I’d be lying if I had said this year hasn’t been full of unexpected twists and turns, but it’s in those moments of great difficulty and uncertainty I believe, that we truly find ourselves.  Seven months ago I was referred to a VMware Product engineer role at a cloud provider and hosting company in San Antonio.  I successfully made it through the interviews, and was offered a position with the company.  For this role, the company and I had agreed for me to be onsite for six months, and then be a full time remote employee after.  From May until late October, I spent my time working and exploring San Antonio Texas.

Roles and expectations can change, and having it in writing doesn’t always give you solid ground to stand on.  But I pushed forth on my new journey, excited for the challenges ahead, knowing that I am checking off each requirement for the role, as I work through various projects.  I got to deploy a new SDDC environment, for a customer’s new private cloud, using vCloud Foundation for Service Providers, worked various research tasks, and even studied for and passed my VCP 6.5 – DCV delta.  Not necessarily in that order.

Reaching that six month mark, and feeling proud of the work that I accomplished, I received the regrettable news that I wouldn’t be able to go remote as originally agreed to.  With family and relationship requirements outside of work playing a factor, along with my own personal restrictions and requirements for this role, I had to make the hard decision to walk away.

I couldn’t have asked for a better team in San Antonio, many of whom I was able to get to know outside of work, and who invited me into their homes for after work gatherings, and team lunches around San Antonio.  If you look hard enough in San Antonio, you can find really good barbecue, authentic Mexican, Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Greek and Italian.  The freshman twenty is a real thing, but I’m grateful these guys shared their favorite spots around the city with me.  I didn’t get a chance to really get to know my remote team members out of the UK, but enjoyed the time spent on projects with them.

So what’s next for me?  This is just another fork in the road, leading me down a path of new challenges.  I’ll be taking on new projects working with VMware Professional Services (PSO), through a 3rd party agency.  This role will allow me to live where I want in Colorado, and also allow me to work remotely and travel.  Working for VMware has been a goal of mine for several years, and I’m hopeful that this will eventually turn into a full time role with them.

With all of that out of the way, I thought I would leave you with some pictures I took from the places I visited while in San Antonio.

San Antonio River Walk

The Alamo 

I certainly wouldn’t consider myself religious, but around San Antonio you can find a lot of historic missions, many of which are still considered to be active places of worship.  I personally find the old architecture and buildings fascinating.

Mission Concepcion

Mission San Jose

Mission San Juan

Mission Espada