From Chris Cortez, Vice President of Navy Affairs
10 years in the past we created the Microsoft Software program and Methods Academy (MSSA) program to attach the dots between the scarcity of technical expertise and the abundance of under-employed army expertise.
I and a core staff of Veterans working at Microsoft acknowledged the immense impression our army expertise imparted in our method to technical gross sales, engineering, and enablement. We understood that each skilled begins from fundamental abilities and builds from there, and we knew from our personal army careers the work ethic and insurmountable grit that army professionals possess.
We got down to design basic coaching that might get a service member’s boot within the door to an entry-level profession in IT—a discipline involved about discovering sufficient IT professionals to fill demand. With assist from Frank Shaw, Company Vice President for Communications at Microsoft, we pitched our answer to Microsoft’s expertise scarcity to Microsoft management.
Months later, and after exploring feasibility with the Division of Protection and garrison commanders at army installations, Microsoft launched MSSA’s first cohorts at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. After course completion, we celebrated this milestone second alongside Microsoft President Brad Smith and U.S. Senator Patty Murray (WA). Based mostly on the enthusiastic reception from veterans and the Division of Protection’s SkillBridge Program, we expanded to lecture rooms supporting army members at bases and installations in California, Colorado, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Georgia. By 2019 MSSA established lecture rooms on 12 army bases spanning 7 states, together with Schofield Barracks on Oahu.
However it hasn’t all been easy crusing.
We’ve tailored to many curveballs over the last decade, reworking to remain true to our mission. Simply after we appeared to get it proper and grasp the components, COVID occurred.
Transformative adjustments in IT demanded revamping of our technical curriculum, which we develop and evolve to satisfy hiring calls for. We’ve frequently refreshed and created studying paths that mirror hiring traits and enterprise wants, and guarantee they equip MSSA contributors with the suitable data and abilities to carry out a profitable job search.
When a worldwide pandemic made in-person educating unimaginable, we pivoted our lecture rooms from in-person instruction delivered by educational establishments to reside digital lecture rooms led by subject material consultants from Microsoft licensed studying companions. This flexibility enabled us to stay open as a SkillBridge program all through the coronavirus emergency.
As international markets rebalance within the wake of a tepid recession, we targeted on creating a complete skilled growth curriculum—together with job search techniques, interview abilities, {and professional} goal-setting—enabling veterans to be extra aggressive and empowered of their job search.
On the similar time, Microsoft and the MSSA Hiring Associate community proceed to recruit MSSA expertise to start out their tech careers with them.
MSSA graduates information our program with their resilience and proceed to exceed our expectations within the impression they’ve had in a whole lot of corporations and merchandise within the IT area.
After 10 years of impression within the army and IT communities, the outcomes are in.
After 10 years, 3,603 army veterans and transitioning service members have efficiently accomplished our grueling 17-week coaching. We have now labored with active-duty members and reservists from all branches of the armed forces and army veterans from all 50 states.
Lots of of Microsoft staff have been employed straight from MSSA, with numerous extra rejoining the corporate later of their careers. We’ve recognized >1,000 corporations we’ve labored with to put veteran expertise of their group, and almost 200 sorts of IT jobs.
We’ve labored with graduates like Phuong Baguyos—an Military veteran who, after 10 years out of the workforce whereas elevating her household, adopted her husband’s footsteps and joined one in every of MSSA’s cybersecurity cohorts in 2018. With encouragement from her cohort and Microsoft mentors, Phuong fought for a aggressive function as a assist engineer and has been thriving in that group for almost six years. Phuong and her husband—an Military veteran and 2016 MSSA graduate who right this moment works as a buyer engineer—have earned at the very least one promotion apiece over their tenures and look ahead to their 6- and 7- 12 months anniversaries with the corporate in 2024.
We additionally labored with 2017 graduate Dave Porter, a veteran of the Military’s elite 75th Ranger Regiment, who leveraged his time at MSSA discerning his pursuits as a technologist within the protection area. Dave landed a task at Microsoft as an account govt on Microsoft’s U.S. Military account staff, the place he helped safe HoloLens enterprise with the Military, travelling to Afghanistan a number of occasions to develop the expertise and enhance its utility and wearability for the troopers who’d use them. He’s now a senior director supporting the U.S. Air Drive and House Drive.
These are solely a handful of the 1000’s of gifted professionals who acquired their begin in IT, partly, by means of MSSA. Learn extra concerning the impression MSSA graduates are having in IT in our sequence ‘10 heroes for 10 years’, the place we profile an MSSA graduate from every year of our program.
The MSSA neighborhood has enduring impacts in IT, past the expertise they construct and affect.
Right here at Microsoft, MSSA contributors and alumni led the way in which to reinforce our Veteran-ready practices:
Since 2017, 687 Microsoft staff have volunteered to mentor MSSA contributors—monitoring almost 40,000 mentor hours. Mentor hours helped fund the development of a brand new residence for the Gary Sinise Basis RISE recipient Ian Prescott, a 2022 MSSA graduate. A overwhelming majority of MSSA mentors proceed to volunteer for extra cohorts, and some even contemplate it a spotlight of their job.
MSSA alumni helped to originate the Navy@Microsoft Worker Useful resource Group and advocate for firm sponsorship for community-building occasions and programming—making Microsoft a extra Veteran-ready place to work.
Our alumni efficiently advocated for Microsoft to incorporate army neighborhood illustration in self-reporting initiatives that assist army inclusion in our annual Variety & Inclusion report. Advocating for army neighborhood illustration as a demographic helps Microsoft to grasp its neighborhood make-up and lead the business in advantages like job safety throughout prolonged army deployments for army reservists.
Our graduates additionally served as a proof level in our advocacy for Microsoft to think about equal expertise as equal to schooling necessities in job adverts and recruiter screenings, eradicating boundaries for veterans coming into the workforce.
And within the IT area at giant:
MSSA’s revolutionary curriculum and hiring fashions have been acknowledged as a ‘greatest apply’ within the veteran skilling sphere, extending past the Microsoft and MSSA Hiring Associate neighborhood to have a constructive impression on veterans’ profession transitions. Our coaching and hiring mannequin have been leveraged by town of Los Angeles, which launched a first-in-the-nation Los Angeles Veteran Know-how and Coaching Academy in 2021—adopted by town of Chicago and Prepare dinner County, Illinois with Chicago Prepare dinner Know-how Academy in 2022.
We’ve additionally cultivated a Hiring Associate community of over 1,000 particular person corporations that interview and rent MSSA contributors straight from their cohorts—a community that channels MSSA expertise to Microsoft companions and buyer organizations.
We’re not solely profitable—we’re infusing our success all through the IT business.
After we set out on this journey in 2013, we made a guess that army expertise was greater than outfitted to talent up and fill the IT abilities hole then rattling the IT business. What we didn’t foresee is the dedicated and impressed community of advocates for army expertise we’ve developed on this decade.
We’re grateful to the over 1,000 Microsoft companions that infuse army expertise all through our business by bringing MSSA graduates onto their staff to start out their civilian careers. Firms like Southwest Airways, a Microsoft associate who developed their Warrior Rent program to onboard MSSA graduates to their engineering techniques, proceed to put money into veteran expertise alongside Microsoft.
Trying ahead
Roughly 200,000 service members go away the U.S. army every year. Every of them embarks on a profound private and profession transformation crammed with thrilling changes, decisions, and alternative.
As we glance again on a decade of the Microsoft Software program and Methods Academy, we’re honored—and so proud—to have served every of the three,604 army veterans we’ve been capable of work with as they embark on the following section of their profession journey. We’re thrilled to deepen ties with our 3.6k-strong community of MSSA Alumni by means of the MSSA Alumni Community. We’re enthusiastic to proceed to satisfy the problem and accountability of working with this unimaginable inhabitants to realize significant careers in IT—and open the doorways to new cohorts of veterans when our subsequent cohorts start in January.