Linus Bourque is one of the most recognizable faces at VMware Learning and for good reason.
Linus is a jack of all trades in the VMware community — holding roles as a Technical Learning Engineer, Lead Instructor for the Americas Instructor Certification Workshop, Subject Matter Expert, VMware Learning Global DEI Council leader, and mentor to new VMware team members. He’s also a VMware Certified Instructor (VCI) and holds VCP and VCAP certifications in data center virtualization.
He’s been roaming the classrooms — and computer screens — of VMware Learning for more than 17 years, making an impact on countless students’ lives and careers. “I’ve been around for what feels like forever,” he laughed.
Discovering IT
Linus’ start in IT didn’t begin the same way as most. “My original degree was in political science, particularly the Soviet Union. Useless, right?” he joked.
However, his mother unexpectedly passed in 1992, which led him to reevaluate his life and career goals. He’d previously had an interest in the growing internet and tech industry, though it was yet to become popular among the masses. He decided life was too short to pursue a career he wasn’t interested in, so he chose computer science instead.
“Computers were basically the paperweights people put on their desks,” he said. “At the time, it was a lot of turning it on, swapping out the floppy disk, and having some water cooler talk.”
Regardless, he saved up to buy his own computer — a whopping $12,000 at the time for the novelty item — while working at an environmental consulting firm. He was fascinated and soon left his consulting job to take an intensive, six-month course on IT administration. As part of the course, Linus completed a co-op with the training school and worked closely with one of the admins, who was so impressed with his work and demeanor that she named him her replacement.
Linus was happy to stay in the desktop administration role for nearly two years but continued looking toward the future. The opportune moment struck when a school colleague said to Linus: “You’re good at explaining things. Would you like to teach?”
Not one to pass on an opportunity, Linus did a three-day training course on how to instruct adults, followed by a week-long UNIX course. He quickly found his passion for teaching and before long, Linus switched from IT admin to instructor.
The position also gave Linus, an avid biker, the opportunity to explore trails across Canada. Equipped with a tent on his back and a water bottle in his holster, he biked solo everywhere from Toronto to Ottawa to Prince Edward Island to Montreal and more.
Linus taught courses covering Linux, Windows, and hardware for a few years until he was referred to the college certificate program at Seneca Polytechnic in Toronto. He jumped at the opportunity to teach there because it was a hands-on academic environment.
Riding into a new chapter with VMware
As Linus traversed the Canadian landscape and taught, he heard about VMware’s growing office in Burlington, Ontario, Canada from friends and was intrigued.
Linus joined VMware’s Global Support team in 2005, specializing in VMware VirtualCenter, now known as VMware vCenter, and security. He worked as an Escalation Engineer and provided support for customer tickets.
He moved into his first instructor role in 2007, teaching Windows desktop support to IT professionals. While the course has changed over the years, Linus has taught every version since then. He also became a VCI and started to teach VMware Horizon courses — soon becoming a popular choice among VMware students, who often go out of their way to share what a great experience they’ve had in his courses.
One review he recalls was written by a student who said, “I was afraid of doing this course, but this experience with Linus is the best one I’ve had online or in person.” He hopes to continue motivating students to seek IT education and training.
After becoming an instructor, Linus sought more and more teaching opportunities and responsibilities at VMware Learning. “2014 was the best and worst year of my work life,” he recalled. “I traveled 92,000 miles and did 13 weeks of teaching in a row, which as a teacher is brutal.”
Though he became an accomplished instructor, he also started to experience significant burnout for the first time. “I was losing it a bit. I just got incredibly bad burnout which I’d never experienced like that before in my life,” he said.
He shared that one of the reasons he’s chosen to stay with VMware all of these years, however, is because of how the organization helped him reduce stress, move into a more manageable role, and teach a greater variety of courses to differentiate his workdays. When he asked for assistance, VMware was willing to aid the switch, no questions asked.
Now, Linus is an enthusiastic supporter of burnout management and has developed several strategies to fend off burnout, especially the mental health challenges that teaching courses online can present.
“There are little things you learn how to do when you teach online,” he said. “I try to include as much demo or variety as I can since a demo adds variety. I definitely make sure I do not teach two classes in a row of the same class.”
Plans for the Future
Linus also credits VMware with supporting his transition and allowing him to be himself at work. VMware invited him to shape company policy for other employees looking to medically or non-medically transition, enabling him to help VMware become an even more diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization.
“When I transitioned, I became my true self. But, what I didn’t know then is how that would end up impacting other people as well,” he said.
In the years since, Linus has written publicly about his transition and success, leading others to share with him how much his story has impacted their lives.
“I still remember a message from this person who said they read my blog and realized they could do the same as me and still be successful,” he said. “They have now transitioned and they thanked me for that and said that because of my writing, they have a career that they love and they never thought they could say that.”
Linus can confidently say that he loves his job and hopes to have a long future at VMware.
“I always heard that I’d never have a career that I love. I remember coming out of high school and university and being told that I’ll never stay at the same company for more than three or four years, but here I am, hoping to retire with VMware,” he said.
“I know it sounds corny, but it is the people. People genuinely help each other here. It’s better than anything I’ve seen or heard. You couldn’t pay me to work elsewhere.”
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Linus looks forward to attending VMware Explore and meeting VMware students, customers, and fellow IT professionals — and you can still register for his CXS Theater session! Along with Senior Consultant Andrew Klopp, Linus will provide a technical walkthrough of VMware Horizon TLS Certificates.
If you’re interested in learning more about VMware solutions, consider taking a VMware Learning course with Linus or one of our other experienced instructors. Check out our course catalog here.
