vExpert Program – What is it and what has it done for me?

What is the vExpert program and most importantly, what has it done for me? That’s what this blog post is about.

The video can be found here.

Here is the explanation of the vExpert program carefully quoted from their site: “The VMware vExpert program is VMware’s global evangelism and advocacy program. The program is designed to put VMware’s marketing resources towards your advocacy efforts. Promotion of your articles, exposure at our global events, co-op advertising, traffic analysis, and early access to beta programs and VMware’s roadmap. The awards are for individuals, not companies, and last for one year. Employees of both customers and partners can receive the awards. In the application, we consider various community activities from the previous year activities in determining who gets awards. We look to see that not only were you active but are still active in the path you chose to apply for.“

With that known (the rest is part of my kind of unlimited rambling in the above video), let me explain what the program has done for me, so far.

Through the vExpert progarm I made some friends. Not like work friends but actual friends. I’ve also met some other amazing people who have helped me with my blog posts. Lindy Collier is an amazing woman, we’re friends (at least I think we are) and she has helped me a lot with building my self-esteem to the point where I was able to talk in front of a small crowd (we all need to start somewhere, right?), let this be virtually or physically. Then we have Patrick Kremer and Troy Lindsay. They have helped me a lot with my VMware Cloud on AWS content and have done a lot to grant me the ability to do certain things that otherwise would not have happened. I’m sure they know what I mean.

Other than that I’ve also been given the chance to network, both professionally and personally, and am among some very smart people, who enjoy helping each other if any issues come up in terms of like weird bugs. I’m one of those that enjoy helping others.

That is what I have personally gotten from being three years in the program (at the time of writing this) as a young age (I believe I was 18 years old when I was accepted into the vExpert program.)

With that set, I would definitely recommend the program if you have an interest (and already have some groundwork laid out) in the VMware community.

If you have questions, feel free to contact me and/or a so-called vExpert PRO. We (as when writing this I am one) are there to answer any questions and even provide you some assistance with your application. You can see the full list here.

Thanks for reading! I hope I inspirered someone.