There are over 400 Oracle ACEs globally, all with a wide range of stories to tell and technical knowledge to share. We want to introduce you to some of these incredible ACEs and their stories, so we will be highlighting an Oracle ACE member every month or even more often in our Oracle ACE Spotlight series.

Today we are presenting Simo Vilmunen, an Oracle ACE Pro who has been a member of the ACE Program community for over four years. Simo Vilmunen, Oracle ACE Pro

Simo works at Accenture Enkitec Group as a OCI Practice Lead. He has worked with Oracle technologies over 20 years and his current interests within OCI space are with cloud infrastructure, databases and database migrations. In addition, Simo tries to get to folks adapt new technologies and solutions when they are moving to OCI.

You can find him on:  Twitter  |  LinkedIn

  1. Hi Simo, thank you for accepting our invitation for the Oracle ACE Spotlight section! Can you start by telling us a little bit about yourself?

Hey everyone reading this, I work at the Accenture Enkitec Group as a practice lead for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. A lot of my daily work is around databases, infrastructure, and networking (all which I really like!).

I’m a Finn who lives nowadays in Toronto, Canada together with my family for over four years. I’ve been working with Oracle technology for over 20 years (that makes me old!), starting from databases and e-Business Suite all the way up to cloud stuff, which I’m mostly having fun with now.

I do write a blog and make some YouTube videos, which are mostly focused on OCI, you might have read also my OCI Newsletter, but that started to become too much of a work instead of a hobby, so it’s on the bench for now!

 

  1. What was your journey to becoming an ACE?

I’ve always found the blog posts helpful – what folks in Oracle community had published and a lot of “old-school” community members really adjusted my view on how to approach technical challenges and troubleshooting through their blog posts and presentations.

At some point I wanted to share things what I felt might help other folks and started writing a blog. And then did some speaking engagements, then decided to write a newsletter and then do some videos as well! Big part of me starting to do this has been also through my mentor and good friend ACE Director Julian Dontcheff, who’s helped me a lot along the way. 

So, it was the passion to share things and having some fun along the way as well which made me want to become an ACE!

 

  1. What do you remember from the first time you attended events as a speaker? How was that like?

My first time as a speaker at conference (think it was in Estonia), I was super nervous! I went through all the emotions with my fear of public speaking, but what really helped me was just to practice the presentation by myself a few times, something I still do for every presentation, since I’m always anxious before.

 

  1. What would you recommend to others who want to start presenting or blogging? How should they start?

If you’re eager to start writing a blog or speaking, just start with a topic which you’re familiar with! If you interact with folks on Twitter or at conferences, ACEs are usually super friendly and happy to help on you getting started, so best thing to do is to ask for help if you’re unsure! And don’t worry if you forget something during your presentation, nobody knows it!

Find what makes you happiest and just do you! This should be about sharing and having fun at the same time. If your post or presentation helps even one single person, I think it’s already been worth it.

 

  1. What would you say is the biggest (career) achievement you had so far?

All cool technical jargon aside, one of the biggest things for me has been on helping people to grow and get them shine on what they’re doing. If I have been able to be even a tiny part on that journey, I think I’d call that as my best achievement.

 

  1. How do you think being part of the Oracle ACE Program has helped you?

Being in the ACE Program has made me know some of the community members and product management folks, which in turn has helped me a lot on my daily work!

But huge thing has also been personal development on speaking in public, as well as how to share content. Writing a blog post is often also good reminder for you to go back and see it as your personal documentation.

 

  1. What is something you really like about the Oracle ACE Program and the reason you would recommend someone to join this community?

I feel the current Oracle ACE community not only has a large, diverse group of people, but it’s open to anyone and easily accessible for people all around the world. Everyone has always something worth on sharing, so if you have slightest interest on that, I do recommend you to participate!

 

  1. Let’s wrap up with something about your life outside work – what do you do for fun?

Besides spending my time on some novice coding, writing blog posts, and making videos, I’m avid mountain biker. Surprisingly, Toronto has some good trails to go out and ride during summer, there’re some good trails and mountains all around Canada which I love here!

I’m also Brazilian Jiujitsu black belt which is one of the bigger achievements I’ve managed to do hobbies-wise, and going to practice really takes my mind off from everything. It’s sort of my happy place!

Apart from that I’m designated driver for our kids’ hobbies and like to do activities together with my family. 🙂

 

Thank you, Simo, we’ve really enjoyed the conversation!

 

Take a look at the other interviews from the Oracle ACE Spotlight series: