I’ve recently reached an exciting milestone. I became a VMware vExpert!
vExpert is a program run by VMware, it’s for people that want to give back to the VMware community, which can be done via a multitude of ways one of them being blogging like this very website. Anyone and everyone can apply, I highly encourage you to apply.
To fully understand why this is an important milestone in my life, we need more context. Computers and technology have always fascinated me. I look at everything with the mindset of trying to understand how and why something works. What does it take to break it? And what does it take to fix it?
I feel like I’ve always had some form of a home lab, at the time I had no idea what a home lab was. To me, it was just some computers that I could play with and break and fix and learn with. Almost all of what I know today is all self-taught from doing exactly that.
They say you never stop learning and I fully believe that. I am constantly learning new things and improving what I know.
My Path Forward
Some time ago, I decided to change my website into my notebook about tech things. My reasoning for this is to remember how I did something and, I want to give back to the internet as there have been countless times where other websites just like mine have helped solve a problem or taught me something.
After changing my blog real people started commenting on my posts, and I gained a new friend, Stephen Wagner who runs his own tech blog just like mine. You can find his blog here https://www.stephenwagner.com.
Stephen is vExpert Pro and he saw that my blog has VMware content, he told me about the vExpert program. I had no idea the vExpert program existed. He encouraged me to apply and helped me with the whole application process.
He also told me about VMUG (VMware User Group) which is for people that want to nerd out about VMware. VMUG also has smaller localized groups. They even have one for my city! I’ve only been to a few of the events that my local VMUG has put on, and all of them have been very informative and fun! I’ve learned a ton from the events and even made a few more new friends.
Honestly, I didn’t think I would get vExpert. I felt like my content was too basic when compared to other tech blogs.
Even thought vExpert isn’t a technical certification it’s the first genuine recognition that my contributions to the internet are useful. I was even awarded the code warrior badge! You can see my vExpert profile here.
This is all a very long-winded way of saying I’ve very happy to now be a part of the vExpert community and to call myself a vExpert.
You can be a vExpert too!
If you want to join the vExpert community you should apply! Here’s the link to apply https://vexpert.vmware.com/
There’s even a cheat sheet to make your application to vExpert perfect. You can check that out here.
VMUG is also a great resource for VMware licenses to use in a home lab for like 200$ USD. Which is insanely cheap for the amount of licenses you get. You can see a list of all the licenses here.
If you’ve been thinking about starting a tech blog, or a home lab, or applying for vExpert consider this your sign to do it!
