Name: Eddie Dinel
Eddie is a Senior Director of Product Management at VMware, where he has been since 2002! In his role, Eddie has two key responsibilities. The first is VMware Validated Designs (VVDs), a new way of approaching the problem of Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC) deployments. And the second is the “Enterprise Readiness” program across all products at VMware, focusing on reducing the friction involved in operating VMware software.
Eddie has held many previous roles at VMware, across product development, technical alliances, and IT. He has been involved in nearly every product that VMware has ever shipped.
Prior to VMware, Eddie was at Zack Systems and HighWire Press.
Eddie graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History as well as minors in Physics and Computer Science from Stanford University.
I have had the pleasure to work with Eddie in most of the roles that I had at VMware. He is a passionate leader with a unique level of depth and breadth across VMware products.
Questions Interview
I interviewed Eddie a while back, so the format is slightly different from my more recent interviews. Here are the questions that I asked Eddie.
- What’s the most important factor you consider when hiring someone?
- Who was your most effective boss, and what made him or her stand out?
- What was the most difficult transition that you made in your career?
- How do you approach helping someone with their career development or path?
- What tools and tricks do you use to find work-life balance?
- How do you go about building relationships with your peers and other leaders in the company?
- You have been at VMware for a very long time. This during a time when the norm is to move around, and switch companies. Help us with the thought process for staying at VMware for such a long time.
It is not often that I get a chance to interview someone who has been at the same company for 17+ years! There is always a good reason, and with Eddie, it is because he was allowed to grow his career, change organizations, and remain challenged.
As his career progressed, Eddie saw a scrappy startup grow into a $10+ Billion company. He watched very different CEOs lead the company through an incredible number of challenges. All while believing in the vision and mission of the company.
Here are a couple of quotes that just begin to tell the story…
“I remind myself every time I go through a transition – I am going to feel like an idiot for six months. It’s okay. Eventually you’ll find your way.”
“I happened to hop on board an accelerating spaceship… I was able to jump into some of those new areas and get to really run with them”
I hope you enjoy hearing more from Eddie!
Career Path
Eddie has worked at VMware for a long time. He has grown in his career and has seen incredible change in the company. Listen to him talk about the path that he has taken, the decisions he has made, and the challenges that he faced along the way that have led him to where he is today.
