Mike Laverick Honors Me with a Post

The famous, vEXPERT, VMware Trainer, famous blogger, and a famous VMware Guide writer that mentored to many of us as we have used VMware the past 9-10 years has honored me with a mention on my blog. You can see post here. We converse a lot via email and I first met Mike at VMworld events. We got to chat even more when he was a featured speaker at the 2008 NC/SC VMware Summit event, of which I was a speaker that year as well. He returned as the featured speaker to the 2009 NC/SC VMware Summit event and I attended nothing but Technical Breakout discussion which he particated in all day. He has really been a big help in my career focus on Virtualization and VMware.

I mention this not to pat myself on the back, but honor Mike and his efforts and all those bloggers out there that share their knowledge with us all. Also, I think a very interesting blog post from Yellow-Bricks.com dealing with why he (Ducan Epping) blogs and his thoughts about the why you should consider doing it as well are very relevant.  A few key statements from Ducan:

• ...decided to look back and try to convince you why voicing your opinion/views and sharing knowledge is important for your personal development and career
• I personally think everyone can benefit from blogging in terms of personal development
• For me the main driver has always been "documenting my experiences" and gaining knowledge
• Of course everyone who blogs hopes their blog will be a success and is out for some form of recognition and or visibility
• Another reason to "why" start blogging is visibility. I did multiple projects where the customer specifically requested me as the consultant delivering it because they read my articles
• First and foremost for personal development, increasing technical skills, knowledge and expertise. This should always be your prime driver
• Just three months after I started blogging I was asked to take on the Technical Team Lead job role. Two months later I had a job interview with VMware and almost 12 months later I was asked to take on the Practice Lead job role. I'm not saying this is only because of the blogging but I am confident that blogging helped me improve my technical skills, knowledge, expertise and increased my confidence

For me, I started blogging in 2006 mainly as a way to start sharing knowledge I had gained and I wanted to give back to those just getting started much like Mike Laverick had done for my career. I was also using it as a means for those I worked with to learn more without flooding their mailboxes. At times though I have not given it the time I needed too. In 2010, my pledge is to start REALLY blogging and sharing personal knowledge and experiences in greater detail. I also want the coveted vEXPERT award as I have been doing this a long time and feel like I should qualify (I totally didn't notice the nomination process last year). If you haven't heard of this you should be using http://virtualization.alltop.com/ to stay informed as well from many of the top bloggers. So my list would look like this:

• give back to the community of those starting out in Virtualization and VMware or want to get better at it
• share interesting news and information from other blogs that I feel are important
• document what we are doing at Novant and obstacles, technologies, workarounds for issues that we run into
• gain knowledge
• personal and professional development
• recognition as an expert in the technology (I have certifications as well;VCP2,VCP3,VCP4) but I think real-world experience is best!
• increase technical skills, I spend a lot of time reviewing lots of virtualization blogs--you can learn a LOT from these sites!
• career development and exposure-along with sites like Linked-In

And I can say blogging does all this. Just in first few weeks of 2010 I have had 3 solid job offers. I love the role I am in at Novant now as the Virtualization Lead (still waiting on that title and pay though). With this role I and designing and building a technology that is strategically important to Novant and the health care and patients and customers we serve. Virtualiziation should be a top strategy your company is involved with as well!

Stay tuned!