A few months ago, I wrote a post about how being a part of the technology community has positively impacted my career. If you haven’t read that, now is a great time to go back and catch a “best of” the blog and read – if nothing else – that one post because I think it’s going to become more important over the next year than even I had anticipated when writing it.
One of my favorite groups in the community: VMUG Leaders!
(I’m in there somewhere…)
I have been fortunate enough to be able to give a lot of interviews to blogs, podcasts, and even traditional media over the past few years regarding VMUG, the technology community, and what it’s all about and why anyone would want to be involved. Invariably, I drop one of my favorite phrases which is that “community is all about growing – together.” I’ve been reflecting recently on what that means and if the meaning has changed over the past few months.
Originally, I was focused on skills, meaning that we grow our skills together in a community and keep getting consistently better. In and of itself, I still think this is important – in a lot of ways, it almost mirrors some medical practices. You certainly want a doctor who belongs to their relevant discipline’s professional organization. In IT, if you aren’t growing skills you’re losing them because change isn’t optional when it comes to enterprise tech.
However, I’ve seen or been privy to a few things over the last few weeks that make me think that we grow together in ways other than skill-building too. I’ve seen a ton of examples of people in the community supporting each other both on and offline recently. Consider the following examples of community caring for each other that I’ve seen recently:
Someone was laid off and reached out to their network of community friends and colleagues on Twitter and had more than one lead on a possible new role within a day.
Someone’s daughter was having a birthday and many people sent well-wishes.
Someone admitted that they were struggling a bit with the isolation of stay-at-home orders and got some support and encouragement, even from folks at direct competitors.
Someone texted someone that they hadn’t seen a tweet in a while to make sure they were good – and talked about the stresses of all the new demands on infrastructure.
Community is about helping people - or just pointing at screens, maybe?
While each of these is individually a great story, taken together they show a network of people who genuinely care about each other and are invested in each other’s success. That’s what makes the community special to me. In a time when it often seems like everyone is out for themselves or their own company or brand, the IT community shows that what it cares about collectively are people. Not brands, not technologies, not even bottom lines - but people and their well-being.
I also have seen the IT community rally around helping the greater community-at-large – the public that isn’t even involved in the IT community. For an example of a large, well-coordinated effort, look no further than the incredible work being done to help Covid-19 research. Recently, a loose group of community members kicked off a “Team VMware” Folding@Home project to help aid in Covid-19 research. This got so much traction that last I heard, we (I participate in this project with my lowly desktop GPU) had completed 1 million work units, which means the team fully analyzed 10 research projects. This has gained so much traction that VMUG recently did a private webcast for Advantage members about it. It’s certainly a feel-good story that we need more of these days – and a way that you can give back right now if you want. Check out Amanda Blevins (@AmandaBlev) on Twitter for the details.
In another example of helping those outside of our small tech family, someone recently asked for a few small donations to help fund a gift for a kid they had coached in soccer who was the victim of bullying. By the time I reached out an hour after it was posted, he told me that he was turning people away now, because it would have been over-funded and he wanted to make sure he put some of his own money into it.
I call special attention to those examples of helping people outside of the direct technology community because I think it exemplifies the most about this group we call “the community.” In so far as assisting these people or groups outside of our group we expect nothing in return – and in many cases are assured of no compensatory benefits. We do it because it’s right –we support each other because it’s the right thing to do.
This post is by no means an exhaustive list of the ways that the IT community supports each other and the people around us. It’s just a small list of some stuff that I have personally seen, and let me be clear: I have missed far more than I have seen. Examples abound all over social media – you almost don’t even have to look for them.
The best part of all of this is that the community is not a bank. You do not only get to take out what you have put in. Yes, it does require some investment to be a part of it, but that investment is being present - not necessarily adding incredible knowledge that no one else has. It’s truly an environment where showing up means that you’re a part of the group – and you belong. I guess it’s kind of like that old show “Cheers” in a way: we’re always glad you came.
The next year, and possibly the next couple of years, might be really difficult. I think it’s more important than ever that we focus on growing together – be it skills, relationally, or otherwise. It’s possible, at least from where I sit that connections – and therefore, community is more important than ever before.
VMware posted this up for VMUG Leaders last time I was on campus. I was smitten with the phrasing - it’s just the truth when it comes to the technology community.
So, it’s up to you – are you going to be a part of this, or do you really want to go at the uncertain future before us solo?
A few questions for you:
Are you invested in a professional community?
What can you do this week to show up or be present in the technology community?
Have you ever received any benefits from community or user group involvement? What are they?