We’re delighted to share that our Senior Power Platform Consultant Charles Sexton has recently been named a Power Apps MVP. A huge achievement, we wanted to ask Charles a bit more about how he has reached this stage in his career, his journey to success and his future ambitions.
About the MVP Program
Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals, or MVPs, are community leaders who’ve demonstrated an exemplary commitment to helping others get the most out of their experience with Microsoft technologies. They share their passion, real-world knowledge and technical expertise with the community and with Microsoft. If you think becoming a Microsoft MVP easy you’d be mistaken. It requires a lot of learning and dedication. To become an MVP, immersing yourself in Microsoft technologies, sharing your expertise with the community and networking is essential.
Congratulations on being recognised as a Microsoft MVP Charles, what was your reaction when you first found out the news?
I knew that I would get a response to my application either at the beginning of June, or the beginning of July. But, funnily enough, the first thing I saw that morning was a message from my MVP friend asking if I was accepted. Then I checked my emails and saw the congratulations!
It took the whole day for it to properly sink in as it is a result of a huge amount of work over the past year. I’m obviously delighted, as it partly validates my efforts, and it inspires me to continue working hard to help the Power Platform community.
What type of MVP are you?
So far, my contributions have all revolved around Power Apps, which is my forte. I really enjoy helping others to succeed and improve the quality of their work. I’ve used many mediums to do this, including YouTube, blogging, posting on the community forums and LinkedIn carousels. In November 2023, I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and started doing public speaking. I really enjoyed it and, since then, I’ve been doing talks every month; sometimes virtually and sometimes in person.
What sort of things have helped you to gain this status – What did you do to be successful in your nomination?
Being an MVP is all about helping the Microsoft community, without any direct financial gain. There are no set guidelines on how to become one, but MVPs generally say that it shouldn’t be your goal, and that you should enjoy contributing.
For me, I love talking about Power Apps. I’m very passionate about it, and I enjoy all of the contributions I’ve mentioned above. If it ever feels like a chore, or if I’m feeling a bit burnt out, I take a step back until I feel ready to get into it again. Undoubtedly, it’s incredibly useful to network. Making friends in the community is great from a personal perspective, but also does help when it comes to getting more exposure for your work, which ultimately also helps in getting nominated as an MVP.
What do you enjoy about Power Platform? Any technologies that you get excited about?
Power Apps is my baby. It’s a mix of creativity and logic, which suits me to a tee. But the whole Microsoft ecosystem is incredible in general, and the integration capabilities are impressive. Being a Power Platform consultant, I feel like I have almost unlimited potential at my fingertips. It’s a very exciting place to be in. We’re at the forefront of technological changes, as evidenced by the fact that Microsoft regards Power Platform makers as being the ideal people to lead the charge with regards to AI.
Now that you have been named Microsoft MVP, what are your future career aspirations?
Being an MVP means that I will get invited to the next MVP Global Summit, which is a multi-day event in Washington, USA, where MVPs are shown new features that are under an NDA, able to meet with the product teams working on Power Platform, and able to network with the best of the best in the industry. I would love to attend this event.
I will continue to push myself to be the best I can be. I would love to help my peers, even more, to become better. Especially when it comes to user experiences (UX), user interfaces (UI) and accessibility (A11y), an area where I can see a lot of potential improvement for Power Apps.
What advice would you give to others who want to become a Power Platform consultant?
I would say to enjoy making things with Power Platform, build up a portfolio, and start engaging in the community. Our community is a very positive one, and it’s a joy to be a part of it. The job market is also very healthy, so once you’re in the industry you will never lack options.
This year, I talked about what steps people can take if they want to become a Power Apps professional, and you can watch the session on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1qRu5INLXY
Once again a huge congratulations to Charles on being accepted onto the MVP program. If you’d like to learn more about Charles, or keep up to date with his work you can access his LinkedIn profile here. He will also be hosting a webinar all around Streamlining Your Processes with Power Apps with our M365 Solution Architect Josh Giles. You can find out more about this session and sign up here.
