Drinking from the firehose

 

A favorite movie from my high school years was Weird Al Yankovic’s UHF.  Seriously, if you have never seen it, there is a treasure trove of one liners and perfectly timed bit comedic performances. For the vast majority of the world, it was their first exposure to Michael Richards aka Kramer from Seinfeld. Now there is a scene in the film where Richards as “Stanley Spadowski” was given his own children’s TV Show, and as a reward for “finding the marble in the oatmeal” a young contestant won a drink from the fire hose. Seriously, for the last 3 weeks I’ve felt like that kid.

Making the transition from end user administration and computing to the world of RAM’s, Channels, partner exchanges, demos, briefings, weekly team calls, etc. has been an eye opener to say the least. Not to mention, you are trying to learn an entire companies product line is as little time as possible because the sales group  (inside, channel, direct, etc) all are chomping at the bit to get you out in front of customers as soon as possible. It’s a lot to take in. To say it’s overwhelming is an understatement, but it’s also exhilarating. So far no two days have been the same, and I’m getting to meet really smart people and I’m also getting to see an entire different side of IT. Working and implementing technology on a daily basis can tend to insulate you from the challenges that are faced from the side that actually has to pitch, sell, and support those systems.

Interoperability between vendors, support statements, target markets, and a whole host of new terminology and practices and procedures for daily operations are introduced. I think one of the most challenging things I’ve faced is how I craft an answer to a customer. You really have to choose your words wisely and take into account a plethora of information and apply it in a manner that reflects well on the company you represent, as well as yourself and your product line. It’s something that as a designer and administrator you may not necessarily have to give as much thought too.

So if blogging has been light, it’s because I’ve been pouring through slide decks, white papers, and tech manuals. All of this also while I try to craft my first session submittal for VMworld this year. Talk about biting off more than one can chew J

 

This entry was posted in Sales Engineering, VMWare. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.