What Is Your Worth?
The average person changes jobs 12 times in their career, averaging out to around once every 4 years. Seem like a lot? Well, in IT it is often even more frequent, but most tech people could not tell you what half of their compensation plan really means to them in the long term. Have you wondered if you should ask for more equity or more salary? Should you be asking about base plus bonus? What’s the bonus based on? Is it actually a sales commission? Is there a retirement matching plan? How much does the cost of healthcare weigh into your total comp plan? If you did get some equity, do you know the difference between a RSU and an option? Do you know what vesting means?
Normally people claim you can’t talk about money – it’s taboo! – but do you care what your colleague makes or do you just want your compensation to be fair? We think it’s about time some of the darker side of these discussions to come into the light. Everyone on the panel has succeeded once or twice and failed in negotiating at least that many times and have all agreed to be an open book. (We do ask you don’t share all the bloody details on Twitter, because that’s just not classy.)
So if any of those questions above were either totally confusing or mildly intriguing, then you should join us for a lively panel around how the group has either succeeded or failed when negotiating the next next move. Or maybe you are just curious what we think success means, it doesn’t matter the reason why you come but hopefully our small session will give you some insight into how you can do better for your family, your career, and in this case most importantly, your wallet.
“Financial Matters in IT Careers” will be featured during Opening Acts at 3p on Sunday, August 25, 2019, and includes Jeramiah Dooley (@jdooley_clt), Jeff Polczynski, Ron Singler (@rsingler_), Jody Tyrus (@jtyrus), John Marrone (@jjmarrone), Josh Atwell (@josh_atwell), and Josh de Jong (@eurobrew) as panelists.
— Michael Letschin (@mletschin), Moderator
Career Compass
Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. —Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
When Ferris Bueller spoke those words, he was referring to the adventure he was going to have while skipping a day of school; little did he realize that it would echo life in IT. Most start with a few interests and skills, such as break/fix or helpdesk. As you get involved with other tech, you learn skills accordingly. Maybe learn some PowerShell, networking, storage, or other skills along the way and get into a SysAdmin job. What’s this virtualization stuff? Should you learn about VMware or AWS? How about containers? You ask yourself, “Do I want to learn how to code?” Where is this all going, and how do I know where to focus my energies to advance my career? With all of these options available, it can be very confusing. Understanding the landscape and how to navigate through these varying skills and technologies can be a daunting task. But there is good news: help is available!
On Sunday, August 25th, I will be at Opening Acts 2019, the premier tech community roundtable event before VMworld US in San Francisco. I will be moderating the 1:00 PM panel titled “Where are our careers going?” As you read above, there are many pivots one can make in their career as new technologies and training become available. We will be discussing the future of work in technology, where we see the upcoming trends, and how to gain the skills and abilities to take advantage of the shifting sands of the technology landscape.
We have some amazing panelists lined up from across the industry to lend their perspectives and insights, such as Tracee Edgmon, Stu Miniman (@stu), John White (@johna_white), Steve Kaplan (@stvkpln), Mandy Botsko-Wilson (@virtualMBW), and the incomparable Scott Lowe (@scott_lowe). If you are in San Francisco on Sunday afternoon, I hope that you will stop by the Tabletop Taphouse at 1:00 PM and attend our panel at Opening Acts 2019. I look forward to seeing you and engaging in some great conversations.
—Tim Antonowitz (@timantz), Moderator
Sponsor Guest == VIP
Although we already think there are plenty of good reasons for you to talk to our sponsors, here’s another one: sponsor guests will be treated to special “pre-game” access to the party from 7:30pm to 8pm, after which the “main party” begins and anyone with a ticket may be admitted.
That’s right: get cozy with one of our sponsors and not only do you save $10, but you get 30 minutes of private access to the eats, drinks, and conversation before the place gets crazy.
T-minus One Month
Well, we’re one month out from the start of VMworld 2019 US, as well as Opening Acts and VMunderground.
Probably a good time to get the tickets & such out there, eh?
Your wish is my command…
Opening Acts Reservations: https://vsquaredb.ticketleap.com/opening-acts-2019/
VMunderground Tickets: https://vsquaredb.ticketleap.com/vmunderground-2019/
As in previous years, we’re limiting the number of tickets any person can acquire at one time. If you want more rules & blah-blah-blah, then scroll back through previous years‘ ticket release info. TL;DR: Don’t bogart the tickets; buy one for yourself, and let others fend for themselves.
Let it be known…
Opening Acts and VMunderground will be held at
Tabletop Tap House
175 4th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
http://tabletopsf.com/
If that seems like a new location, but you recognize the address, you’re not wrong: the last time VMworld was in San Francisco, the space was a restaurant called “Jillian’s” and was the site of VMunderground back in 2012. It has been rebranded as a tap house, and some remodeling has been done, but it’s still well within the “walking distance” circle for the Moscone-area hotels.
2019 US… It’s happening!
Save the date: Sunday, August 25, 2019
The crew has been working since the beginning of the year, and we’re stoked to announce that we’ll be moving back to San Francisco along with the rest of the VMworld US activities.
As we’ve done in recent years, we’ll be standing up a set of panel sessions (Opening Acts) in the afternoon, then flip the venue (TBA) for a party (VMunderground) in the evening.
Keep an eye on this space for more details, but now that registration is open–and you’re feverishly looking for a hotel room–keep our schedule in mind when you book your travel.
Looking forward to seeing you in August!
Opening Acts 2018 – Panel Videos Posted
In case you weren’t able to view the videos live, we made sure to capture and post the videos for you. There’s some great information shared by our panelists, so check them out!
2018 Skills for IT (including Opening Acts Sponsor: Veeam) – https://youtu.be/9fiGiSUcGOg
Tips for Multi-Cloud Success – https://youtu.be/oGMiCPTccvg
Opening Acts Sponsor: VMware vSAN – https://youtu.be/pfCIK5YU4jg
Beating IT Burnout – https://youtu.be/D2CMVJQPZio
2018 Opening Acts—Live Stream
Of course, the best way to experience Opening Acts is live-and-in-person, joining in on the interaction with panelists and peers. But if you’re unable to come, either because of conflicting meetings at VMworld, or you’re unable to join in the fun in Las Vegas, we’ve got you covered: we’ll be recording and live-streaming the panel sessions for “place- & time-shift” content consumers.
We’ll post links to the recorded content at a later time, but the live stream will be available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJJJ_9C_vkE
Opening Acts 2018—Why Are There So Many Clouds in My Infrastructure?
If there’s one word that sums up the current state of IT, it would be “complexity.” With so many moving pieces needed to support a company’s applications and data, it’s no wonder there are so many companies aiming to solve this mess. But we’re not going to get into that (there’s plenty of marketing messages already covering this).
The topic we’ll be discussing during the Tips for Multi-Cloud Success panel at Opening Acts 2018 is a relatively new wrinkle in the IT complexity puzzle: having to manage multiple clouds. We’ve all heard the stories of shadow IT: marketing departments swiping their credit cards for Software as a Service applications and developers running up tabs on AWS, but now we have official uses of public cloud infrastructure: VMs running in Azure, email being hosted by Office 365, and backup/DR to the cloud solutions. And all of this is on top of our on-premises virtual infrastructure and/or private cloud.
But is this multi-cloud future inevitable? What does the future of IT look like with multiple clouds running our applications and data? Our panelists will discuss how we got into this situation, what it’s likely to mean to all of us, and how we get our arms around all of these different and disparate extensions to our infrastructure. Any well-run infrastructure is built on solid management tools and processes, so they’ll also discuss how our tools and processes will need to change in order to properly manage these extended IT components.
Other questions we expect our elite group of panelists might discuss:
- Are there particular cloud providers that people have had greater success with? Which uses cases are each best suited for?
- What if our migration to the cloud fails? What does it take to move back or to another cloud?
- How are VMware and other traditional on-premises vendors helping to ease this new paradigm?
- What skillsets should we all be focusing on building/improving to best equip ourselves for this?
- What about security and cost?!?
Speaking of panelists, here’s who we’ll have on stage to help answer these questions:
- Moderating: Stu Miniman – @stu
- David Burton – @HeyvBurt
- Joshua Stenhouse – @joshuastenhouse
- Phoummala Schmitt – @ExchangeGoddess
- Brian Knudtson – @bknudtson
- Tim Jabaut – @timjabaut
Whether you fear the cloud or not, this is a topic I expect many people will have to deal with in the next several years. Bring your questions and experiences, and join this information packed session.
2018 “last minute stuff”
We’re one week out from VMworld 2018 US, which also means we’re one week out from Opening Acts and VMunderground. And while you may have become tired of advice, suggestions, and “before you go” tweets, blogposts and emails, we need to get this one out to everyone planning on attending our community events…
Opening Acts and VMunderground are two very different events at the same great venue. Review the information on the respective info “perma-pages” for timing and logistics for each event.
While we hope these pages are pretty comprehensive, we have thrown in some last-minute changes to VMunderground and some logistic requests to share.
First: Thanks to the generous support of VTUG, we’re opening to our sponsors and their guests at 7pm for an hour-long pre-party.
General admission for the party—whether you have a purchased ticket or a free entry thanks to a sponsor—is from 8pm to midnight.
Second: Although both Opening Acts and VMunderground are “come-and-go” events, we ask that you show respect for panelists and attendees at Opening Acts by minimizing your entry and exit while the sessions are in progress.
Finally: Both of these events are community-organized and community-attended. We hope that you’ll enjoy meeting new friends and re-acquainting yourself with old friends! If you’re anything like me, however, you may have trouble connecting faces and names (and Twitter handles!) with people you only get to see in person once a year. For that reason, you should plan to wear your conference badge so that people can take advantage of the (maybe not so) subtle cue on who you are.
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