As you all know, Sitecore MVP 2018 list was out at the end of January 2018 (you can take a deeper dive into statistics here). Personally, I’m so proud of being the very first Sitecore MVP from Vietnam.

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• Thanks Sitecore for the award!
• Thanks all my colleagues for the support! They have been behind me since day 1!
• Thanks the Sitecore community for being so helpful!
• Thanks Askhay Sura and Kamruz Jaman and others if any (I haven’t known them yet :D) for the recommendation!

A special thanks to Anton Pham – my mentor –  who keeps mentoring, supporting and inspiring me all the time.

What is Sitecore MVP program?

If you’re new with it, please have a look at https://mvp.sitecore.net/

My one is Technology MVP, you can learn more about it https://mvp.sitecore.net/about. For the case it will be updated in the future for 2019 or afterwards, I already took a screenshot:

How can I win Sitecore MVP award?

For the initiative, please have a look at this thread https://sitecore.stackexchange.com/questions/5796/how-to-become-a-sitecore-mvp

In my case, the key one is passion. It’s a loooooooooooooong way to go so I really need it for my own journey. I even did change my job (a good one for me) in order to keep playing with Sitecore (thanks Tekcent for giving the opportunities).

Honestly, I was not sure about my chance to win Sitecore MVP award. In the beginning, I just wanted to encourage the lads in my beloved Sitecore team to share their own Sitecore knowledge with everyone by writing some blog posts (we’ve learnt a lot from Sitecore community so that we should give something back). However, I’ve quickly recognized that the more I share, the more I learn. Normally, a blog post of mine has 4 rounds for reviewing:

• Round 1: make a quick post for myself and get more knowledge
• Round 2: refine it for my colleagues, have feedback if any -> get more knowledge
• Round 3: refine it for everyone, have feedback if any -> get more knowledge and update it
• Round 4: apply it to live projects if possible, have experience + lessons-learnt -> get more knowledge and update it

How can I get more knowledge?

There are many great Sitecore resources:

• Sitecore Slack (warmly welcome to join us)
• Sitecore Stack Exchange
• Sitecore Community
• Sitecore Linkedin Group
• Sitecore Facebook Group
• All Sitecore references
• many valuable articles / blog posts / videos / forums / user groups from amazing Sitecore communities around the world

How do I contribute to Sitecore community?

After a flashback on my very first Pull Request for Sitecore development had been approved to merge some years ago,  I thought I should challenge myself by creating a module and uploading it to Sitecore Marketplace (learn more about Sitecore module implementation practices). That’s because I’ve got more confidence on my Sitecore knowledge. In my first attempt, it took 2 weeks for publishing the module on Sitecore Marketplace which sometimes made me frustrated 😀 while waiting for it to be out.

Coincidentally, it’s published on my birthday so I was extremely happy with it.

At this time, I have 08 contributions on Sitecore Marketplace:

I also contribute to the community a simple development framework which I keep updated based on my experience + lessons-learnt from real Sitecore projects:

• Leading the development of 05 new builds (following Helix principles):
  • 02 Sitecore 9 projects
  • 03 Sitecore 8 projects
• Leading the development of 02 refinery Sitecore 8 projects (following Helix principles)

Other ones:

• Sharing Sitecore experience via my personal blog
• Training, mentoring and supporting other Sitecorians
  • WE ARE A-TEAM (JUST FOR FUN :D) 
  • 
• Attending Core Community Friend Award 2018
• Participating in Sitecore Stack Exchange and Sitecore Slack

How can I nominate myself?

At the moment I realized that I had a chance to become a Sitecore MVP, I found out a good topic on Sitecore StackExchange, it’s so helpful:

https://sitecore.stackexchange.com/questions/8674/what-should-i-expect-in-the-mvp-nomination-or-first-time-application-process

After I submitted my nomination to be a Sitecore MVP, I received an email from Sitecore MVP Program Team for the confirmation. However, it’s not enough and I needed to find a Sitecore employee or a Sitecore MVP to recommend me as well.

How can I get recommendations?

Yet another useful one on Sitecore StackExchange:

https://sitecore.stackexchange.com/questions/2294/how-to-be-recommended-to-be-a-sitecore-mvp

I was proactive to contact some Sitecore MVPs for introducing myself in order to get the recommendations for Sitecore MVP program. Luckily, I got one and sent an email to Sitecore MVP Program Team for asking the confirmation. After I was officially qualified, how lucky I was, I got another recommendation 😀

My motivation

There are not many developers in Vietnam who have had a chance to work with Sitecore technology. That’s why Sitecore knowledge looks non-existent in Vietnam. Personally, I want to share my Sitecore knowledge and Sitecore shared source projects with them in order to build up a strong Sitecore community in Vietnam if possible. I’m Sitecore MVP now so I have a good chance to make Sitecore community bigger in Vietnam this year and afterwards.

Conclusion

Great experience ever! Congratulations to all Sitecore MVPs 2018. It’s my honor to be among of you guys! Certainly, I will be able to recommend someone to be a Sitecore MVP for 2019. Let’s start contributing to Sitecore community if not yet!

 

Happy Sitecore MVP Program!

 

P/S: in fact, Sitecore MVP status makes me annoyed a little bit. If I do something wrong, my little boy will swing and sing “Sitecore MVP…Sitecore MVP…Sitecore MVP…” so many times around me 😀