Nerd Journey 024: John’s 3-Year Check-In at VMware Part 2

Welcome to episode 24 of the Nerd Journey Podcast [@NerdJourney]! We’re John White (@vJourneyman) and Nick Korte (@NetworkNerd_), two VMware Solution Engineers who are hoping to bring you the IT career advice that we wish we’d been given earlier in our careers. In today’s episode, we discuss John’s 3 Year Check-in at VMware, Part 2. Original Recording Date: 2019-2-2 Topics – John’s 3 Year Check-in at VMware, Nick’s Questions 1:55 Topics Begin Check out part 1 of John’s 3 Year check-in if you missed it last week. John mentions sports research. Was he prepared for what came next? 2:54 What has Made John stay with the company? John considered this a medium to long-term job once he joined. He loves the technology VMware has and the innovations as well as the overall technology space. John has enjoyed exposure to new customer problems and situations (technical, political, etc.). The constant change keeps it interesting. Building good relationships with customers is part of the job and a nice perk. The overall experience has been enjoyable. John describes this as a process of continual improvement (always considering ways to get better), which has involved self-study as well as collaboration with others. The goal is to always do the right thing for the customer to maintain a long-term good relationship, even if it means advising them not to buy something. Everyone has more expertise than someone else and less than others. John is a relative Yoda rather than an absolute Yoda 10:32 Is John where he thought he might be after 3 years at the company? John applied a number of times before getting into the company. He had applied for a technical marketing role around the same time as applying for the SE role. He had to sell the company on the fact that his career progression was not tied to a specific position or role. Mentoring was something he wanted – to be a mentor and to be mentored. He’s been able to be more active in social media, attend events, podcast, etc. A specific title was not part of the goal. He focused more on the controllable steps to achieve what was needed to accomplish a promotion. Nick’s book recommendation – Chasing Excellence by Ben Bergeron Check out our episode on Process over Outcomes as well. Figure out the process. Do the things you can control. If your measure of success is promotion to a specific title, you will be disappointed. John has been iterating. If there’s nowhere for you to go at your current employer, you may not get recognized as you think you should be. Maybe the goal should be to get a better job elsewhere. Being excellent at what you do will always be in demand. 21:45 Favorite memory from the time at VMware John tells a story about being nerd famous. Giving someone else a tour of the VMware Palo Alto campus for the first time was a great experience. 24:42 How does John stay relevant while working for a vendor? Relevance can be measured in different ways. The ability to help customers solve problems over the long term is one way to measure it. John also cites ramping on the growing product portfolio and knowing the value of each as another way to be relevant. John cannot be a pure technical expert at everything, but he knows the right technical resources to engage when needed. 28:04 Does John missing being a customer? He misses having 100% input and control over technology solution decisions. It was easy to do as part of a small business, but there is probably not a job he can go into to get that level of control. He’s currently able to be an influencer at a number of different levels within multiple organizations. 31:53 What’s the least glamorous part of working for a vendor? The nuts and bolts of the Sales process and being part of Sales meetings is not always 100% enjoyable. "Not every part of dinner is desert." Knowledge of the Sales process can be valuable for anyone in an organization. Check out Episode 5 for more on this. Nick had to learn about this after moving to the SE role. The IBM Sales process model 38:46 How has the amount of travel been since joining? Do you have any travel tips? Amount of travel is ultimately dependent upon the role. Even for those with the same job title, the amount of travel is different. John is flying about once per quarter and usually has to drive 3 days per week. John’s travel essentials: Packing lists for everything (good way to lower stress) Different lists for local vs. long distance travel Nick pressures John to write a blog on this. Send us a Tweet if you want to see it happen! Sign up for GlobalEntry if you are flying with any kind of frequency (includes TSA Pre Check). Sign up for travel rewards programs. Dongle from automatic.com to capture mileage Capture expense receipts with your phone camera to avoid loss 48:58 If this is your dream job, how do you determine what’s next? Should John become a full time career coach? His dream for 5 years was to be a SE at VMware. On day one of the job, he realized it was time to figure out a new dream. John deconstructed what he enjoys doing: Mentoring other SEs Figuring out best practices across segments, specialties, etc. Peer collaboration More one-to-many conversations (i.e. outside of just his customers) Speaking at VMUGs / conferences Giving more presentations John talked through the Principal program but mentioned he cannot just success / failover based on this alone. These items lend themselves to a number of roles. Figure out what he has time to work one, and see if other roles present themselves. 55:47 Would you consider a move from generalist to specialist? Nick cites examples like technical marketing for a specific product or SE specialist in a particular area. John mentioned the challenge as a generalist to get deep enough in a specific product area. He would probably need to be open to moving wherever the role is available (i.e. large concentration in his area). He’s keeping his eyes open but not committed to any specific path. 58:40 When did you start co-hosting the VMware Roundtable Communities Podcast? John started going to VMware meetup events and ran into Eric Nielsen. Eric was looking for a podcast co-host with experience in the field, and John fit the bill. The opportunity presented itself because John went to meetups in the first place. John had an idea for doing a podcast that eventually morphed into the Nerd Journey podcast. 01:03:06 What’s a lesson learned the hard way? Not everyone is reasonable or sees the company as an important partner. John has had some confrontational interactions. It’s challenging to not take this kind of thing personally. You can only control your reactions to situations. 01:05:14 How has work-life balance been over the years? Nick was out of balance when he first started and still has spurts. In some ways working from home has been incredibly freeing. John says the most difficult thing has been managing how much he’s working. There is always something to do. It takes time to get better at this? Sometimes you have to choose to go to sleep and take care of yourself. 01:08:28 What would make you leave the company tomorrow? Ethical mismatch with what the company was doing Cultural gap between expectations and reality (i.e. "bro culture", discriminatory culture, etc.) Career issues Not being valued / recognized as a good team member Career dead end (builds up over time) / unable to progress Family issues None of these have ever been an issue. See also Episode 16 and Episode 17 for reasons not to pursue an opportunity. Contact us if you need help on the journey.