Twitter Handle: @vmwise
Blog URL: http://vmwise.com
Current Employer: Base Technologies
How did you get into IT?
I've always loved taking things apart, and have been doing it since early on. Putting things back together, though, was a different matter. I got into computers when I was about 13/14, and played around with many different types. It was definitely more of a hobby than a career from my point of view. After high school, and during college, I worked for a small training company, where I did all their cabling and fixed/built all of their pc's. While working there, I picked up Windows NT, and went on to bigger and better things.
How did you get into working with VMware and becoming a 2011 vExpert?
I started working with VMware very early on with the original workstation product. I tried it out on my ThinkPad 600, and while slow, it was incredible having two different OS's running at the same time on one machine. I came to use ESX while at a financial firm back in 2005. While getting things setup and configured was no problem, when our environment started getting larger, I needed help with some issues that would arise. For that, I started going through VMTN, and received answers to my problems. In return, I started posting with answers to questions myself, and in time, I started rising through the levels to where I am now. After that, I started a little blog, and I try to post to both as and when I can. It’s the little break away from work.
What would you tell someone who wanted to get a job like yours to do?
The best advice I can give someone is to make sure you like what you do, and play with as many of the technologies as much as you can. There's no substitute for hands-on experience. Larger environments build on the lessons learned in small environments, so no environment is too small to get your feet wet. Also, there are many many sites that give advice on configuration, as well as troubleshooting, aside from the VMware official documentation sets. Read as many of them as possible. Lastly, if you have questions, ask them. The VMTN forums are one of the best places I’ve used to get answers to my questions. VMTN is better than just about any other product forums that I know of. Questions are answered quickly, and more often than not, correctly. If someone doesn’t have the answer, they’ll usually work with you to figure it out. It’s a great community.
