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So you want to work in Technical Marketing or other associated roles - cover image

So you want to work in Technical Marketing or other associated roles?

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Does working in Tech Marketing appeal to you? Or another associated role, maybe DevRel, or a similar title?

Are you looking for the next career ladder step, or do you already have your heart set on this goal?

Yeah, I’ve been there, too, and as time passes, I’ve considered writing this post for a while.

Why? I think it’s because I like the sound of my keyboard clacking away as I type words. No, in all seriousness, I’ve been in this role for a while now, and somewhere on this timeline, I believed I had something worth sharing.

There’s also a slight irony highlighted to me in writing a blog post on this subject of being a blog post writer; maybe I should record a video, too!

Figuring out why you want this role!

If there is one piece of advice I can give anyone with their heart and mind set on a specific next role, it’s to figure out why you want that particular role. And be completely honest with yourself, whether it’s money, getting away from a shitty boss or colleagues, furthering your experiences, or even just because it’s an interim step to something else.

Most people I know who work in the technology field at some point want or have wanted to work in the role generally known as “Technical Marketing”, myself included (and currently I do).

Most of the time, it stems from meeting someone in the role, either at a conference or watching a presentation delivered by someone in this role. Next, you learn about the supposed glitz and glamour of the role, the travel to various conference rooms across the area, maybe even the globe, working with your latest favourite technologies, and seemingly endless knowledge about a particular area.

You may pick up a slight sense of sarcasm in that last paragraph, and that’s because I remind myself of the rose-tinted glasses I wore looking on at those who worked in vendor-land as I yearned to make a move across. Unfortunately, I have to dispel a myth for you now. It’s not all first-class flights, full-expense trips, and parties across the globe; sometimes, you must create PowerPoint presentations!

I already do the tech marketing role anyway, kind of!

Continue reading So you want to work in Technical Marketing or other associated roles? →

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Interview – Joe Baguley, VMware EMEA CTO

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A while ago, I had the brilliant idea to interview people and peer from the IT industry, from different area’s, such as end users/customers, resellers, and vendors. So to kick this off, I started by asking around those who I know in the community.

First up is Joe Baguley of VMware, to many he needs no introduction, after countless keynote speeches at various conferences, and a stalwart in the IT community.

Below I stumbled on a picture of Joe pre-beard, chickens and cats from 2009.

Joe Baguley prebeard

So a lot of people will know you from events, and the keynote speeches you give (Chickens and cats), but outside of that, can you give us an insight into the other things you work in?

Customers and strategy.  I essentially manage and maintain communication between our field folks and R&D. Whether that is meeting with CIOs and their teams at our customers myself, or working with the CTO Ambassadors here at VMware who help me scale that role, mostly I spend my time keeping on top of what is and isn’t working, what our customers and the market are doing and planning to do and making sure we are all doing the right things.  I spend time with our R&D leaders and our Sales & Technical leaders to keep things together.  Both sides look to me for opinion and thoughts on what is going on, and the best way to approach things.

If we look at the big vendors in IT, Dell are merging with EMC, HP split into two distinct companies and offloaded their professional services arm, IBM offloaded their hardware to Lenovo.  What things should we expect on the horizon for big changes with the big companies? Continue reading Interview – Joe Baguley, VMware EMEA CTO →