Name: Troy Clavell
Twitter handle:@TroyClavell
Current employer: Banner Health
How did you get into IT?
Well, to be honest I got into IT by accident. In October of 1998 I had a construction accident where I cut off part of my left thumb. Worker Compensation got involved and wanted to train me on something else and I told them I want to be trained “on anything that has anything to do with computers”. From there, I completed an 18 month course on everything related to DOS, Novell, NT4, Telecommunications, etc. As they say, the rest is history.
How did you get into working with VMware and becoming a 2011 vExpert?
I started working for a Healthcare provider in 2006. The first day I started I was told I was going to be the VMware guy. Perfect I thought, but then said to my Director, “what is VMware?” I have been told that I started working with VMware products at a perfect time. ESX 3.0 had just been released a short time prior and was a big leap from the ESX 2.5.x days.
I have been fortunate enough to be designated a vExpert since its inception in 2009. I currently hold vExpert 2009 – 2012 awards. As of today, I currently hold the top spot on VMTN with over 60,000 points. I am also a VMTN Moderator. I am lucky in the fact that my job and my employer allow me to flexibility to be an active member of the VMTN Communities. I hope that my contributions have helped others. With that said, I believe my contributions to the Communities have gotten some notice because like I said, I have been fortunate to be designated a vExpert 2009 – 2012
What would you tell someone who wanted to get a job like yours to do?
I would tell them “just do it”. Working with VMware’s Enterprise Suite (VI3/vSphere4/5) will give you opportunities to learn a variety of things that will help you with your IT career. You will get to know networking, RHEL, storage, Microsoft Windows and of course VMware’s product suite. With that said, getting hands on training, reading lots of documentation and visiting VMTN will only help advance your knowledge of VMware’s product suite.
