Like at an “AA Meeting”: Hello, I’m Matt, and I’m a vSpecialist.

Hi, Matt.

When I joined EMC last December, I became part of a team of vSpecialists. Team 001 began our intense training into the depth of EMC product lines in January. We seemed to bond immediately. It was trial by fire. There were so many people from so many areas of expertise. I had many questions. “Would I be able to keep up” was probably the biggest of the them. We all got along. It was really surprising that such an array of personality types and skill sets could actually be brought together with a common goal. Our management seemed to pull people from all over with a full compliment of skills. Sales, engineering, storage, VMWare, development, and even people from inside the organization. By doing this, they ensured that the vSpecialists would have as many areas covered as possible. My own particular experience comes from the customer side. I have been a customer for the previous 6 years, and prior had consulted for another 4 in VMWare, and previously approximately 10 years of Citrix consulting.

I really hadn’t explored blogging on my own. It seemed to me that bloggers were either people who were geniuses or idiots. I actually knew people on both ends of the spectrum. Since joining EMC, I’ve met so many people who blog, people from the genius side, but also from the real world who have real experience, and simply want to share these experiences that I find the idiots to be the minority. In fact, It seems as though those folks are the ones who drop away. After all, who’d want to read the ramblings of someone who doesn’t have something to say? They don’t have the staying power.

I will likely be spending time talking about the technologies on which I’m working, the other blogs I’m reading, maybe some of the podcasts to which I’m listening. While I’m at it, I may find myself discussing movies, music and books, because I can’t be all about the work, you know?

I am sure that at times, I will reference some of my teammates. Believe me, the vSpecialists are the cream of the crop. We get to work on the best technology on earth, with the best management and the best customers. I find myself amazed every day that I get to be here and do this work. It seems as though I’ve been working all my adult life towards a job that I never ever knew existed. These are some of the best people in the industry.