My journey to VMware certification began in October 2013. Yes, i’m relatively new to that. I work at a system integrator as a system engineer, supporting customers from 50 to 150 users. The main support runs over my table, ranging from printer with paper jams to virtualization infrastructure. All of them use VMware virtualization in a smaller scale. It isn’t the American small and medium business size here in Switzerland. Its more a European SMB or at least a Swiss one. With me are also working about twenty people, half of them in sales and administration, the other half in technics. We are a VMware partner on the level of Premier Solution Provider and Enterprise Service Provider. Just 50 cents to my history and background.
Why am i doing that blog post?
Why am i blogging about my three fails in the VCP exam? Well, there is one good reason for me. Keeping self motivation and getting more of it!
In October 2013 i failed the first time, trying the VCP5-DCV exam. Exactly two years later i failed the second time at the same exam. And today, when i attended VMworld 2016 in Barcelona i took another chance to get certified. And failed miserably. Ok, that sounds harsh. But its annoying. Learning, reading, watching videos, doing courses and since a few months having a small homelab too didn’t help me to prepare so that i can pass. It shouldn’t be an excuse. But all these features questioned in the exams we are not using at our customers. They are just to small for that. And troubleshooting is not each time knowing the exact CLI command or so. Its researching and trying out.
Meet people at VMworld
Attending VMworld is not only good for seeing hardware, listening to keynotes and collecting swag. Well, that too. But not only. At VMworld you can meet people from different countries, from different companies and with different knowledge. And today after failing the exam i had some good talks to exactly those people. I know them since few months from Twitter (also a good way to “meet” people and stay connected) and VMworld was a great chance to meet these people live, personally. These people can answer your questions like no one else can do. These people are highly certified, decorated and honored in many ways. And they failed sometimes too on the exams. And they can give you tips for the preparation for your certification. This benefit i took with me today.
Special credits
I’d especially like to thank to Kev Johnson which motivated me to jump over my shadow and do this special blog post. He and his VMUG buddy Chris gave me some great insights, tipps and knowledge how to better prepare for the next try.
Guys, thank you very much!