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TWITTER:
http://twitter.com/Mike_Laverick

About me:

RTFM Education is a website/blog create by me, Mike Laverick

I am a freelance/contract instructor/trainer and I specialise in Citrix and VMware Products, and my customers and partners include IBM, HP (France, Belguim, Finland, Denmark) SureSkills (Ireland) and CDG (Netherlands). I work across the UK and Europe – and have delivered training for such organisations as United Nations in Italy and Shell in Nigeria.

I’ve worked in the IT Industry since 1993 and for my sins I am quite heavily qualified with certifications such as

VMware Certified Instructor
VMware Certified Professional
Citrix Certified Instructor
Citrix Certified Administrator
Citrix Certified Enterprise Administrator
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (NT4,W2K,W2K3)
Microsoft Certified Trainer (Retired)
A+ Certified Engineer (Retired)
A+ Certified Trainer (Retired)

I am also quite active on the VMware Forum’s and achieved “Virtuoso” status in January 2006. As a consequence I’ve been mentioned in despatches on VMware VMTN Blog a couple of times. I’ve also recieved mentions in VMware’s own Newsletter from the VMware Team.

In recognition of my personal contribution to the Forum’s I was nominated (along with others) to be a  ”User Moderator” by Daryll Swagger the chief administrator

If you wish to employ my services as a trainer then perhaps you may wish to view my online CV which will give you a better idea of my background

About this site:

As you may know RTFM stands for “Read The Flippin’ Manual” – a frequent cry when we discover that problems documented, and solutions are well known – and IF we had only read the instructions first…

However, sometimes the manual isn’t enough – that’s where I come in. When I became a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) and Citrix Certified Instructor (CCI) and then a VMware Certified Instructor (VCI) the people at Microsoft, Citrix and VMware taught us to “add-value” to what we do.

It’s not enough to simply read the manual (after all you can all read), my job is to make the courseware come to life. It’s that ethic that RTFM website holds as its core value.

On the flip side of that coin, its also true to say that frequently reading the flippin’ manual doesn’t help. Documentation can be poor, conflicting or plain wrong – plus it can limit your scope. So RTFM is about knowing when to break the rules, and bend the conventions – and go beyond the manual…