At VMworld 2015, the Geek Whisperers (John Troyer, Amy Lewis, and Matt Brender) took over a segment of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, to interview Scott Lowe, a blogger and author who works at VMware Inc. as an Engineering Architect, about his career in IT.

Lewis asked Lowe about the importance of selecting a role where it’s possible to grow. “It’s really challenging,” Lowe responded, “because you’re constantly putting yourself in a position where you’re uncomfortable and you have to head-on face fear of failure.”

“Early on in my career,” he said, “I was actually an instructor and a technical trainer, and I found it was that, in that role you’re constantly having to pick up something new…. I think that set me on this path of ‘always be learning.’”

From hardcore tech to IT communications

Brender asked how Lowe moved from a technical person to an IT communicator. Again, he credited his experience as an instructor and trainer for his love of communicating. He began blogging before anyone really knew what it was. In 2007, he live-blogged from VMworld, and that kicked off a shift in his career.

Troyer, a personal friend of Lowe’s, asked what kind of leverage or “radius of impact” Lowe had in moving towards a more independent career. “When I look at it, honestly I think the decisions are really more driven by where I thought the industry was going…. I wouldn’t say I had my career planned out in advance, but you kind of get a feel after you’ve been in a certain space for a while that, OK, this space is maybe not growing as quickly or it may not be as vibrant as it was.

“Or, there may be something that is even bigger on the horizon, or there may be a shift in how this is being perceived or utilized, or something of that nature.” That sense has helped guide Lowe into cutting-edge parts of the industry and allowed him to keep moving forward — a key part of succeeding in a rapidly-evolving industry like tech.

Watch the entire video interview below, and make sure to check out other VMworld interviews on theCUBE and SiliconANGLE.

Photo by SiliconANGLE