When you talk to Tim Burkard, one of the first qualities you’ll notice – outside of his wonderfully long, Gandalf-esque beard and friendly demeanor – is that this man has an innate love for teaching. And that he’s just as happy teaching you a thing or two about cloud computing and virtualization as you will be to listen.
Don’t believe us? See for yourself at VMware Explore Las Vegas next month, where he will teach a (sure to be full) session at the CXS Theater on “Demystifying Distributed Security.”
Tim’s journey into teaching
Like most, Tim’s journey in his career, and particularly his role at VMware, was not one he necessarily expected to obtain … or really ever saw in his future. Before landing at VMware as one of their new Technical Learning Engineers, Tim was a trainer elsewhere for 15 years, instructing technical classes on a variety of topics that suited his skillset. And, at the time, he was comfortable with his career having found his calling in the way most of us find ours … through the pains and tribulations of first having jobs we do not enjoy.
“I found my love for teaching over 20 years ago when I had a job that wasn’t a trainer or VCI,” he shared. “And you know how I knew when I found it? Because that non-teaching job felt just like a job. I’d wake up every morning, nearly hoping I had a stomach ache or too much back pain, even the sniffles, any reason I’d be justified to call out that day. But, I’d go on anyhow and drag myself into work. And this went on for years.”
Despite not feeling fulfilled by his full-time job, Tim pursued other interests and even received his Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE). Thankfully, it wasn’t long after that he ran into an old friend who just so happened to run a school.
As with so many events in life, what felt like an ordinary conversation unfolding that day would ultimately change Tim’s life. While catching up, he asked on a whim if his friend’s school ever had a need for part time instructors. Tim had often wondered if he’d enjoy teaching and he thought there was no hurt to ask.
Sure enough, they did. And despite having a day job, he had the itch to try it out.
For three hours a night, 3 nights a week, Tim would escape from the ho-hum of his full time job to pursue his growing love for teaching. Even through the monotony of his day job, Tim started to notice that on the nights he was teaching, he could feel his excitement sustaining him throughout the day.
“And that’s when I knew I’d found my calling,” he said. “The instructor mentality is just something I really felt I was meant to do.”
Finding his way to VMware
Fast forward in time, and in yet another fortuitous moment, Tim started chatting with another instructor friend at the school one night, and while shooting the breeze his friend mentioned VMware.
“You ought to teach at this company,” he recalled his friend telling him, though he remembers his initial response to that was… why?
“My whole concept of VMware was to produce VMware workstations, which I used classrooms and liked, but I didn’t know about vCenter and all that, so I asked jokingly if I’d get paid for the job and when he said yes – and that the pay was good – well, I grew interested quick.”
Tim shifted focus and began to pursue a contract position through an ICM Learning Course, which ultimately required passing a certification course at an in-person Instructor Certification workshop in Boston. When asked about that time period, he’d laugh and tell you about how he wanted the job so much he made the trip up to the costly city of Boston and stayed in a Motel 6 at the end of the trainline in order to take the workshop and secure the position.
And that’s how, in 2012, Tim grew to become a contracted VMware Certified Instructor (VCI) with VMware.
As a contract VCI, he didn’t have a lot of classes to offer, but it wasn’t long before his classes became the talk of the town. Tim found himself booked solid for weeks in advance… and while he took pride in this, he moreso knew that he also truly found his calling.
Transition into full time instructing at VMware
A year or so went by and one day Tim read about VMware positions opening for instructors who’ve taught Cisco, instructors with CCNA and a VCI in good standing, and how they’d love to have this type of instructor come do a beta class for NSX. Taking yet another leap of faith – but this time not at a Motel 6 – Tim flew out to Irvine, California where VMware leaders were teaching the beta. He sat in a four day class led by VMware Principal Instructor John Krueger, whom Tim had known for years, and soaked up all that he could. At the end of the week, while catching up one night over the California sunset, he asked John if they had any openings for full time instructors and whether he would qualify for it.
Sure enough, John saidhe would, and both he and Tim kept their eyes peeled for opportunities. In July 2015, Tim caught his break and was offered a permanent position. As he put it “my name got out in a hat and I was chosen. I’ve been blessed and I haven’t looked back. And the NSX part of it has been hook, line and sinker.”
Currently, Tim specializes in teaching VMware NSX, and has previously taught courses covering the entire vSphere product line. Tim holds multiple VMware certifications including VCP, VCAP, VCI, and VCDX-NV, and others including MCSE, CCNP, and CISSP… and it doesn’t seem likely he plans to stop anytime soon.
Summing up his career: “If you find something you love to do you’ll never work another day in your life. When I found out teaching is what I’m meant to do, I’ve been on vacation ever since. I’ve been on vacation for 20 years, and it’s the best feeling in the world.”
Tim at VMware Explore
Not only a beloved instructor, Tim is a favorite VMware Explore speaker. He is returning for his eighth year this year, where he is slated to teach the unmissable event at the CXS Theater session on “Demystifying Distributed Security.”
The session will focus on how VMware NSX Distributed Firewall and VMware Distributed IDS/IPS provide security services in the kernel through processing rules and signatures intrinsically within the virtual networking infrastructure. But … How does it work?
Living up to his intrinsic teaching nature, Tim will show the inner workings of the distributed services from an architectural standpoint. More importantly, he will discuss the best implementation techniques as well as troubleshooting tools for examining the effectiveness of the strategy deployed. He will then go on to show how to simplify the configuration of the centrally managed protection mechanisms and greatly reduce the time and effort needed to put a tight security policy in place.
So, what are you waiting for? Sign up, stop by, and learn (and don’t forget to marvel at his beard!) at VMware Explore Las Vegas next month!
Interested in attending his sessions?
Tim will be speaking at two CXS Theater sessions this year. Session 1385 takes place Tuesday, August 22 from 12:30 pm – 1:15 pm PDT and session 1389 takes place Wednesday, August 23 from 4:00 pm – 4:45 pm PDT. Be sure to sign up!
Then, feel free to check out more Customer Experience and Success (CXS) sessions you’ll enjoy in our CXS Agenda. See you soon!
