Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

How do I get to the next level?

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Every week I get an email from someone asking if I can mentor them, if I can help them get to the next level, if I can help them become a VCDX, if I can explain to them what I did to progress my career. I figured I would write an article for those who wonder what I did, this is not a magic formula by any means, following the same path and putting in the same amount of effort is no guarantee for success. There is also that thing called “being at the right place, at the right time” and of course seeing opportunities, grabbing opportunities and taking risks.

First and foremost, I don’t wake up on a Monday morning and all of a sudden know how Virtual SAN or Virtual Volumes (as an example) work. It all comes down to putting in hours. If you can’t be bothered freeing up time, or have a too busy family schedule don’t even bother reading past this point. (Edit: family life is important, when I say “too busy” I refer to not being able to free up time as a result (or excuse for that matter.))

My way of thinking changed about 9 years ago. I was a sys admin working for an insurance company and had just virtualized our own estate with a couple of colleagues. I knew that this was a unique platform and that there would be a lot of work in this space the years to come. I knew I wanted to know more about how it worked, how it didn’t work, how things interacted, how I should design around constraints. So what do you do? Well that is easy: read anything you can get your hands on. And read it until you understand it inside out. And if that means you need to read that paper about Transparent Page Sharing 18 times… then that is what you do. And I can tell you that some of the material I did have to read many many times before I fully grasped it.

So when I felt I had a decent foundation I went to the VMware community forums. (I read all Virtual Infrastructure and VMware Storage / Availability / Resource Management material I could find) So what did I do there? Well I spent a lot of time answering questions. If I did not know the answer I would simply pick up a manual and look it up. Most people are lazy when it comes to it, but I figured that by answering their question at least I get to learn something. First of course you answer the simple questions but then you start focusing on the tougher questions and you let the simple questions be. (Some get excited about getting a certain status on the community forums, I never really looked at that but if that is what drives you fine!) By answering questions and reading the answers from smart people like Jason Boche / Eric Siebert / Steve Beaver on the community forums you also get a better understanding of the constraints people have commonly, what challenges people are hitting, and what mistakes are being made over and over again.

Also, I personally decided to specialize in at least 1 thing. Now you don’t need to spend 10000 hours to be a specialist in something, but one thing is certain and that is that it will take time! vSphere HA was the first subject I tried to specialize in and then followed by things like Storage DRS / Storage IO Control and more recently new VMware storage initiatives like Virtual SAN. Why did I do this? Well mostly because I noticed I really enjoyed those features / products, but also because I felt there was a need for expertise on these matters. As a nice side-effect, it allowed me to meet with engineers and product managers, basically grow my network which is very very useful if you want to progress your career in to different areas.

Next for me then was sharing what I learned with others through a different platform then VMTN. There are many ways to do this, but I started with blogging. Blogging was fairly simple to get in to and it also allowed me to document solutions to problems I encountered. Also, when you start writing up problems and solutions you will notice you will need to understand how things work on a different level in order to simplify concepts. At least that is how I approach things. Of course there is also sharing within your company or the local community (VMUGs) through presentations. Sharing your thoughts / your knowledge / your experience through a presentation is not easy. I’ve struggled with that the most probably, as I was terrified of public speaking, and I regret not having forced myself to start doing that sooner and more frequent… But when I did start doing it more opportunities arose and more doors opened. Don’t make the same mistake, do this when ever you have the chance and wherever. Don’t feel you have to start at VMworld, or a VMUG even. This can be an internal presentation in front of your colleagues, or other like minded people. And just move up bit by bit if you feel insecure.

One thing along the way which has been instrumental in my career so far has been sharing feedback / knowledge / experience not just with other users / customers, but also internally with colleagues and within VMware with product managers and developers. (I realize that this is not something everyone is capable of doing) Do not forget this: if every conversation is a one way street you will notice that over time folks won’t bother any longer to help. You will need the help from others and you need to ask yourself what they get out of helping you, return in the favour in some shape or form… be appreciative of the time others invest in you!

Last but not least, do not expect your mentor to do your work for you. Do not expect him to hand you the answer on a silver platter. You will not get anything out of that, you will need to go through the motion to grow, that will take time, that will be uncomfortable and even painful at times… But when you do I am sure opportunities will arise. Keep your eyes open, grab those opportunities and don’t be afraid to take a risk every once in a while. Now, go and do it! 🙂

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Great stuff Duncan! The correlation between effort and results is undeniable. It’s always encouraging to the community to share the journey and tips. The classic quite of “the harder I work, the luckier I get” is absolutely true.

  2. Great article Duncan !! I want to be like you,really- when i started to work in IT with vmware i got into your page hundreds times while searching for some answer. I try to work 12h a day and hope to be as good in virtualization as You one day ! As they say in bodybuilding : no guts no glory 🙂

    Greetings from Poland !
    Wojtek

  4. Good hard lesson. One of the difficulties is compromising on is the time required to gain expert-level knowledge. It simply takes time to acquire the skill to be proficient in something. This means giving up something in your non-professional life. You may not be up on the latest football matches or be caught up on the nominees for best film at the Oscars, but you’ll have Open vSwitch down pat.

    That coupled with random luck is a solid path to success. Thanks for the reminder.

  6. Duncan, great learning from your blogs since an year or so… Also I’m glad to know the steps that you have taken to reach where you are today.

    Nishant

  7. Great article. And what if you study hard and put a lot of effort, but you don’t get the chance to put in practice at your job? Changing the job is an option, but what if there are no options?

    • I was in that position and changed job… It is a matter of waiting for the right opportunity to come by. Depending on where you live this could be more challenging of course. It wasn’t easy for me either to be honest.

  8. Great Article – one needs to go that extra degree to learn and get him/herself vertically aligned in a technology –

  9. Great advice, Duncan. If I may add 1 other piece of advice; get your company / boss on board with what you want to do. Having their support and assistance will immensely improve your ability to drive your career forward.

  11. Duncan great article I’ve been at VMware a little over a year and hit a few struggles and am now being mentored by someone. All of the key areas you hit we discussed. You have payed out the blueprints for anyone who wants to be successful. Now they have to just go out and want to do it. Everything comes with pain and sacrifice if you put in the time you will one day get the reward.

    • I was going to add more than that!!!!!. Its a good summary and sharing is a key part of growing personal and Technical Eminence. Mentoring is a great way to improve your network and to open new doors, but you still need to do the work once the door has been opened!.

  17. Really valuable read here. I will recommend it to others I talk to primarily because it doesn’t exclusively cover the VMware World. The most valuable thing I came across personally was indeed joining community forums and reading experts solutions – to start looking at how they troubleshoot things. And starting to answer questions myself.

    Although I also did this on Experts Exchange and Spiceworks forums.

    Great article and it is really helpful to keep these things in mind to move up in your career.

  18. Duncan, brilliant post. I like the point about reading 1000 times and bugging the engineers to understand what the heck it really means rather than assuming and getting it wrong. There is a big difference in understanding the concept and just skimming over and pretending to understand. And we all learn from you blog and sharing is a great way to spread the knowledge. It takes a great deal of effort to learn and teach /present to others.
    Kudos!

    –Ravi

    • Thanks Chad, I’ve always appreciated the candid conversations we had in the past. And although not on a regular basis, you’ve definitely been an inspiration and mentor for me.

  20. I dedicated a couple years to mentoring someone, with the hopes bestowing an much needed indispensable life skill. Turned out said person wasn’t ready to accept how hammering tech can be on someone. Fact is until you have accumulated the first 1k hours you wont be able todo anything correct, let alone have any-king of innate troubleshooting ability. However just enough knowledge was transferred allowing for the manipulation of the ignorant. Solidifying their delusions of grandeur. Instead of confronting the challenge of tech, being wrong all the time, and having seen the infinite depths of the high-tech knowledge abyss. Twas much easier for them to choose sociopath…or maybe something broke. Granted my efforts were futile, and i created a goblin techno-path; doesn’t mean I won’t try again. Passing judgement on tech is in my tool-set, running a pre-boot diag on carbon based life forms not so much.

    • I have had a similar experience with someone. It is a shame when this happens, but I learned a lot from it myself to be honest. It made me realize that not everyone is like me, and not everyone has the same drive / passion and is crazy enough to put in the same hours.

      • Your familiarity seeps through your text. Little did he know… truths between people, and their unique concept of quality due-diligence would be so frustratingly misaligned.

  21. Real world sysadmin work (and too crowded rooms) often prevents a deep reading of an article.
    Unfortunately, people often prefer to fly high on every topic.

    • I know that it isnt always easy… I spent a lot of time reading at home when everyone went to bed / was sleeping. Always up late figuring stuff out. I think I aged 15 years in 5 due the lack of sleep 😉

  23. At VMworld 2014 in San Francisco I attended an Ask the Bloggers session where you answered a question about success with just this answer. Although what you say is really a basic truth – put the time in and RTFM – this was really a huge take away from VMworld for me. I think that too many times people in this field will encounter an issue, Google the solution and then move on. To get a true depth of knowledge it all comes down to time and RTFM.

    I wanted to thank you for putting this out there though, this is excellent reinforcement for everyone in IT.

  24. Thanks for sharing with us Duncan.
    I think this is a very good mindset. From my point of vue, question is not how or what but really WHY. It all about passion. If the goal is just to become as-good-as-Duncan or as other VMware superstar, without passion, the road will be very long and hard. But learning about what we love waiting for an opportunity to evolve, being low profile when we dont know, convinced about what we do and loving to evangelize people… this road is exciting and make us happy. Not only the destination. That’s true your career is an exemple but i specially appreciate your humility. And BTW thank you for your worldwide number 1 reference blog.
    Stephane.

  25. This is a great article!. I changed my career field from Telecommunication to IT 2 years ago and this is what I need to read long time ago. Good advices that I will follow for sure. Thanks for sharing it.

  27. Thanks for the great write up Duncan. I’ve had many people ask me similarly how i got to where I have in IT and what they should do to get there too. It never ceases to amaze me how when you tell people about the reading, labbing, and the having a general passion for tech is how you got here, their eyes glaze over. Or the other case where they are always asking you (me) for opportunities to work or subcontract, but never willing to actually put the effort in on their own time to truly learn a technology.

    People, great IT Professionals are not born, they are made through countless battles, tomes and trials! Great write up mate!

  28. Thanks Duncan that was great article and advise. I learned ESXTOP, HA / DRS from your blog please continue your good work on bringing insight on all latest cool technology. I recently completed my VCAP5-DCA and preparing on DCD, I will return hungry for more knowledge.

    -Ravi

  29. I must say this was one of the great article I’ve read after very long time. Duncan you have clear the dust and keep up the good work.

  30. Great article Duncan. As a new VMware employee this has inspired me greatly.

  31. Awesome to read your story! It isn’t a simple path to follow and it takes hard work and a lot of passion. If your are not willing to invest, you will never get there.

  33. Hi Duncan,

    What a small world it is. We went to school together at Ecabo/SIOM in the ninetees.

    If I remember correctly you took the application programmer course.

    I decided an admnistrator would suffice (then).

    Greetings,
    Pim

  34. Thanks for writing this. I’ve shared it in my group on Facebook (and thanks for being a part of the group!) as I think it gives younger folks motivation and guidance. As virtualization expands to the entire Data Center, it becomes a much bigger world. As the data center is slowly being redefined in Software, so does the jobs. I wrote a piece of “prediction” on The Rise of SDDC Architect http://virtual-red-dot.info/rise-sddc-architect/ as I think the team formation is being redefined. There is an opportunity for tech folks to become more important in business.

  36. Well done – great article and one to share with my wider team. Some very good simple steps of taking the initiative and having a “can do” attitude messages.