By Erik Ullanderson
IT professionals need to spend around 10 hours per week educating themselves in order to stay relevant in today’s fast-changing technology landscape, David Day noted in his October blog post.
As you look back on 2013 and think about making the most of 2014, I’ve got a couple questions for you: Did you stay on top of current trends and add new skills that will help you solve problems faster and better? If you wanted to get a new certification, did you achieve your goal?
A goal is a dream with a deadline.
“A goal is a dream with a deadline,” according to Napoleon Hill, the original success guru. And now is the perfect time to give yourself a deadline for a new certification, and to make a plan to help you meet it. Below you’ll find advice on achieving your certification goals from IT pros who have received advanced VMware certifications.
Strike while the iron is hot
If your goal to become a VMware Certified Professional (VCP), your plans will necessarily start with a VMware certified class. When the class finishes, “don’t let that knowledge sit stale,” advises Shawn Bolan, a certified VMware instructor and VCAP-DCA.
“While it’s fresh in your mind, go back to work and set a study plan for yourself; work with the practice tests; build your own lab environment.” Especially for the advanced certifications, Bolan stresses how important it is to prepare by both studying the material and building hands-on experience—it’s not enough to simply do one or the other.
Assess your own abilities
Where should you begin when you’re creating a study plan for yourself? VCDX #97, Travis Wood, outlines a helpful strategy that starts with understanding your current strengths and weaknesses.
Starting with the exam blueprint, he creates a spreadsheet that lists every element of the exam and then ranks himself one-to-three of whether he knows it, whether he needs to develop it, or whether he doesn’t know it. “Once I’ve developed that, I can target the areas I need to develop better, then I go through and research those areas, then go back and reassess myself until I get green down the whole spreadsheet,” he explains.
Engage with the community
One thing that VMware certification holders consistently point to is the size and strength of VMware’s certification community. An easy place to start is with the VMware Certification community forum or by joining your local VMUG chapter. It’s also a good idea to put together a study group, where you can share tips and hold each other to deadlines. Finally, don’t be afraid to reach out to current certification holders for advice. Magnus Andersson, one of the first “double” VCDXs, said he has helped several colleagues prepare for their VCDX defence by reviewing their designs and even hopping on calls to walk through questions.
Use all available resources
When we ask certification holders to tell us how they prepared for their exams (their answers can be found on our Certification Pros page), the list of resources seems to lengthen every time. There are hundreds of blogs, plus webinars, accelerated training bootcamps, books from VMware Press, and a bevy of free instructional videos. In fact, if you’re looking for the perfect place to start your VMware certifications, the new VMware Certified Associate does not require a VMware-approved class at all; training is done entirely through free online videos.
I hope these tips have gotten you excited about achieving your certification goals this year. We’ll be sure to have a glass of champagne ready on New Year’s Day 2015 to toast your accomplishments!
