Nearly three years with Gartner. I have to say I’ve been far more successful with this company than I ever expected. It is such a natural fit for me. I enjoy writing the research, talking to clients, the occasional travel to meet them in person. I am able to say what I really think and not have to toe a specific technology company’s corporate line. It’s quite liberating as a technologist!
The most notable accomplishments both came in early 2019:
- I was the top analyst in the Technology and Service Providers group in 2018, based on my client satisfaction and overall productivity numbers.
- I was one of the top 5 analysts across all of Gartner for 2018.
- I was promoted to Vice President.
Now, a “Vice President Analyst” isn’t the kind of vice president you might find at other companies. At Gartner, VP Analyst is an individual contributor, but we are ranked at the executive level because of our experience and because we are providing advice across multiple areas of knowledge with executives who are our seat holders. It’s the best of both worlds! An executive salary and bonus program, without people management. (The Managing Vice Presidents are the people who manage the analysts. Well, I should say they try to manage us. Analysts are notoriously unmanageable.)
The major research I’ve inherited is the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Public Cloud Infrastructure Professional and Managed Services, Worldwide. If you’ve ever seen an “MQ” then you know them for the graphic that has the Leaders, Visionaries, Challengers, and Niche Players. Work on an MQ takes 4-5 months and is an arduous process, filled with many challenges, not the lest of which is vendors disagreeing with your assessment as “not factual” when it is actually an opinion based on fact. Though it is a “heavy lift” research note, it creates so many additional research ideas and insights into the market, making me a much better analysts for both end user and technology and service provider clients. I’ve done this MQ for two years now and I hope I can continue for at least one more.
So, I’ve achieved some major milestones in the first three years that I had told myself would be the litmus test of whether I stayed or left. As things stand now, I’m staying for the foreseeable future. Gartner is a great place to be, and I haven’t begun to fully tap all the opportunities it can provide me.
