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 Ashish Padgaonkar.
Snapshot
- Job title: Director, Delivery VMware Professional Services
- Years at VMware: 10 Years
- First job: My first job was with Reliance Infocom, where the code-division multiple access services were being launched. I got to see the entire campus get set up and got some great opportunities to understand the nuances of infra–technology
- Fun fact: More than vacations, I like the phase of planning for a vacation. The anxiety of the unknown, learning from prior experiences of friends/colleagues & still ending up with surprises is something I enjoy. I typically begin planning for the next vacation as soon as a current one ends.
- Favorite fun activity: Calling up long-time friends & re-living old memories. I’m still in touch with my school group which meets once a year.
VMware Careers: Ashish, please tell us about your career journey to date.
Ashish: Reliance Infocom was where my career started. It wasn’t the most structured of onboarding or learning. But the hands-on concepts I learned in Reliance lasted a lifetime. I got into enterprise management solutions and thus landed a job at Patni Computers managing a network/system monitoring solution. My next five-year stint was in HP India. HP taught me the basics of customer management. It also showed me the world with travel every alternate week and handling some tough customers.
VMware Careers: How is VMware different from any other tech company you have worked for in the past?
Ashish: At first it took me some time to understand VMware’s customer-first culture. But once I got it, I understood how VMware can make the world go around by ensuring that its customers are well taken care of. I started at VMware as an Engagement Manager (individual contributor). Today, I lead a 70-member delivery team. In this journey, I have seen the business grow 14X. I was also privileged to play multiple roles within Professional Services, which included Project Management Office lead, practice lead, and now responsible for overall delivery.
VMware Careers: What has been the biggest lesson you have learned as you moved upwards in your career?
Ashish: Stakeholder management was the key in my case. I learned the hard way that it is not just one stakeholder that can take you to success. VMware is a large ecosystem with varying charters. It is important that as a VMware ambassador, you work equally hard internally & take people along to make things happen for the customer. The other most important thing is our EPIC2 values. The concept of Execution, Passion, Integrity, Customer & Community is not just theoretical concepts but something that VMware takes very seriously.
VMware Careers: Your team is hiring. Can you tell us more about your organization’s charter?
Ashish: As the Professional Services delivery team, we are responsible for bringing things to reality. Post licenses sell we are responsible to make the solution work for our customers through a consultative approach. This can be an onsite/offshore model with a team spread across the country. Our team is split into PMO, VCN, Multi-Cloud & Digital WS1 practice. You would be placed in any one of the teams based on your applicability to support Indian delivery.
VMware Careers: If someone reading this was coming to interview with you tomorrow for a role on your team, what interview tips would you give them?
Ashish: We are looking for individuals with a passion for customer-facing roles. Their experience in handling customer situations would be greatly appreciated.
My advice would be:
1. We don’t expect every individual to know everything about VMware technology. However, we expect every individual to have an in-depth understanding of the concepts they work on daily.
2. Ask all required questions you feel are necessary to understand your job description.
3. Give real-life examples of how you solved customer problems.
4. Tell us how you will make a difference to this team.
Could you see yourself working for a manager like Ashish? Click here to browse open roles with VMware!
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