Microsoft through its African University Recruitment Program is hiring final year students and recent graduates from Ghana for full-time software engineering roles and will be providing successful candidates with relocation to the United States and Canada.
Interested persons who will like to apply should have recently graduated from the university or will be graduating by 2023.
Here are the other qualifications you will need to meet.
Open to relocating to USA or Canada
Pursuing or recently completed a bachelor’s or master’s degree in engineering, computer science, or related field.
One year of programming experience in an object-oriented language.
Ability to demonstrate an understanding of computer science fundamentals, including data structures and algorithms.
To help interested persons prepare for the application process, the Microsoft Team is organizing a free virtual resume workshop. They will also provide information on Microsoft’s recruitment program, share tips on how to make your application stand out, and answer your questions.
The free resume workshop will take place from 6 – 7:30 pm GMT on Saturday 20th August 2022. The link to join the session will be provided after you register, link: http://aka.ms/ghtomicrosoft.
Don’t forget to kindly share this opportunity with your friends or anyone this might help so they don’t miss out.
If you have any questions about the event, feel free to contact Ivy Barley on Twitter.
[jetpack_subscription_form show_subscribers_total=”false” button_on_newline=”false” submit_button_text=”Subscribe to get updates right in your inbox” custom_font_size=”16px” custom_border_radius=”0″ custom_border_weight=”1″ custom_padding=”15″ custom_spacing=”10″ submit_button_classes=”” email_field_classes=”” show_only_email_and_button=”true” success_message=”Success! An email was just sent to confirm your subscription. Please find the email now and click 'Confirm Follow' to start subscribing.”]
Every good work done deserves an acknowledgement or reward and Microsoft recognizes technology experts who passionately share their knowledge with their community by honouring them with the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award. The MVP award spans over 100 contribution areas in 11 award categories across developer and IT Pro products and services technology areas including open source.
The Microsoft MVP global community has over 4,000 technical experts and community leaders across 90 countries who support in the advancement and adoption of Microsoft technologies. Out of which 56 recipients are awarded in nine African countries. South Africa and Nigeria record the highest number of MVPs with 16 each, followed by Ghana with 8. Egypt has 5, 4 in Morocco, Mauritius and Tunisia with 2 each and Senegal, Kenya and Côte d’Ivoire with 1 MVP each.
Before the year 2019, even though there were Microsoft MVPs in Africa and the Middle East region, there weren’t any from Ghana. This however changed when Abou Conde founder of the Microsoft User Group Ghana community got awarded in the Azure category. The situation has improved over the past few years with Microsoft turning its focus and commitment towards Africa. The number of award recipients in Africa has since increased from 32 to 56. Ghana now has eight Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals across five award categories. Microsoft Azure, AI, Business Applications, Data Platform, Developer Technologies and Office Apps & Services.
Here below are Ghana’s Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals passionately sharing their knowledge with the community. Read on to get to know them, and follow and contact them on their channels.
Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals Ghana
Abou CONDE – Award category: Microsoft Azure
Abou is a Senior Cloud & Infra Security Consultant in Avanade’s Security Talent Community based in Paris, France. He was awarded the first MVP in 2019 before moving to France in August 2021 to join METSYS as a System Architect and then Avanade. He lived and worked in Ghana as a Senior Cloud Platform and Infrastructure Consultant at Axxend. He also worked with GITS and IPMC. He became the first-ever Microsoft MVP in Ghana and Microsoft Azure MVP in West Africa.
He is a Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert in Cloud Platform and Infrastructure, Microsoft Certified Solution Associate in Microsoft Azure Security, and Microsoft 365 Security. He is also an expert in cloud solutions architecture, including the IaaS, PaaS, and hybrid cloud scenarios, migrations/deployments, systems administration, and virtualization.
Abou is the Founder of Microsoft User Group Ghana Community (MUGGH), Speaker, and Blogger. He is a frequent speaker and organizer at various Microsoft Azure, Cybersecurity, Microsoft 365, Windows Server Events, and other User Group conferences.
Samuel Segbornya Kodzo Adranyi – Award Category: Microsoft Azure
Samuel is a Senior Software Engineer and Technical Lead with extensive experience and knowledge in most areas of application development, data analytics, internet of things, artificial intelligence, mixed reality and machine learning.
He is an early adopter, abreast with emerging technologies, trends, patterns and architectures with applicable skills in Cloud Development, SDLC, application life cycle management (ALM) and DevOps spanning over 15 years in all phases of small to large-scale software projects.
With a strong passion for problem-solving, he loves curating and mashing up technologies from IoT, AI, ML and programming to solve the most demanding, and complex challenges you throw at him. He has built, trained, managed and coordinated dedicated, capable and technical distributed offshore teams, especially in Africa and led them to deliver beyond expectations and world-class solutions.
Aside from his technical competencies, Samuel is a community leader, Blogger, Pod-caster and Streamer. He is the Co-Organizer for the Accra .NET User Group and the Organizer of the Accra Power Platform User Group. He has a weekly podcast that highlights Africans all over the world in Technology and streams 3 times a week on IoT (IoT Tuesday – Tuesdays), General Azure and Technology (Demystify Tech – Fridays) and Power Platform (Power Series – Sundays).
Frank Arkhurst Odoom – Award Category – Developer Technologies
Frank is a software consultant, a Managing Partner at Accede and the co-organizer of the Accra .NET User Group. He loves teaching software development and contributing to the open-source ecosystem.
He is a member of the Board of Directors of the .Net Foundation with the goal of creating a strong awareness and presence of open-source .NET technology in underserved communities. He also serves as the .Net Foundation Education Committee Chairperson.
Dawuda Iddrisu – Award Category – AI
Dawuda Iddrisu is a full-stack software developer and Chief Technology Officer at BezoMoney. He is a B.Sc. graduate in Information Technology and former president of the Computer Science Society of the University for Development Studies (UDS).
He is passionate about creating innovative products and changing lives with his soft and technical skills by organizing training programs and workshops. In 2019, while still at the university, he served as a Microsoft Gold Learn Ambassador and his activities as an ambassador earned him the outstanding Microsoft Student Partner EMEA Award.
He is also an ambassador at AI Gaming and a board member of the Global AI Community.
Bernard Obeng Boateng – Award Category – Office Apps & Services
Bernard is a Microsoft Certified Trainer, Financial Modeler and Data Analyst with over 10 years of work experience in Banking, Insurance and Business Development. He is a certified Microsoft Excel Expert skilled in Business Analytics, Dashboards and building Financial models for Budgeting, Business Valuation, Scenario Planning and Investments.
He runs the Finex Project, a pro bono student training outreach program for students in Microsoft Excel, Office Tools and Financial Modeling. Bernard provides consultancy services for SMEs (start-ups and existing ones) in Financial Management, Business Planning and Research.
He has an active audience of about 16,000 followers on his LinkedIn where he shares tips and tricks on Microsoft Excel and other Office Apps.
Eric Entsie – Award Category – Business Applications
Eric Entsie is a Chartered Accountant by profession and manager at the National Health Insurance Authority with a career objective to improve business work processes through the use of information technology.
He is also a Power Platform enthusiast and a Super User in the Power Apps Community Platform. He likes to contribute to the community by providing support to users.
Thomas Festus Cudjoe – Award Category – Data Platform
Festus is a Microsoft Certified Power BI Analyst, a Google Certified Data analyst, a Chartered Accountant, and a Chartered Global Management Accountant with professional qualifications from the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana (ICAG) and Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, UK (CIMA).
He is the founder and the lead trainer at FestMan Learning Hub, a Leading Edtech firm that provides premium Digital Skills Bootcamps in Data Science, Financial Modeling, Data Analytics, UX Design, and Digital Marketing.
Festus has trained over 1500 professionals in Data Analytics, Financial Modeling, Modern Excel, and Power BI over the past 5 years. He is passionate about technology and loves sharing his experience with others.
Shadrack Inusah – Award Category – Business Applications
Shadrack is a software developer, ex-Gold Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador (MLSA) and a member of the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors Low Code No Code League. He is also a Power Platform Specialist with community-building experience, assisting experts and citizen developers.
Shadrack loves to network and help students learn and build to solve a technical world problem. He also likes to mentor students for the MLSA program in Africa.
[jetpack_subscription_form subscribe_placeholder=”Enter your email address” show_subscribers_total=”false” button_on_newline=”false” submit_button_text=”Hi, sign up so you can get the latest in breaking news, reviews, opinions, events, opportunities and community updates right in your inbox. ” custom_font_size=”16px” custom_border_radius=”0″ custom_border_weight=”1″ custom_padding=”15″ custom_spacing=”10″ submit_button_classes=”” email_field_classes=”” show_only_email_and_button=”true”]
Microsoft recognizes technology experts who passionately share their knowledge with their community by honouring them with the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award. One such outstanding community leader is Abou Conde.
Abou Conde, Ghana’s first MVP
Abou becomes the first recipient of the prestigious Microsoft MVP award in Ghana. He has been awarded Microsoft MVP in the Azure category for 2020-2021. This makes him the first Azure MVP in West Africa. He joins four other MVP award winners in the Azure category in Africa. Three are located in South Africa and one in Egypt.
Microsoft MVP Africa outlook
There are currently thirty-two Microsoft MVP recipients in Africa. 17 are located in South Africa, 3 each in Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria. Senegal, Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana each have 1 MVP. The majority of MVPs in Africa are awarded in the developer technologies, Office Apps & Services and Data Platform categories. Africa is yet to get an MVP in the Office Development, Artificial Intelligence and Windows & Devices for IT categories.
Abou notes that growing up there were no communities, expertise and mentorship to look up to. People usually had to find answers from communities and people online. He felt inspired to change this and help the local community in Ghana.
Our co-founder and editor, Christopher Bennett spoke with Abou Conde about winning the MVP award and the Microsoft User Group Ghana community. Watch the conversation below.
https://youtu.be/aJ-y8kgXnf8?t=17
MVP talk starts at 11:00
Abou Conde currently works at Global Information Technology Solutions (GITS). Specializing in both on-premise and cloud enterprise architecture. He is also an ambassador for the aOS community.
[jetpack_subscription_form subscribe_placeholder=”Enter your email address” show_subscribers_total=”false” button_on_newline=”false” submit_button_text=”Hi, sign up so you can get the latest in breaking news, reviews, opinions, events, opportunities and community updates right in your inbox. ” custom_font_size=”16px” custom_border_radius=”0″ custom_border_weight=”1″ custom_padding=”15″ custom_spacing=”10″ submit_button_classes=”” email_field_classes=”” show_only_email_and_button=”true”]
The West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI), Techsoup and Microsoft are partnering to host a tech conference for nonprofits.
The event will inform participants from civil society groups, non governmental organizations, nonprofits on how to leverage existing and developing technology in boosting performance and maximizing social impacts.
The event is themed “Leveraging Technology, Maximizing Social Impact” Will take place on Thursday 20th April 2017, from 8am – 12pm at the British Council Accra, Ghana.
This programme is geared towards enhancing the technological capacity of Non-Governmental Organizations in Ghana.
This is a major opportunity for national and international non-governmental institutions aimed at providing the tools and resources you need to boost your performance and maximise your social impact.
The event is free and you need to confirm your participation by *registering (send your details) on or before Tuesday 18 April 2017 to: fsombo@wacsi.org, cc: communications@wacsi.org. or
Phone: +233 302 550 222
Register to join the Mobile Web Ghana hosted, Microsoft AppFactory and get free training and mentorship in app and web development.
Mobile Web Ghana is accepting registration from interested applicants to the 2nd cohort of the Microsoft AppFactory fellowship. The program under the Microsoft 4Afrika initiative, is a partnership between Microsoft Ghana and Mobile Web Ghana.
The Microsoft AppFactory is a fully sponsored program where selected applicants get trained in Microsoft Technologies including Mobile Development, Web Development, Windows Development, project management, etc.
The program is also aimed at equipping the young software developers with hands-on experience while helping them build critical business skills to secure jobs or create their own businesses. Head over to the registration page to get started.
Some fellows of the 1st cohort shared their experience about their program;
I’ve been able to learn some valuable ethics and skills needed for the real world working environment; team work, consolidating different concepts together to build useful applications. – Derrick Korku
It’s been very challenging and innovative. I got to interact and learn from some of the industry’s best and dedicated professionals. Now I can tackle and solve problems. I have moved from just building anything to planning, building and deploying scalable applications. – Jeffrey Osei
Don’t forget you’ll need to have some form of knowledge in programming. A candidate must demonstrate the following as well as some of these will be used in determining your qualification:
A basic understanding of the computer science discipline
Coding proficiency in at least one high level language
Be a Logical Problem-solver
Be Passionate about technology
Be a Curious and continuous learner
Have above average communication skills and
Be a Team Player/Collaborator
A limited number will be selected so hurry to process your registration and don’t for get to let a friend know about the program.
Registered for the program, let us know what you think in the comments.
