Google doesn't mind hiring a Microsoft Most Valued Professional (MVP), but apparently the search giant does mind its new employee keeping the software giant's title. "It's with some sadness that I have to announce that as of the start of October, I'm no longer a Microsoft MVP," British developer Jon Skeet wrote on his Microsoft MVP blog. "As renewal time came round again, I asked my employer whether it was okay for me to renew, and was advised not to do so. As a result, while I enjoyed being awarded as an MVP, I've asked not to be considered for renewal this year."

In October 2003, Skeet was awarded Microsoft MVP status, and Microsoft renewed his MVP status every year for the next five years. Those days are over. While Microsoft says it has no problem with a Google employee keeping their MVP status, Google certainly does. Skeet has been working for Google in the UK since April 2008, which implies that his MVP status was renewed while he was at Google once before in October 2008. For whatever reason, this year is different. It's possible that Google has some sort of legal reason to advise Skeet not to take the MVP award, though we're at a loss as to what that could be.

The Microsoft MVP status is awarded to individuals around the world who Redmond wants to recognize for sharing their high-quality, real-world technical expertise with the community and with Microsoft. These individuals come from a wide range of backgrounds and are not necessarily IT admins: they can be teachers, artists, doctors, engineers, technologists, and so on. Microsoft says it gives them the award for representing their community by giving the company feedback and for helping the company's customers maximize the potential of their software. They don't actually work for the company, and they're not paid, though they do receive services and benefits through the program.

According to Skeet's MVP Profile, he considers himself to be primarily a C# and Java developer, and he even wrote a book devoted entirely to the Microsoft programming language: C# In Depth. According to the Amazon page, Skeet has worked with C# since 2002 and "has spent a great amount of time in the C# community answering questions in newsgroups as well as writing articles on the most misunderstood aspects of C# and .NET." Skeet notes that despite his loss of MVP status, he's not going to give up on C#: "This doesn't mean I'm turning my back on that side of software development, of course. I'm still going to be an active member of the C# community. I'm still writing the second edition of C# in Depth. I'm still going to post on Stack Overflow. I'm still going to blog here about whatever interesting and wacky topics crop up."

Hat tip to The Register for posting Skeet's story first.