The annual EPIC2 Achievement Award is one way VMware recognizes outstanding members of our workplace community who exemplify our shared EPIC2 values – Execution, Passion, Integrity, Customers, and Community – and make VMware a great company to work for. Get to know Michelle Mendal, one of our 2016 EPIC2 Achievement Award winners, and discover how her drive to make a positive impact on those around her is fostering a thriving community at VMware.
Michelle Mendal
Home Office – Massachusetts
Senior Healthcare Marketing Manager
VMware value that means the most to you: Community, for sure. Because without community, it’s not a pleasant place to work without that culture, happiness, and sense of camaraderie. It’s not as much fun. So community, for sure. The Field Marketing team that I sit on at VMware, while virtual, makes a concerted effort to celebrate both professional and personal achievements of team members which means a lot to me. The team has so much camaraderie and is always supportive of the millions of questions that I throw their way!
Hobbies: This one’s easy. I love to spend time with family and friends. I’m sure everyone says that, but I particularly like cooking and hosting family and friends over. I try to cook almost every weekday night. One of my favorite recipes right now are these zucchini turkey burgers. They don’t sound that exciting, but they have a really good dip that goes with them. I also love skiing, exercising and traveling. I grew up skiing and loved it. My husband would say skiing is his number one passion, so needless to say, we go skiing as often as we possibly can. We usually go to Vermont and ski on Stowe or Killington mountain. I’ve also been very fortunate to travel in my life. I actually lived abroad in Madrid for about five months, and spent some time in Greece. One of my best friends is Greek, so we spent time with her family around town. My husband is also Colombian, and we actually just went to Cartagena.
People might not know: I was a national synchronized figure skating champion when I was twelve years old. It’s like synchronized swimming, but on ice. Through ice skating, I learned the meaning of team and what being a good team member means. You can’t achieve anything on your own. Doing it together makes any and all achievements much more special. I’ve definitely taken my learnings about teamwork from ice skating into my work today as a Marketing manager.
Best quality: The ability to get along well with all types of people. I find that that’s really important, especially in my role here at VMware because I collaborate with so many different organizations. From systems engineers, marketing team members, executives, to sales reps, there are so many different people that I interact with on a daily basis. I think I do a good job at building relationships with all of these individuals even though they are all very, very different.
Guilty pleasure: Whether its ice cream or York Peppermint Patties, anything that has mint chocolate chip in it.
Inspiration: I would say improving the lives of people around me. And it can be something little like making light of a situation or just having some sort of positive impact on the individuals around me. That’s what really inspires me. A little can go a long way. Just being friendly and happy.
#1 passion: I am striving for the mastery of the Marketing craft. I am always looking to learn something new and be challenged every day. I want to get a little bit better and improve each day and look back at my career as one in which I became an expert. And because of this expertise, I was able to make an impact on VMware’s growth.
Occupation if money wasn’t an obstacle: I think that I would want to work for a non-profit organization that helps children in need.
Biggest takeaway from receiving the EPIC2 Achievement Award: That I’m so lucky to work with such smart, motivated and kind individuals. It was amazing how many people reached out and congratulated me because of the award. It was such a good feeling. And the culture at VMware is unlike anything I’ve experienced before at another organization. I remember when I was interviewing for my job, I kept hearing that. People would say, “Oh, the culture here is great. Everyone’s so nice. It’s so fun to work here. It’s such a team environment.” And I was thinking to myself, “You hear that a lot.” But when I actually joined, I realized that it’s true, and it’s really something special.
Giving Back: I chose to direct the funds* from the VMware Foundation as part of the EPIC2 Award towards the Institute for Learning and Development. They are a small organization in Massachusetts that is devoted to helping kids with learning disabilities succeed and build confidence. This organization is near and dear to my heart and I have been working with them for years on their mission to positively change the lives of children.
*Each of the 2016 EPIC2 Achievement Award winners received a monetary donation called a Citizen Philanthropy Investment to direct to the nonprofit of their choice from the VMware Foundation.
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The post Dare to Be EPIC2: Michelle Mendal appeared first on VMware Careers Blog.