“From a New College Graduate to the first woman employee in Chennai Office to the first woman Solution Engineer in APJ under the SD-WAN/SASE (Software-defined Wide Area Network Secure Access Service Edge team) – I can say that a combination of sheer passion and great opportunities have made my VMware journey exciting and worthwhile. For that, I will be forever thankful!”
– Vaishnavi Prabakar, Pre-sales Solutions Specialist at VMware
VMware Careers: Why did you join VMware?
Vaishnavi Prabakar: Virtualization and networking have always been favorites of mine since my college days, and I was looking for an employer who invests in fresh talents. When VMware visited my college to do on-campus interviews, I couldn’t ask for anything better. The way all the panel interviewers were affirmative, transparent, and diligent in making the new graduates comfortable caught my eye. I still recall when my hiring manager offered me an early internship after completing my project. VMware has always been very welcoming and employee-friendly. So back in 2015, I joined VMware as a New College Graduate (NCG), and the rest is history.
VMware Careers: Tell us about your VMware Career Journey.
Vaishnavi Prabakar: When I reflect, my career journey within VMware amazes me. There is always something to look forward to every day. Below are snippets of each of my four different roles across the VMware world in the last seven years:
- I started my VMware journey as a Cloud Infrastructure Admin in VMware IT (Bangalore). As a fresher, I was given the opportunity to learn, adapt and implement things in IT Operations teams. I was handling the Patch Management Automation and coordinating across the application(s) team to streamline the process. I also participated and presented during the “VMware on VMware IT initiative (Evo Booth).”
- When VMware expanded its presence in Chennai (my hometown) after the VeloCloud SD-WAN (Software-defined Wide Area Network) acquisition, I could internally move to my favorite place with the company; the Site Reliability team! I became a Site Reliability Engineer for the Research and Development Business Unit. VMware’s Take 1 program enabled me to learn more and move across different domains. I am also proud to say I was the first woman hired in the Chennai Office.
- In 2019, I moved to Melbourne, Australia, within the SD-WAN (Software-defined Wide Area Network) Business Unit as a Partner Enablement Engineer. I am forever thankful to my manager (Joao Leite Ferreira), who supported me through this transition journey. Part of this role was managing ANZ’s (Australia and New Zealand) key partner post-sales deployment. In this role, I also retained my infra-automation skills by managing the in-house data analytics tool to enable marketing, sales, and product with the trends and health reports.
- Currently, I work as the Pre-Sales Solutions Specialist where I manage the global partners and drive the growth of its channel customers.
VMware Careers: What would you say is your greatest achievement, so far?
Vaishnavi Prabakar: I am so proud to be one of the few women in the Pre-Sales Specialist Engineering team, bringing a different perspective and leading the way in building resilient products on the channel partner portfolio. Being a part of the team developing and maintaining the analytics product dashboard is one of my biggest achievements so far.
VMware Careers: What do you love most about working at VMware?
Vaishnavi Prabakar: I love the products, innovation, and ability to execute. It gives me immense pleasure knowing that I contribute to a customer-centric technology that makes a difference. VMware has amazing people, community and EPIC2 culture.
VMware Careers: What is the biggest lesson you learned while working at VMware?
Vaishnavi Prabakar: One of the biggest lessons I learned is the importance of showing up and being seen for the opportunity. There will be no guarantee of the outcome sometimes, but rising to the occasion can open up possibilities.
VMware Careers: What advice do you want to give to someone who is considering applying to VMware?
Vaishnavi Prabakar: Stop thinking and start applying J VMware is one of the coolest places powered by amazing technology with great people and culture. My experience at VMware has set the bar very high.
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