The Best Takeaway

I don't know about you, but the fact that August will be here next week just blows my mind. August's arrival means back-to-school is right at our doorstep. It also means the fall recruiting season is about to kick into high gear.

It certainly has been a busy summer, though, and before I get into the meat of this post I want to say thanks to Erin for covering for me a couple of weeks back. Thanks, E! As she mentioned, I attended the annual Microsoft Worldwide Partners Conference (WPC) in Houston along with my colleague Ray Matthews. Ray and I, representing Experience at the Microsoft Students-to-Business (S2B) booth, spent the week speaking with Microsoft partners from all over the world. Of all the folks we talked to, a good chunk of them being from overseas, nearly every single person told us the same thing: finding good, qualified and reliable talent is becoming harder and harder. And all of them seemed blown away by the value S2B brings to the table.

As an online community (a talent community as Erin alluded to) geared towards technically minded students, young grads and the employers looking to hire them, Microsoft S2B is well on its way to being the ultimate destination for IT and MIS candidates looking to put their know-how to work. And it's not just about the highly targeted job and internship postings. In addition to the opportunities, students and alumni who join the S2B community -- for free -- will have access to training materials, insightful industry content and software. As for the partners, a VP of Sales from a large Southeastern software vendor said it to us best: "this is the best takeaway from the conference!"

To me, that just about says it all.