Welcome to episode 114 of the Nerd Journey Podcast [@NerdJourney]! We’re John White (@vJourneyman) and Nick Korte (@NetworkNerd_), two Pre-Sales Technical Engineers who are hoping to bring you the IT career advice that we wish we’d been given earlier in our careers. In today’s episode we discuss career insight from the manager lens in part 2 of our interview with Brad Christian.
Original Recording Date: 03-16-2021
Topics – Becoming a Manager, Managing Up, Safety Nets, and Finding Talent
Brad Christian is a Solution Engineering Manager in the Networking and Security Business Unit at VMware. Catch part 1 of our interview with him in Episode 113.
2:06 – Individual Contributor to Manager

* Brad received a call from Sean Howard asking if he wanted to come work on NSX at VMware. Brad found out he got the job and knew he could not continue running VMUG despite loving it.

* He felt like he had been drafted for a pro sports team.
* Brad got in and worked on a new product (NSX) and learned a ton.
* It was like climbing a mountain. You rest at the top and catch your breath a little.

* Going to work for a manufacturer like VMware is not for everyone. You have to enjoy working with people.

* Brad understood he liked being in Sales and got energy from meeting with customers and more importantly solving their problems.
* If meeting with people in this way takes energy away from you, this field is not for you.

* There are many paths to pursue to get more money. At the end of the day we are taking care of our families. Brad ended up in leadership.

* Brad would have laughed at someone who told him he should go into leadership 10 years ago.
* In the Dallas County days he went through leadership training.

* He came to understand that with a team you can widen the impact and scope of what you can accomplish, especially with a high performance team.
* At the county the biggest problem is people just being there for the paycheck.

* Brad learns a great deal from his current team and considers himself a servant.
* He and warns against being pushy or having the idea that you’re going to be the "big man." Regardless of the company, no one is going to put up with that.
* Brad’s goal is to remove impediments from the team and help them do their job better. If you can do that and enjoy it and hold onto your technical skills a little, you can be successful.

* Cross over skills from the VCDX?

* Brad re-emphasizes the need to understand how the tech helps a business.
* Right now Brad is trying to understand how SaaS and subscription affects revenue bookings. It’s a challenging problem compared to perpetual licenses.

* You will still keep learning technical things, but enterprise architecture hammered into Brad that there must be a justification for everything to the business.

* He could not have done VCDX without all the folks who helped with feedback on his design. It was humility to take advice that directly translated to leadership.
* John mentioned being a manager means you give up on being the best at everything. The people interactions Brad had also helped.

12:22 – Managing Up and Safety Nets

* When you become a boss, it’s not like you think it is.