Our Meet the Hiring Manager series allows you to get to know the people who grow teams at VMware. You’ll learn about our hiring managers’ career paths and what they look for in candidates during the interview process. This week we’d like you to meet Karthick Chelladurai.
Snapshot
- Job title: Technical Support Manager
- Years at VMware: 1 year 8 months
- First job: My first job was in an IT organization as a “Graduate Engineering Trainee” which happened right after college. The whole world of technical support and corporate culture started with this small role and as a fresher trying to understand the whole dynamics of how IT works in the modern world reminds me of the excitement I had even today.
- Fun fact: I am an art fanatic. I love anything that has “art” tagged to it, starting from pencil sketching to abstract art, photography, writing blogs & short quotes, and music. I use art to relax my mind and you can see my work desk racks filled with pencil sketches and doodles laying around in small paper bits everywhere.
- Favorite social distancing activity: I was born and brought up in Ooty, an incredibly beautiful hill station down south of India. It is a place that has a small population, and it feels like you are in a socially distancing world if you roam around. During my most recent visit, I walked many miles alone amid high-standing eucalyptus trees which are like unofficial landmarks of Ooty.
VMware Careers: Karthick, tell us about your career journey to date?
Karthick: I started my career as an analyst in the Networking domain and I was fortunate enough to get into this domain with practically no knowledge about it. But the passion started ever since I logged in to the network device and the Command Line Interface is something that never gets boring especially if you are a Network Engineer. Starting from that point to leading a support team and then managing a Network Operation Center and finally landing in VMware Global Support as a Technical Support Manager is surely a home run for me so far.
VMware Careers: How is VMware different from any other tech company you have worked for in the past?
Karthick: One of the first and best things I have witnessed in VMWare as soon as I joined is the transparency of the leaders and the peers. The culture VMware inculcates is something beyond the usual corporate default ethics and traits I have come across in my 13 years of corporate experience. I am thrilled to work among such thinking minds and my experience so far in VMware makes me believe that it is not just my team and leaders, but overall. Everyone here places importance on our EPIC2 company values.
VMware Careers: What has been the biggest lesson you have learned as you moved upwards in your career?
Karthick: I always believed in this quote:
“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, evolving, accepting change, and most of all ‘Passion’ in what you do.”
As a leader, I believe my success is only when my team succeeds and they will only succeed if they are trusted, motivated, and given enough freedom to explore their interests and beliefs. VMware gives me the freedom to make decisions that enable my team and individuals to grow their strengths in the right spectrum.
VMware Careers: Your team is hiring. Can you tell us more about your organization’s charter?
Karthick: NSX Support team (Network Virtualization & Security)-APAC is a group of dynamic network engineers coming together with multiple technical backgrounds including Network LAN (Local Area Networks), WAN (Wide Area Network), Security, SDWAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network), Information Security and become “Network Virtualization Engineers “who excel in the Virtual world.
Anyone who has worked in Network Technical Assistance Center (TAC), Network operations center (NOC) with good packet-level troubleshooting skills, certifications like CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional), CCIE, Juniper professional Certs, etc., along with good TCP/IP knowledge would feel at home in our team.
To add on the NSX APAC (Asia Pacific and China) team has over 30 Technical Engineers at distinct levels working on NSX products on its support and maintenance. Thus, giving an individual to work with multiple talents and great exposure.
VMware Careers: If someone reading this was coming to interview with you tomorrow for a role in your org, what interview tips would you give them?
Karthick: We are looking for individuals who are passionate, with a hunger to compete, and are self-motivated. Networking is our foundation and that is something we look for in any of our interview candidates.
For me, the thumb rule is to get the basics right. So, have your fundamentals strong which will be the pillar for any interview.
Could you see yourself working for a manager like Karthick? Click here to browse open roles with VMware!
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