Navigating the Tech Ladder with Erick Dimalanta | Episode 006

Episode Information Show Notes Join us as we dive into the tech career journey of Erick Dimalanta, from video game enthusiast to senior systems engineer. Discover how passion, continuous learning, and community involvement can propel your IT career to new heights. Show Notes: Erick’s gaming roots and transition to IT Breaking into enterprise IT at Wynn Las Vegas The importance of showing initiative in tech roles Specializing in VMware and creating a home lab Leveraging VMUG for problem-solving and networking Starting a tech blog and its unexpected impact Strategies for career progression in IT Navigating workplace dynamics and office politics The jump from systems engineer to senior role Following opportunities and knowing when to move on Key Takeaways: Continuous learning is crucial in the fast-paced tech industry Community involvement can accelerate career growth and problem-solving Documenting your journey benefits both you and others in the field Featured in this episode: Erick Dimalanta Resources mentioned: VMware User Group (VMUG) A+ Certification Cisco UCS Join our community on the social platforms: YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@careerdownloads X/Twitter https://twitter.com/@careerdownloads TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@careerdownloads LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/career-downloads Instagram https://www.instagram.com/careerdownloads FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/people/Career-Downloads/61561144531249 If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share with a friend who’s navigating their tech career! #TechCareers #ITJourney #CareerGrowth #VMware #NetworkingTips #ContinuousLearning #CareerDownloads #CareerAdvice #TechCareers #SystemEngineering #CareerDevelopment #TechIndustry #PersonalGrowth #SkillAcquisition Transcription Manuel: So, welcome everybody to another episode of Career Downloads. Today’s episode, I have Erick Dimalanta with us today, and he’s going to be talking and sharing some of his experiences, kind of his, the way that he’s navigated his career. So really, I hope you enjoy this episode. And if you can do me a favor and just go ahead and follow us on all the socials, do all the stuff that you need to do to make sure that you’re notified, really help us grow the channel and then interact with us on the social platforms to help us understand, you know, what type of content that you’re looking for, right, what types of roles, what type of people you want on here, so it’d be really beneficial. So with that, go ahead and plug in and download the knowledge. So thank you, Erick. Erick: Yeah. No, thank you for having me. Manuel: No, I appreciate it. And I’m really excited. So I know that we know each other. We’ve never actually worked together. We’ve met together a few times through a user group. Erick: Yep. Through the VMUG, yeah. Manuel: Through the VMUG. That’s the topic that I definitely want to get into and just kind of give your thoughts on, you know, those types of groups. Erick: Yeah. Manuel: And as we get started, again, nothing too in-depth, but if you can just kind of give me a brief summary of kind of your background, you know, kind of where you grew up and then slowly how you decided, you know, if you were always into tech or what kind of got you into, you know, exploring technology. Erick: Yeah. Yeah, no. Sure. Happy to do it. So, I mean, I’m not sure how far we want to kind of dial it back, but essentially I’ve always been that kind of video game nerd. I’ve always just, I mean, once I had a controller in my hand, me against my brother playing Street Fighter, anything like that, it was just this is, you know, growing up in that era, this is something that really resonated and stuck with me. So I proceeded to go through life. I lived in a few places. My father was in the military, so we moved around a little bit, lived in Hawaii, California,