Well... How about that... I was accepted as a vExpert this time around!! I am really proud and excited to be part of this awesome community.
I'm sure that some people might wonder "how the heck did HE get to be a vExpert?? There's nothing on his blog." And they're not wrong... as you can see, I only have 1 other post, and it's an old one simply introducing myself. The good news is you don't need to be a blogger in order to become a vExpert!
So, what did I do? There are 4 possible paths to becoming a vExpert.
- The Evangelist path - this path would be for your public figures... authors, bloggers, public speakers, etc.
- The VMware Partner Network path - This would be for employees of companies that are VMware Partners
- The VCDX path - For VCDX certification holders
- The Customer Path - This is for VMware Customers that are willing to be advocates for VMware within their company, provided customer references, participated in interviews for blog posts/media/etc, and just been an overall champion for VMware.
I decided to go for the customer path. A large part of this has come from my participation in the VMware Champions community. I learned about this and joined up at last years VMworld. It's a community that occasionally posts "challenges" to complete, and rewards you with points that can be turned in towards different VMware Champions branded gifts. Most of all though, it is used to educate customers, and these "challenges" have connected me with various people allowing me to participate in IDC interviews, and be used as a customer reference for different VMware products that I already use every day.
I also try to keep active on my twitter account. Don't think that you need to tweet any profound revelation, just be sure to follow the various VMware accounts, other vExperts, etc and like/retweet any content that you find interesting and want to help spread the word.
Basically, to sum up, BE ACTIVE in the community! I'm proof positive that you don't have to be a popular blogger (or even blog at all) in order to be accepted. Just be an active community member and VMware advocate!