VMware Announces vExperts for 2015 Second Half

vExpert-2015-BadgeYesterday, VMware announced the list of vExperts for 2015 Second Half and I am honored to be a part of that list.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, the “vExpert” designation is not based on technical expertise, but rather a recognition for excellent engagement and influence within the virtualization communities.  To quote directly from the program:

“Each of these vExperts have demonstrated significant contributions to the community and a willingness to share their expertise with others. Contributing is not always blogging or Twitter as there are many public speakers, book authors, script writers, VMUG leaders, VMTN community moderators and internal champions among this group.”

I am gracious and humbled to be considered an influencer in this community and this has reaffirmed my commitment to knowledge sharing.  I want to thank Corey Romero and the rest of the vExpert team.  Keep up the great work with this program.

Moving on towards the big picture

thebigpictureRecently I celebrated my 3 year mark with working at EMC.  In that time I went through the GSAP program (more info on my blog post of my 2 year anniversary), assisted customers in USD tech support, and most recently helped cultivate a proactive social support model for our team.  Over that time, I’ve only had to change desks once but changed managers 9 times.

 

Well I am proud to announce that as of Monday, February 11th, 2013, I will be changing desks and managers again.  I have accepted an opportunity to join EMC’s Social Media Marketing team!  This is the same great team that my friend Matt Brender joined a year ago and I am extremely excited to be working together again at EMC.

 

I’m not exactly sure what the future will hold with this job, and that is what attracted me to it.  I have been working with the team ad-hoc style for the past year already participating in brainstorming sessions for R.A.M.P and EMC Elect.  I can only imagine what projects and ideas will come in 2013 as a good amount of this job will be brainstorming and creating them.

 

While I am moving away from being dedicated to VNX, I plan to still stay heavily involved with the storage and virtualization communities and blog about new and exciting technologies as well as things I interact with as part of my new role.

My 2012 in review (and a look towards 2013)

2012I find myself on this new years eve (after digging out from 10 inches of snow) reflecting back on all that has happened this year.  Checking in with the old Google analytics website, this year I ranked in over 18,000 visits to my website.  That might not seem like much, but that’s a 3x growth over last year and I want to thank all of my readers for being a part of it!

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I think I’ve really started to find my voice for Thulin’ Around and have started to make it my own.  I’ve been leveraging the blog as I can in my role in EMC’s VNX support lab.  This would probably explain why my #1 post is still my LDAP post from 2011 (which was revisited in 2012 with a new post for the latest VNX software).

 

My employer also recognized what I do for the VNX community with my blog and listed me as part of their social media blogging core and I am honored to be in such great company as Chad Sakac and Jeramiah Dooley.

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Towards the end of the year, EMC launched a brand advocacy rewards program called EMC Elect and I was very happy to be nominated by my readers.  Having a great friend like Matthew Brender, I was able to see all that goes in to building out a project of this magnitude and I have a new found respect for the effort that is required behind the scenes.  The founding members that were selected are a great group of individuals and I believe they represent the principles and values that should be recognized as part of EMC Elect.

 

2012 was also a great year for shows and user groups for me.  I was able to travel to EMC World 2012 as part of the Ask the Expert program.  At these events, I was able to demonstrate another passion of mine, Photography.  I published 170 photos from EMC World 2012 and as more events rolled through, I continued to refine my technique and you can see a real difference in my photos from the EMC Forum Boston 2012.

 

Looking forward to 2013

So what does 2013 have in store for me?  Well I’m starting the year off with a long trip to Seattle, Washington.  There I will be assisting the Isilon support team transition over to the EMC Support tools and processes.  If you are in the Seattle area, lets meet up!  Just check my twitter feed to reach out to me.

 

I also expect to use social media more and more in my job role.  Without going into to much detail, I want to say that there is plenty going on behind the scenes to help develop and flesh out a proactive support model as well as a reactive support model.  Stay tuned to the @EMCSupport twitter account for more information and feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns about EMC products or your support experience.

 

I’m also looking forward to the results of EMC Elect nominations to see who was selected for 2013.  Fingers crossed that I am chosen, but if not, I know that those who will be chosen are well deserving of the title.

 

I also hope to be attending more conferences and user group meetings.  I am disappointed that I will miss the NEVMUG Winter Warmer, but there will be plenty more events in 2013 for me to join in on.  I’ve already started planning some ideas EMC World 2013.

 

As always, I like to hear from my readers and followers.  What did you like about 2012?  Was there anything on my blog that you really liked / disliked?  What are you looking forward to in 2013?  Let me know in the comments and have a happy new year!

I Tech Therefore I Tool Around – The Podcast

I think the title says it all. If you’ve been paying attention to my twitter feed, it’s no secret that Matt Brender and I have been working on a Podcast. We have always had great banter between the two of us and now we have the chance to share it with the rest of you. In this first episode, we cover the subject of certifications. We debate how worth while it is to get certifications in todays job market and how a resume looks to perspective employers.

This is our first podcast, so the editing might be a little rough, but the content is pure gold.  I had a great time debating with Matt and i think it showes in the content.  I learned a lot about the creative process and planning that goes into a podcast and i hope to put it to good use in future episodes.  Let me know what you think about it in the comments below and be sure to tune into our next podcast where Matt and I talk about home labs.

Matt has also written a blog post on this which can be read here.

Click HERE to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes!

DOWNLOAD BELOW:
I Tech Therefore I Tool Around – Episode 01