VMware, Where My Career Began
“Screen on the Green”, circa 2015. Employees were invited to bring their families to watch a family-friendly film on a large screen in front of Hilltop E.
When I first joined VMware in 2014, I didn’t imagine I would end up staying with the company for 9 years. I finished most of my undergrad curriculum in 2008, during the Great Recession which Forbes noted as, “the worst economic downturn in the U.S. since the Great Depression.” Imagine leaving college, ready to take on the world, and unable to find a job. I was already behind compared to my peers because I attended community college before attending state. I was ready to start working and the timing was not great. From 2008 until I joined VMware in 2014, after 6 years of trying to catch a break, I found myself at a new job nearly every year or two if I was lucky.
My first foray into high-tech was with Cisco. I was a contractor and didn’t get paid well, nor treated well for that matter. I wasn’t happy doing clerical work at Cisco and wanted to pivot into tech. My then-boyfriend, now husband, encouraged me to read the “UNIX Linux System Administration Handbook”. I was interested in technology and although it was very dense reading, I was somehow grasping it. One day at work, I remember seeing a sign about a Linux talk in Building 9. This piqued my curiosity and so, I went during my break. There was so much energy and excitement as I entered the room. On stage was a product manager doing a demo of Puppet. My eyes lit up, I was fascinated…I was hooked.
Fast forward to 2014, two years after I watched the automation demo, I sat to interview with the Sr. Director of Engineering for Automation at VMware. I recall telling him I had read the white paper on VMware’s Cloud Automation and told him about diving into the sys admin handbook and my fascination with Puppet. I’m not certain if that had anything to do with me landing the gig, but I was genuinely interested in Cloud Management and wanted to be part of the that was involved with Automation. That there, is why my career truly began at VMware.
For the past 9 years, VMware provided me with an opportunity for GROWTH. All caps. My career started as an Executive Assistant, supporting Product Managers, Product Marketers, and Engineers, including the Sr. Director I interviewed with. I witnessed many people join, leave, and return to VMware. Many of whom I made impactful friendships with. They attended my wedding, became God Parents to my children, and some are my dearest friends. Looking back, we had some of the most talented engineers, marketers, and product managers at VMware. Many of the people I worked with at VMware taught me a thing or two about being EPIC2. One might say I fell into marketing. Once the bug bit, I knew I needed to make a strong pivot. I had the opportunity to product market for VMware Skyline, a proactive support service for VMware products. So many of our customers loved our products and product testimonials seemed to come easy. I then joined the Customer & Community Marketing org at VMware where we created customer-centric content. I enjoyed every minute of learning at VMware.
Inside each one of us is a fear of failure. Every time I learned something new at VMware, I was afraid, but also willing to jump in with both feet. My former manager said that I was inclined to GSD. I had no idea what she meant. Was it our common fondness for dogs? When I asked for clarification she said, “getting shit done”. Ah. I attribute that tenacity and willingness from my environment. I learned from the best at VMware. The culture was collaborative, supportive, and also full of integrity. We all had a common goal, which was a commitment to our customers by freeing them from constraints and facing their technological challenges head-on. I very occasionally discuss this with my tribe of former and current executive assistants and we all seem to agree that at the end of the day, we care about our customers too. Those of us at VMware who might not have developed the software, positioned the messaging, or even POC’d the solution, all had similar values that were tied to the customer.
My career DNA seems to have been imprinted at VMware and I am not ashamed of it.
