Why Every IT Professional Should Be on Experts Exchange

Experts Exchange (EE) allows vetted experts (Certified Experts) to answer questions and find solutions for fellow IT professionals and hobbyists. The Certified Experts are all volunteers and receive points, ranks, and awards for answering questions in their areas of expertise. 

Whether you are a novice needing help or someone with extensive experience looking to share and collaborate, EE is the place for you. As a novice, you can safely ask the most basic of questions and allow those with more experience to guide you. You will find solutions to your current problems and often receive resources and knowledge for future projects. 

Getting involved with EE can help anyone develop their knowledge, skills, and career in various ways:

1. By asking questions, you learn how to phrase questions properly and communicate in a way that allows others to understand the issue and help solve your problem.

2. By answering questions, you learn how to help those with a less advanced grasp of technology. Nobody is born an expert; we all started with zero knowledge. Every person learns differently. Some learn by reading, some by watching, and some by doing. We all learn by helping others learn.

3. As you learn to solve problems for yourself and others, before you know it, others will begin to look up to you as the expert.

4. By helping others in the community, some vendors (i.e., Citrix, Microsoft, VMware, and others) may recognize you in their community award programs. Citrix has its Citrix Technology Advocate (CTA) and Citrix Technology Professional (CTP) honors, Microsoft has its Most Valuable Professionals (MVP), and VMware has its vExperts. It is an honor for vendors to recognize people for their community involvement and commitment to helping others. The fine folks at Experts Exchange also appreciate those who work to assist others as they learn and solve problems.

I started at Experts Exchange in October 2002 by asking some basic SQL and system build questions. When I started my website (CarlWebster.com) in November 2008, I wrote most of the first articles specifically to answer questions from EE. For example:

• How do I get a modified webica.ini pushed out for ICA Clients 10.1 and higher?

• How do I tell if Shadowing is Allowed or Prohibited on a Server

• What is "Citrix"?

• Will a Citrix License Server in a Workgroup Supply Licenses to XenApp Servers in Multiple Directory Services?

Those questions on EE helped me build Citrix labs, test various scenarios, and document the answers and processes. Those questions also helped me get noticed in the Citrix and End-User Computing communities. Now, 18 years later, I am recognized as the #1 solution provider in the Citrix Zone on EE.

In 2009, I received the Citrix Technology Professional award, and in October of 2017, I was honored to receive a lifetime achievement award from Citrix and be recognized as a CTP Fellow. EE honored me with the Most Valuable Expert award for 2019, and in 2020, VMware honored me with the vExpert award.

Being involved with EE helped me to grow personally and professionally. I recommend EE to anyone wanting to assist others in solving IT-related problems.