started my path toward a career in technology despite having no credentials and no training.

I want to pause for a moment here to share 10 key traits and activities that I believe are for important for embarking on a tech career, especially when you don't have the background.

1. Trial by fire is your friend - Don't be afraid of learning new things on the job. In this great video (at 33:30), Liz Wiseman (leadership teacher and researcher) says to "spend zero time in jobs that you are qualified for". I cannot tell you how many times I've signed on for things that I'm completely unqualified for but managed to deliver in the end. Most of us humans are highly motivated not to fail, so I encourage you (within reason) to commit yourself to things that sound out of your reach. I bet you'll rise to the challenge!

2. Be your own teacher - There are books, blogs, videos, whitepapers and more on just about anything that you're likely to try for the first time. Go out and try them. Don't wait for someone to offer you training. Don't feel like you have to attend an expensive course just to learn something. I've seen so many people fall into this trap and they remain stagnant. Or worse, they go and get the expensive training and still don't feel confident. Just motivate to learn on your own.

3. Don't be afraid to ask for help - This may sound contradictory to the previous bullet, but it's not. Don't expect others to teach you things, but for sure you should lean on friends, colleagues, people you meet at user groups, discussion boards, etc. to give you short cuts, point you to articles, provide sample code, tools and tricks. I don't think I've ever met a developer that would turn down a beer if I offered it to them in exchange for picking their brain!

4. You have to care - It may sound obvious, but you have to care. When I let my team down or am late on a deliverable, it really gets to me. I can't sleep and I won't rest until it's fixed. Operating from this space drives you to do your best and people will take notice. If you don't care, find something else that you do care about and do that.

5. Communicate well - This is the most important piece of advice I would give to anyone entering the professional world, regardless of the industry. It's just absolutely crucial to be able to express yourself clearly and confidently. If you can't present your work, provide solid documentation or perform any of the other countless activities that require strong communication skills in the tech industry, at best you'll be a "behind-the-scenes" resource because you can't be trusted to talk to clients or senior resources. The coolest thing about this is that just by being a strong communicator you'll be a huge asset to any team even if you're a rookie on the technical side.

6. Be curious - If you struggle to get something working, don't be satisfied just to get it functioning. Push yourself to understand the "whys". It will make you very valuable in future projects. I promise.

7. Show up on time - Again, not unique to technology but as someone coming to the profession late, you need every advantage. Show up early and don't leave until you're done. You'll quickly learn that in tech, any day can become an all-nighter. All it takes is a production system failing unexpectedly. Do it with a smile on your face. Staying cool in those situations will earn you a well-deserved good reputation.

8. Seize every opportunity - Especially in the beginning, say yes to anything that comes your way. Go to user groups and volunteer to help run them or speak at them. Take on side projects. Be the technical editor of an article. You're getting a late start, so density of experience is important!

9. Share with the world - As you embark on learning about technology, start a blog and share your experiences. First, it's a great way to help you remember things you've figured out. Your blog acts as your personal tech diary. Second, it's a fun and easy way to build your reputation. Lastly, you'll end up helping a lot of people who are also trying to learn. Don't feel that just because you're not an expert or genius yet that you can't post content. Your blogs don't have to be groundbreaking. You may help someone simply by explaining something covered elsewhere, but in a new way.

10. Engage in continuous study - Recognize that in technology things are moving very fast. You'll need to stay ahead of the technology curve if you want to remain relevant and employable. This is one of the reasons that you must have a passion for technology, because you must be driven to learn continuously for the rest of your career!

I think as you continue to read about my experiences, you'll find that I applied many of these 10 attributes and activities which ended up being critical to my successes.

Getting back to my story, one of the music agencies that I performed with knew that I did something with computers and asked if I could create a program for them to organize all their musicians, gigs, customers and contracts. Again, I accepted before I even knew what I was getting myself into. I did some requirements gathering (as well as I knew how to anyways) and called a couple of friends for advice, and they all thought an Access database was the way to go. This worked out because Access allows you to program in VBA which I already knew how to do from my macros. But I had never done anything on this scale. It was very challenging, but I bought a few books and relied on Microsoft documentation, blogs and articles on the internet. I learned so much on this project. Designing usable forms, database design, database queries, code organization, writing documentation and more. I was the one man show, so I got exposure to every aspect of the process. Funny enough, I just heard from the customer last week and he was talking about how great the database was still running. That thing is over twelve years old, written by a complete novice, but it just works and they're completely thrilled with it!

Next is where my story starts to heat up. As I was wrapping up the music database project, a friend of mine told me I should learn something called SharePoint. He said it was the next big thing and that if I learned it he could probably help me get some good paying projects. He gave me a book to borrow that day which was an intro to SharePoint. The following day I read the first two chapters. He called me the day after that and asked if I would take a gig as a SharePoint developer. Of course, I said yes. For this one, I had to make it through a tech interview which was incredibly nerve wracking. I was shaking in my boots, but I had crammed really hard and eked my way through the interview. As a developer I was responsible for writing custom SharePoint web parts mostly. My first day on the job was the first time I had opened Visual Studio. I knew how to write some code from my VBA experience, but I literally didn’t know where to type the code on my first day. I spent the next few weeks absolutely sweating through my shirt, working long, hard hours during the day and staying up all night reading SharePoint and C# books. I also had a few friends with more experience on speed dial for when I really got stuck. Talk about a learning curve! Ultimately I got the web parts created successfully and learned more than you can imagine during the process.

After that experience, I felt I really had the background in tech to navigate more confidently going forward. By taking advantage of opportunities and manufacturing my own experience, prospective employers no longer questioned whether I had a computer science degree or not. I had developed real world experience and a proven track record. I went on to take an in-house job running SharePoint for a large law firm. I then went on to do a lot of SharePoint consulting and became passionate about sharing my experiences through contributing to books, writing blogs, speaking at events and eventually was surprised and honored to find out I had been nominated for the Microsoft MVP award for SharePoint. Receiving that award was, and continues to be, incredibly meaningful and validating for me. Through sweat and hard-earned experience I'm now at a place in my career where I find people looking to me for guidance. I've had the opportunity to speak at conferences world-wide, write articles and books for publishers that I used to read when I was just getting started and more. I'm now the Director of Product Innovation for a thriving software company - a role that I couldn't be more excited about. Not bad for a trombonist!

I've met many others out there who have had unusual paths that led them to careers in technology. I certainly don't mean to imply that I'm unique in that regard. But I've met even more who assume that they can't get into the industry just because they don't have experience today. Or people who think they need to go back to school and go into debt but I’m here to tell you that this just isn’t the case. When I look back at my path from knowing almost nothing to today it's gone by in a flash (though it's actually been over 10 years). In closing, I want to share some observations that I've made while navigating my personal path in technology.

1. It has been an advantage not having a background in technology. The biggest way that this manifests itself is that it allows me to be audacious in my technology career. This is because I still identify as a musician first. So, subconsciously, I think that I know if I fail at something in technology I'll be able to brush it off because I'm really “just a musician”. Whereas if I failed on something related to music I'd probably be devastated. This has proved to be a neat and very valuable “trick”!

2. In my experience, technology is more of a meritocracy than with some other professions. For example, I can't just be good at arguing law. I need to have a law degree to be a lawyer. With technology, that's not the case. Yes, you need experience but that's easy enough to come by if you're motivated. Volunteer to build someone's website or build out a small company's network for cheap. Do an internship, etc. In my experience, no one cares if you have the degree as long as you can deliver.

3. There are many in tech who don't have great people skills (stereotypical, but I think true too). Allow great "soft skills" to be your differentiator. If you can build rapport, communicate effectively and come off as a pretty together person, you're going to do well in most interviews, build trust with customers and generally succeed. You can always cram for the technical stuff!

4. Not everything in tech is technical! There is business analyst work, technical writing, project management, product management and a lot more. If you feel a calling to the industry, but are daunted by the technical side, look into these less technical roles.

I hope that my story may give courage to someone contemplating a career change. It's a wonderfully vibrant industry with a great sense of community that always seems to make room for passionate and sincere people. I would also encourage you to read Melissa Travers inspiring and, at times harrowing story about how she changed careers and landed in technology!

Paul Olenick (SharePoint MVP, V-TSP) is Director of Product Innovation for AvePoint Client Services with more than 13 years of IT experience in areas such as development, administration, architecture, and solution design in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Microsoft SharePoint 2013. He is a recognized Microsoft expert, having been named a Microsoft SharePoint Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in 2012, 2013 and 2014, a Microsoft Virtual Technical Solutions Professional (V-TSP), and a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCT). Paul has been dedicated exclusively to SharePoint since 2006 and has a special interest and deep expertise in Enterprise Search. Paul has helped clients worldwide solve business problems by leveraging SharePoint and Enterprise Search, and shares his experiences with the greater SharePoint community by contributing to books, blogging at http://olenicksharepoint.com, and speaking at industry events. Paul is a seasoned speaker and presenter, having led sessions at two SharePoint Conferences (2012 & 2014) as well as local events such as SharePoint Saturdays, and numerous user groups.  Follow him on Twitter @olenickSP

Hello students,

I wanted to let you know about a great free event that Microsoft and the MVPs are putting on, May 14^th & 15^th.  Join Microsoft MVPs from the Americas’ region as they share their knowledge and real-world expertise during a free event, the MVP Virtual Conference.

The MVP Virtual Conference will showcase 95 sessions of content for IT Pros, Developers and Consumer experts designed to help you navigate life in a mobile-first, cloud-first world.  Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Developer Platform, Steve Guggenheimer, will be on hand to deliver the opening Key Note Address.

Why attend MVP V-Conf? The conference will have 5 tracks, IT Pro English, Dev English, Consumer English, Portuguese mixed sessions & Spanish mixed sessions, there is something for everyone! Learn from the best and brightest MVPs in the tech world today and develop some great skills!

Be sure to register quickly to hold your spot and tell your friends & colleagues.

The conference will be widely covered on social media, you can join the conversation by following @MVPAward and using the hashtag #MVPvConf.

Register now and feel the power of community!

MVP Mentors can help high school and college students develop and improve their technical, professional and soft skills.  Fill out this short form to request your MVP Mentor. We apologize that the MVP Mentor Program does not provide professional consulting to adults candidates.  If you are interested in learning more about the MVP Award Program please visit our site.

As a Dynamics CRM MVP, I am committed to community.  I engage with the community across several channels to include Facebook, Dynamics CRM Community, MVP Award Program, Twitter and others.  Often people reach out to me when they need help with a technical or functional issue or just some general guidance about the Dynamics CRM application like where can they find training, help with a support issue etc..  Sometimes those connections result in relationships that span several years and I am given the opportunity to help someone along their career and life path.

A few years back, Gitanjali Singh sent a friend request to me on Facebook.  I accepted and we spent the next few months getting to know each other, discussing issues that women face in our countries and around the world, work challenges, family relationships and more.  During one of our chats, Gitanjali shared one of her life aspirations with me.  As with many life aspirations, it seemed challenging but one I wanted to encourage her to try and achieve. 

When I am faced with what appears to be a daunting goal, I take the approach of envisioning a path and identifying steps along that path that I believe will move me in the direction of achieving the goal.  I try to make the steps as achievable as possible.  As I move along the path, I might modify the steps as new opportunities, possibilities or challenges present themselves while keeping the long term objective in sight.  I took that same approach with Gitanjali's aspirations and provided a suggested first step on her path to achieving her goal.  That first step was to secure a position with Microsoft as a support engineer. 

Gitanjali posed several questions to me over the course of the next several months and we had many long chats on Facebook.  We discussed things like how to get started, how to submit a resume, financial questions, dealing with comments from those who attempted to discourage her or create fear or uncertainty, speaking with family members, logistical questions and more.  As questions or concerns came up we chatted through each one, and together worked through them.  Gitanjali accepted all of my advice and worked through the 6 to 8 month process of getting hired with Microsoft.  After several rounds of interviews and some year-end related delays, she was hired as a Microsoft Support engineer and has now been with Microsoft for more than a year. 

Being a successful Microsoft Support Engineer is not an easy job and not for the faint of heart.  Microsoft Support Engineers are held to high standards and they get the challenging issues that the customer and their partner cannot solve.  I was confident that she would be up to the challenge and I am very happy for her that the position is working out.  I have no doubt she will achieve whatever she wants from life and I look forward to the day when she contacts me to let me know her life aspiration was realized. 

Keep paying it forward MVP’s.  Give and mentor every opportunity you have.  We make a difference and are changing lives for the better.

We want to ensure students around the world aren’t left behind, so today we launched Microsoft Azure for student developers.

This new offer for students in 140 countries around the world gets you started with the services you need most to develop in the cloud at no cost and with no credit card required:

· Azure Websites is a fully managed Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that enables you to build, deploy and scale enterprise-grade web Apps in seconds. Focus on your application code, and let Azure take care of the infrastructure to scale and securely run it for you. It supports up to ten websites or web apps, with 1GB of storage and 165MB of daily bandwidth.

· Application Insights provides a 360° view across availability, performance and usage of your ASP.NET services and mobile applications for Windows Phone, iOS and Android platforms. Search and analyze your data to continuously improve your application, prioritize future investments and improve overall customer experience.

· Visual Studio Online is the fastest and easiest way yet to plan, build, and ship software across a variety of platforms. Get up and running in minutes on our cloud infrastructure without having to install or configure a single server.

Microsoft Azure is available now for validated DreamSpark students at no cost and no commitment, with no time limit and no accidental charges. You can upgrade to paid services later if you want, but you can host your web apps and websites today with the power of the Microsoft cloud behind you and it won’t cost you anything.

When combined with Visual Studio Community 2013 for coding and the GitHub Student Pack to add more services and tools to your project, Microsoft Azure provides an incredible free launchpad for students. And we’ve got great free online courses for students to jump into web development at Microsoft Virtual Academy.

We’re very excited to bring this offer to students.

Can educators use this offer?

No, this offer is for students. Educators can apply for the Azure Educator Grant, which offers free Azure for teaching and learning.

If you’re a student developer who is passionate about open-source development, then we have some great news for you! Visual Studio Community 2013 is joining the GitHub Student Developer Pack!

At the same time, we’re inviting GitHub-loving students to check out more of our great free tools, such as SQL Server and Windows Store developer accounts, as well as our great free training courses on Microsoft Virtual Academy including how to get started with GitHub in Visual Studio, plus free entry to join the Xbox LIVE Indie Games program.

For those who don’t know, GitHub is a powerful collaboration tool that offers code review and code management for open source and private projects. It’s a unique one stop shop for student developers.

For more on today’s news, check out this blog post from Corporate Vice President of Developer Experience and Evangelism Steven Guggenheimer.

And don’t wait to take advantage of all our free tools for student developers!

MVP Mentors can help high school and college students develop and improve their technical, professional and soft skills.  Fill out this short form to request your MVP Mentor. We apologize that the MVP Mentor Program does not provide professional consulting to adults candidates.  If you are interested in learning more about the MVP Award Program please visit our site.

A report by the McKinsey Global Institute found that in the U.S. alone, by 2018, there will be 1.5 million jobs that require data analysis skills. As big data continues to grow, the industry needs people who have the quantitative chops to dig in, make sense of it, and make it actionable. When examined, mined and sorted, data can be winnowed into gold, yielding insights that can help guide how the concept for a product or service is shaped and engineered. This process of alchemy has a name: data science.

Mathematically minded people who have the talent to analyze and derive meaning from data, as well as those who know how to deploy techniques of machine learning, will find ample opportunity at Microsoft.  Today, every major application at Microsoft is applying machine learning to enrich the customer experience and deliver new, intelligent capabilities. For scientists who’ve got algorithmic ability, this skill set can be the ticket to one of the hottest jobs on the market.

Whether you’re still in school, already in industry, or considering a shift, you may want more clarity about these careers. So let’s get back to basics: How do you define data science? And what exactly is machine learning?

For the straight talk, we spoke with industry pros as well as one industrious recruiter. Here, they share their views on why these trending professions are not just today’s buzzwords, but rather, careers that offer long-term growth at Microsoft.

Data Scientist Archana Ramesh has a doctorate from Arizona State in computer science, with a focus on data mining and machine learning, applied to cancer genomics. After earning her Ph.D., during which she had summer-interned at Google, Archana spent a year as a data scientist with a startup because she wanted to learn best practices—fast. In June 2014, she joined the newly formed Core Data Science team within Microsoft’s Operating Systems Group (OSG), the group developing Windows. It’s huge: The group includes Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox.

The OSG Core Data Science team has an ambitious mission: Uncovering business insights to enrich the customer experience with Microsoft operating systems. The team brings technical and business expertise, plus engineering context, to enable data-driven decisions across Microsoft. This involves working with massive amounts of real-world data. “We make sure the engineers are all thinking in a way that’s based on data. We pick seed areas to focus on from start to finish, and we educate the engineers about data science,” Archana says. “Our goal is to apply data science and machine learning to the fullest.”

Asked to articulate the difference between data science and machine learning, Archana cites a teammate who sees machine learning as a two-part subset of data science. The first aspect is a question of: “Can we listen to the users to improve the product?”

For example, users of Internet Explorer can report problems they face when they’re surfing the web. To help resolve reports quickly, Archana applies a machine learning algorithm to collect customer comments. For developers in her group to use, Archana creates a graphic, which depicts the top problems.  Machine learning applications make quick work of issue-spotting – which makes web browsing better.

The second kind of machine learning is a matter of “How do we use data science and machine learning to build a smarter product?” Prime example:  Cortana. In this case, “The machine learning is embedded in the product, to create a more personalized customer experience.”

Another Microsoft Data Scientist, Ioana Marginas, derives insights from telemetry-generated customer usage data about how people play games. For instance, she may observe that certain users play via touch screens rather than the mouse. She may note what time of day users are playing. What’s her process? “Most of my workday is spent in data cleaning and sampling,” she says. “After that, you can apply various algorithms to better understand the data.

Ioana has a master’s degree in computer science, with specialization in information architecture, from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. She joined the Operating Systems Group in May after spending the previous eight years with IBM in Amsterdam. For Ioana, the transition to Microsoft was a logical and exciting career progression.  She says, “I spent so much time in the Linux and mainframe world, that joining Microsoft and in particular, Windows, was the next natural step.”

Ioana interviewed with a number of companies to better understand the field in the U.S. market. She had multiple offers and decided on Microsoft for a few key reasons: She was drawn to the team’s entrepreneurial spirit and the nature of the work: It felt like joining a startup. “During the interview loop, the people I met showed passion and technical excellence. We were a newly created unit – like a startup within Microsoft — that was moving quickly. The team was flexible, diverse, fast, and focused on making a real impact in OSG.”

For Ioana, the chance to create something new was a pivotal decision point. Throughout her career, she has always worked in data. “I was excited about the opportunity to drive a real data culture in OSG and Microsoft.  I had to grasp it.” Looking back, “The job was great when I first learned about it – and it is still great!”

Asked what she likes best about data science, Ioana smiles, chuckles, and says, “I’ve been in data science since I was born.” Her mother is a mathematician, her father an accountant. “They were not doing data science per se, but I was surrounded by people working with data.” Today, using tools and programs such as R, MATLAB, Python and Power BI, Ioana enjoys the “freedom of defining the question you want to tackle.” As a data scientist, Ioana says, “Although you do have a domain—an area of expertise—you can steer your projects in a way that allows you to make the biggest impact.”

Ram Shankar has one of the most inspired job titles at Microsoft. A member of the Azure Security Data Science Team, Ram calls himself a “Security Data Wrangler.”

A cloud cowboy?

Ram’s goal: Leverage the vast amount of data generated in Azure, to keep it secure.  “I chose this moniker because here in the Wild West, every day is an adventure, and I need to wrangle the malicious hoodlums trying to attack the system. Only, instead of a double-barrel gun, I use statistical analysis and programming.” In his role as a security program manager, Ram uses machine learning because “you need intelligent security.”

Ram graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a master’s in electrical and computer engineering, and pursued another masters in engineering management. He has been with Microsoft since 2012, when he joined the Office 365 Security Team as a security program manager. He says, “That team was one of the pioneers of using data science to improve security of the cloud.”

Today, Ram oversees data science projects his team does in collaboration with the company’s various research groups. On his own team’s security operations projects, he helps software engineers who work on data-driven applications test prototypes, and he provides guidance on constructing the right algorithms to ward off potential “attackers” automatically.

Ram digs in for answers. He explains, “There are many different data sources, for example various application logs, we use in Azure, and any new one remains foreign ground until we can deep-dive into it and explain what the data actually means: the syntax, the semantics, the merging patterns and outliers.”

Just how big is the impact of machine learning? Ram says: “Machine learning is now like programming: Everyone uses it, and at Microsoft there are so many opportunities for people from all disciplines.” For instance, two years ago, Ram interviewed Dan Mace, now a senior software engineer on the Active Directory Machine Learning team, who holds a doctorate in biology. “Dan had a strong emphasis on the computational aspect, where he used Bayesian modeling for studying cell expression. Today, his tools are widely used in security investigations.”

And just as practitioners can come from a wide variety of disciplines, machine learning technologies are being more widely applied in many areas, such as economics. Ram points to renowned researchers such as Microsoft’s Chief Economist, Preston McAfee, who used techniques from the field to redefine how auctions are done online.

“There is a lot of advice out there on how to become a data scientist, with the traditional emphasis on the computer science department,” Ram says.  He welcomes wranglers from other fields of study to consider it.

Recruiter Amy Ala, who hired Ioana, agrees that many academic paths can lead to careers in data science. “Candidates need to have a solid background in computer science, modeling, statistics, analytics and math,” she says, but people coming from physics, astronomy, biomathematics, bioinformatics and related subjects are also a great fit.

Amy offers some ways a candidate can stand out: patents and publications, a Ph.D., strong communication skills and business acumen, plus the ability to pinpoint questions that will have the most value to the company. Whatever the practitioner’s original area, in quantitative fields, Archana says, “Data is data. Whether text data or numeric data, the core techniques and skills are similar.”

Archana says that in the “suite of skills” for a machine learning or data scientist, in addition to having access to one of the prototyping tools Ioana mentioned, it’s also helpful to know some variety of SQL as well as basic coding in languages such as C # (Sharp) and C ++, which can be useful when you need to build your own tools to solve some of the tough problems in this new frontier.

Archana is passionate about her chosen career. “I love dealing with data because every time you work with information, it presents new problems and new challenges,” she says. “These small nuances force you to think out of the box.”

And at Microsoft, one thing is for sure:  As we build the next generation of machine learning platforms and powerful consumer applications, we’ll need data wranglers – and machine-teachers to translate data into useful information to make work and life ever better for customers.

Don't undersell yourself—but don't get carried away, either.

I distinctly remember one question that my biggest-internship-turned-first-job-out-of-college boss asked me as I sat across from her in a gray wool suit in my initial interview. It went something like:

How can you manage to be the executive director of a nonprofit as a college student?

I don’t remember how I answered, but I will never forget what that question taught me—that words are powerful.

The executive director role I’d placed prominently on my resume was like the role of a president in many other on-campus clubs at my university, yet it was obvious the title carried greater weight in the mind of my boss-to-be.

Beyond the impressive title, that extracurricular also gave me leadership experience with real world application: event planning; budget management; presentations and public speaking; even training and supervising the volunteer work of other young women in the organization.

Though the role was unpaid, it was still strategic, results-oriented, and extensive. And it very much shaped and prepared me for the internship the gray-wool-suit interview would grant me, the full-time job at the same organization that came after that and all those that followed.

My now seven years experience writing effective resumes that land interviews for both myself and my A. Jayne Writes clients—as well as coaching them in successful interview tactics that seal the deal—has revealed to me three simple steps for turning internship and volunteer experience into career fuel.

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