One of the favourite parts of my role over the last few years has been my involvement in tech community, whether that’s been working with advocacy groups like the NetApp A-Team, with local user groups like TechUG, presenting at a range of different community events or just answering questions in technical communities, all of these investments (and they are investments) have paid back, they’ve introduced me to great people, given me access to resources and expertise I would never have found normally and opened up great opportunities for travel and too develop some great friendships.
We are fortunate to be part of an industry that does have a strong sense of community, full of people with shared interests and a passion for their subject, a passion they are often happy to share with anyone who’s interested.
One of the challenges with tech community is however its size and if you are new to it or even a part of it, it can be overwhelming and hard to know where to start? How do you find the resources you need, find out which events you can attend or find out who the leaders are that you can engage with?
Last year I was invited to get involved in a project called “Level Up”, a project started by this week’s guest on the podcast Yadin Porter de Leon, Yadin has been on the show before in his capacity at data protection company Druva, however that’s not what we discuss this week as we chat about the Level Up project, why he started it, the project aims and how it can help you in your career.
In this week’s episode we discuss why you may want to get involved in community and what benefits it can bring and how involvement in the wider community can benefit both you and your business providing you with opportunities to develop your skills.
Yadin shares how one of the focuses of the project is to engage those who are not already involved in community and provide them a way to get started.
We look at Level Up’s first project the vTrail Map a fantastic guide to the world of VMware and the virtualisation community and we also look ahead to what’s next for the project and the longer terms aims.
We wrap up by asking Yadin about another project he is involved in which is the excellent Tech Village Podcast, again focussed on career development and the technology business, a great show which I’d recommend anyone gets on their regular podcast list you can find the show on Soundcloud and follow the show on twitter @TechVillagePod
For more information on Level Up, you can find them on twitter @Tech_LevelUp
You can also contact Yadin on twitter @porterdeleon
Hope you find the show interesting and if you’re not already involved in tech community maybe this will give you a bit of inspiration to involve yourself more, it’s most definitely worth it.
Thanks for listening.
Techstringy 