NickThe Power of a Tweet
In September of 2011 I started studying for the VCP5 exam. I used many materials as an aid throughout the process, including Scott Lowe‘s Mastering vSphere books, Cody Bunch‘s vBrownBag recordings, and Duncan Epping‘s Clustering Deepdive books. One particular Sunday evening I mentioned my study on twitter, little did I know that this tweet would change my life!
“Just reading VMware Clustering Deepdive, with a glass of red.” — @nickmarshall9
At the time I was working as an internal IT guy at a large mining, engineering and train manufacturing company in Australia. I wasn’t satisfied with where my career prospects were taking me, so I decided to put my head down and learn as much about VMware products as I could. The dream was that one day I may even be able to work for them. As I got more engrossed in the VMware study, I found more resources and more people willing to help out with getting me certified, I found a community that I am now forever indebted to.
Another seemingly random tweet (at the time) would also have a big, big impact:
“These BrownBag videos should be on iTunes.” — @nickmarshall9
Getting involved with this community has made not just an impact on me, but also my friends, family and colleagues too. I’ve had many opportunities to grow both professionally and personally due to experiences I never dreamed of having. Being involved at conferences, online events and lots of social gatherings has given me many memories with really great people.
On a day in December in 2012, Scott Lowe tweeted that he was looking for someone that might be interested in helping him with a project. At the time I thought “yeah, I could give some more back to this great community” and tweeted back:
“Your timing couldn’t be more perfect.” — @nickmarshall9
I can pinpoint those three tweets to having some of the most impacting and influential repercussions on not just my life, but my family too. Let me explain…
Duncan, if you had not of tweeted me back when I was reading your book, I may have not noticed the volume of people on twitter that got me in love with the VMware Community.
Cody, if you had not of asked me to take the vBrownBag videos and make them into a podcast, I wouldn’t have have been a “known VMware guy” in the community that led to my initial employment at VMware.
Scott, if you had not of “paid it forward” by handing the Mastering VMware vSphere book over to me last year I wouldn’t of made the contacts in VMware that has led to my new job.
Did you catch that? Yes I have a new job! I can finally let a secret out that’s been simmering away since last year! I’m moving to Palo Alto (from Sydney) to join the Product Management team at VMware. I’ll be responsible for roadmap and integration of vCloud Suite and I start in early April.
So to all three of you, Duncan, Cody and Scott… THANK YOU. Your commitment, dedication and openness is very much appreciated. Not just by me, but I think I speak on behalf of the rest of the VMware community too.