After completing our first day as a Microsoft Student Partner, I woke up in the morning to dive into a new 9-to-5 event routine. Actually, I owe my waking up to the reception; bless them, they didn’t neglect to wake me up by ringing the room phone. And the barrier of not being able to meet people on the first day—whether I missed out or it was due to me—was somewhat broken when I went down for breakfast. I had finally made an entry into the MSP goldmine. Though I’ve started to feel like I’m writing a story right now.
Once we got the basic questions out of the way with a slight “We haven’t met yet, right? Which university? What year? Where are you from?”, we didn’t just transition into small talk. We started discussing WordPress, websites, servers, and how hosting should be. Before I knew it, the food on my plate was finished and it was time to go. Saying time is money, we stood up, and there was a sense of comfort in arriving early this time, just like all the other MSPs, to the office where I had arrived late yesterday. This time, I settled into a spot in the front rows instead of the very back rows.
The first session progressed as Orhan Öziskender – Erdem Ergin / Unity & Web Design. In this part, it can be said that we learned a few details on light web design topics and how to gain speed when translating design into code. Afterward, we programmed a small game with Unity, which I call a “Fireball” game (whether I managed to finish it in time is a separate issue). Following that, Ümit Batu gave us some information regarding Açık Akademi (Open Academy).
After lunch and all, three friends who are former MSPs talked to us about what they did during their time as MSPs, where and in what positions they are currently working, and some of their projects. This part was a great section in terms of gaining experience.
In the finale, I was faced with the task of finding a project team and taking my first steps into a project. Somehow, the team was completed with 1 ING Trunger, 1 former MSP (Sezgin Ege), and myself as the new MSP. Later on, another former MSP friend joined us. Interestingly, the MSP friend who joined later was Melis Diçol, who actually contributed to me finding out about this MSP program last year. I mean, what I’m saying is that a friend who came as a speaker to a seminar last year can become your project partner the very next year.
Now, let’s see what we will be able to do for this project. It might be a bit arduous, but I’m sure these kinds of situations will bring us one step closer to the real working structure.
After the project teams were selected, we went to Taksim for dinner (outside of Microsoft’s sponsorship) and then returned to the hotel. Just as I was saying I’ve reached the end of this day, my roommate showed up. And so, both of us reached the end of another day.
