“Throughout my early career, I always found myself teaching people things along the way. So, for instance, if somebody called me up when I was doing technical support, I didn’t want to just give them the answer. I wanted to arm them with information so that they could solve the current problem, but also understand the broader context and be more self-sufficient.”
Though he didn’t start his career as an instructor, Brian Watrous was always drawn to teaching. Now, he’s a VMware Technical Learning Engineer and Principal Instructor specializing in courses. His primary goal? Teach students to manage automation independently and confidently.
He’ll do the same at VMware Explore Las Vegas next month, where his CXS Theater session will teach IT professionals to expertly wield VMware Aria Automation.
A passion for learning
Before joining VMware, Brian ran a training and consultancy company for 10 years — his first foray into professional teaching. He joined VMware at the end of 2005 as an instructor and curriculum developer.
“As much as I loved doing the freelance stuff, working for VMware has been both personally and professionally rewarding, so no regrets,” he noted.
His first VMware role helped him build valuable experience writing course modules, a skill set he still uses today. While his current role doesn’t require curriculum development, he enjoys providing input into the development process and determining the overall direction of each course with student success in mind.
Since joining VMware, Brian’s done plenty of learning himself, becoming a VMware Certified Advanced Professional(VCAP) in Cloud Management and Automation and earning multiple VMware Certified Professional (VCP) certifications. He’s also a VMware Subject Matter Expert, which allows him to leverage his VMware expertise to develop robust certification and badging exams.
Beginning this year, Brian has added two new skills to his repertoire. He is now also creating VMware course content and leading VMware Beta courses, as a VMware Learning Technical Engineer.
In addition to contributing to VMware Learning, he has been a VMware Office of the CTO Ambassador, a designation reserved for VMware’s most experienced and talented customer-facing technologists.
School is in session
Brian prepares for every class by reviewing material the night before, even though he’s taught VMware courses hundreds of times. When it’s time for class, he has his own teaching studio equipped with a green screen and other helpful tools.
When he first joined VMware, Brian primarily taught in person. However, like many other instructors, he’s since shifted to predominantly online courses. Though the transition wasn’t easy, he’s embraced the challenge of teaching in a virtual format. “We’re all pulling together to help us all be more knowledgeable and more efficient and better at the jobs that we do,” he said.
He’s also embraced some of the new, interactive tools that virtual teaching offers — including the popular review game Kahoot, which challenges users to answer questions about a topic as quickly as possible. He was hesitant about the technology when a fellow VMware instructor first suggested it to him but has since found that it’s a popular choice among students. “I’ll be darned if the students don’t just love having a little game show-type aspect of class,” he joked.
At the beginning of the pandemic, some students were hesitant to enroll in online courses with family members or pets in their homes, Brian encouraged them to reconsider. “Pandemic or not, there’s an incredibly high likelihood that students are taking the class from home or some sort of setup that’s not entirely optimal. There are going to be disruptions. That’s normal, but we always make it work” he emphasized.
He also encourages students to take regular breaks to get up, move around, and spend some time away from their screens, even if it means stepping away for a few moments mid-lesson.
“We’re not designed for that,” he stressed. “I’m going to try to make it as best as possible and try to make it lively, keep you interested, and so forth, but it’s on you the student to take those breaks. And if that time you need to take an informal break to grab that cup of joe or do whatever you need to do, go ahead and do that.”
Bringing automation expertise to VMware Explore
Brian looks forward to VMware Explore this August because of the opportunities he’ll have to meet like-minded IT professionals and students.
“I think that with conferences such as VMware Explore, a huge part of what makes them as beneficial as they are to people is the interaction that you get with others. They’re there because they also have some shared common interest and there’s a lot of excitement and energy and camaraderie that comes from doing that.”
He’s also excited to lead his own CXS Theater session, 1431, his third year doing so, and empower students to optimize their VMware automation solutions. He’ll teach attendees to accelerate IT operations by integrating VMware Aria Automation with third-party systems such as CMDBs and extending Aria’s capabilities with VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator and Action Based Extensibility (ABX) actions.
As for why VMware Explore-goers should join his session? “As amazing of a product and technology as VMware Aria Automation is, there are things that you can do with it to make it even more powerful, more amazing, and crucially, to integrate it even more tightly into your own infrastructure. That’s what we’re going to be talking about. How do you take this automation tool and make it automate more than it already does?”
To put it briefly: “Take the greatest product in the world and make it better.”
Stay ahead of the curve
VMware Learning is committed to not only bringing its students the knowledge they need to be able to utilize their software, but they also have world-class instructors like Brian leading the charge.
What are you waiting for? Take a class, either on-demand or in person, and be taught by a tech-centered passionate expert!
