Name: Tim Antonowicz
Blog URL: whiteboardninja.wordpress.com
Twitter handle: @timantz
Current employer: Mosaic Technology
How did you get into IT?
I attended medical school in the caribbean, Ross University, for 3 years and ran out of tuition. I needed something to do while working and saving for my last year. I had a knack for computers, so started contracting in 1993 doing SysAdmin work and found I liked it. After a while, I put med school behind me and focused on IT. To this day, I love my job.
How did you get into working with VMware and becoming a 2012 vExpert?
In early 2004, I was at Bowdoin College in Maine. Running out of datacenter footprint, we consolidated our servers with ESX 2.01 retiring 50 physical servers and leaving us 80% virtualized. I presented our case study at VMworld 2005 in Las Vegas, followed by sessions in '06, '07, and '09. I left Bowdoin for VMware Partner Mosaic Technology in 2008 as a Solution Architect and have been bringing virtualization to customers across the country ever since.
What would you tell someone who wanted to get a job like yours to do?
Be inquisitive and never pass up an opportunity to learn something new. In IT, if you aren't training, you are falling behind. Build yourself a home lab and take advantage of the free knowledge available out there. VMware's knowledge base, blogs, twitter, and your local VMUG meetings are great places for mindshare opportunities. It doesn't take much money, and the time investment will pay dividends immediately.
