VMware's New Expert Certification Program

Interesting, I may have to look into that program. I haven't taken any of the VMware certifications yet, but if this one has networking in conjunction with the virtualization, it may be worth my time. Also their networking options have always been limited until more recently, so it would be nice to see what they are coming up with to fix some of the issues they have had.
 
I don't have any personal experience with the high end certs, but things like CCIE and VCDX don't seem to me to be certs that people just obtain on their own to become more employable. Seems like those certs, as well as the new VMware Expert one, are obtained while already being employed somewhere where the prestige of those certs matters.

This is in reply to NetJunkie posting on the blog that the CCIE looks good when looking at a potential employee.

According to Dept. of Commerce figures over 2 million people are employed in IT in the US. Cisco says that there are about 6,500 CCIE's in the US. There are less than 200 VCDX holders world-wide. It's not like someone like that just applies for an opening a company happens to have.

This is just to say that those certs, in my opinion anyway, don't seem to be certs obtained by job seekers, or held by people who have to shop around for employment.
 
Thuleman said:
This is just to say that those certs, in my opinion anyway, don't seem to be certs obtained by job seekers, or held by people who have to shop around for employment.
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A lot of people will work toward those certs to improve their job and move up. So yes, they are very much a tool for people seeking jobs. The only reason I got any certs in the first place was to move up. Once you have a job, there is rarely a need for you to get a cert unless it is a requirement by a client. In fact, originally I moved up in my career with no certs and no degree. I could have continued to move up in that company as well. The only reason for me to go get my degree and certs was to make a significant leap into a much higher position at another company.
 
I can say that the only reasons I obtained my certs was to move up in my current job and make myself more marketable to other employers. While I am not actively looking I want to always remain moving forward so when someone does offer me a great position somewhere I am up to speed and able to take the job.
 
People very often go get these certs on their own. They are very time consuming and expensive but often worth it. You might not go get your VCDX and then start applying for jobs, but you could. Plenty of people change jobs right after. I can think of numerous people I know that paid for it themselves out of pocket as an investment and it was well worth it.
 
NetJunkie said:
People very often go get these certs on their own. They are very time consuming and expensive but often worth it. You might not go get your VCDX and then start applying for jobs, but you could. Plenty of people change jobs right after. I can thin heck, and numerous people I know that paid for it themselves out of pocket as an investment and it was well worth it.
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Exactly. The cost to my wife and I was high, however, it's only helped in the long run. If anything it ables me to have more opportunities to interact with people I would have never met. That allows me to have a larger professional circle and talk with them about job openings. Heck it may even turn into friendships beyond the professional level.
 
Just to clarify, I wasn't talking about certs in general. I specifically meant the CCIE (which only approximately 0.3% of the US workforce hold) and the VCDX is by orders of magnitude more rare.

Obviously those who have achieved those certs have demonstrated an extraordinary amount of knowledge, critical thinking, and creating "mental synergies" from the different things they previously knew about.

My point though was that such people don't just casually show up and apply for jobs. The people with those certs are so rare that they get to pick where they work and probably don't go through the same hiring process that a regular solutions architect would go through.

There's a writeup about the VCDX value by Nutanix, which clearly uses the number of VCDXes that currently work for them as a marketing tool to push the Nutanix product. http://www.nutanix.com/blog/2013/11/15/what-is-the-value-of-a-vcdx-to-a-vmware-ecosystem-partner/ so they basically buy VCDXes to lend credibility to the brand.
 
@Thuleman, as a long time CCIE the job search does have a different dynamic. Having an exclusive cert does make it easier to search jobs and for recruiters to find you. But I've been to a ton of interviews where they wanted the prestige of hiring an expert level person, but didn't want to pay expert level salary.

As far as bypassing the normal hiring process, I think that really comes from having a good professional network, which I think anyone can establish. Getting a recommendation from someone who knows a candidate personally or has worked with someone in the past is huge when it comes to hiring.
 
If I pursued VCDX or CCIE or this new cert I would have to pay for it myself being on the customer side. Not because we need one, but more of the doors it opens to career growth.

If you want to extend your network, get on Twitter and be a part of the community. It's tough if you don't know alot of these guys but volunteering to help or just being engaging has helped me extend my network more than any certification has. Plus I enjoy helping out so its mutually beneficial.
 
Thuleman said:
Just to clarify, I wasn't talking about certs in general. I specifically meant the CCIE (which only approximately 0.3% of the US workforce hold) and the VCDX is by orders of magnitude more rare.

Obviously those who have achieved those certs have demonstrated an extraordinary amount of knowledge, critical thinking, and creating "mental synergies" from the different things they previously knew about.

My point though was that such people don't just casually show up and apply for jobs. The people with those certs are so rare that they get to pick where they work and probably don't go through the same hiring process that a regular solutions architect would go through.

There's a writeup about the VCDX value by Nutanix, which clearly uses the number of VCDXes that currently work for them as a marketing tool to push the Nutanix product. http://www.nutanix.com/blog/2013/11/15/what-is-the-value-of-a-vcdx-to-a-vmware-ecosystem-partner/ so they basically buy VCDXes to lend credibility to the brand.
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Disclaimer - NTNX employee.

Thuleman, that's an interesting thought and having multiple VCDX's on staff certainly does help a bit on the marketing side. But, to say the company "buys VCDXes to lend credibility to the brand" seems unfair.

If you talk with any of the VCDX's we have on our team, they'll surely be able to tell you about offers from other companies and can share exactly what their motivation was to join Nutanix instead of another org. Also, a lot of research exists that shows money & financial incentives are actually lower down on the list of compelling reasons for taking, leaving, or staying in a certain career role.

In other words, even if our company offered an insanely high salary and "outbid" other companies for VCDXs, there are a ton of motivating factors like culture, leadership, and the technology itself that come into play and are in many cases hold more weight than salary does. A statement like yours not only places unfair judgment on the company, but on the individuals themselves who have made the choice to work here. It's a bit contradictory to state that individuals with this level of certification have the choice to work wherever they want, and to then conclude that they could be "bought" by a company like Nutanix.
 
Tommy_NTNX said:
Disclaimer - NTNX employee.
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Tommy_NTNX said:
Thuleman, that's an interesting thought and having multiple VCDX's on staff certainly does help a bit on the marketing side. But, to say the company "buys VCDXes to lend credibility to the brand" seems unfair.
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I did editorialize it a bit, but the notion that the VCDXs add credibility to the brand actually came straight from the blog I linked where Steve Kaplan wrote (straight unedited quote):

When an early stage company such as Nutanix seeks to disrupt the entire datacenter with a new technology, it is much more difficult to grab mindshare from customers, channel partners, analysts and the industry at large. VCDXs can work where they choose. The eagerness of so many VCDXs to work with Nutanix helps provide validation for new approach to datacenter architecture.
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Tommy_NTNX said:
It's a bit contradictory to state that individuals with this level of certification have the choice to work wherever they want, and to then conclude that they could be "bought" by a company like Nutanix.
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It's certainly true that each individual has their own reasons why they join a particular company and it's also true that compensation is not as relevant to that choice once the compensation reaches a certain level. The perhaps more prominent reference is Pink's Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, which has a cliffnotes version in the nicely done 10-minute RSA Animate at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

If you take that line of thought further though then one could also conclude that VCDXs are in a professional and financial position to take risk, because if something doesn't work out then it's not like they will end up in the unemployment line.

With risk comes reward, especially if considering a company like Nutanix. An IPO is all but guaranteed, and if the VCDXs receive stock then a sizable payday is coming in the not too distant future (couple of years at the most?).

Assuming all of the above is factual, then it's not too much of a stretch to conclude that pre-IPO companies do in fact have the capability to financially entice talent beyond what post-IPO companies can ordinarily offer. Personally I don't actually see anything wrong with that.

EDIT:
So I went back to the blog post at http://www.nutanix.com/blog/2013/11/15/what-is-the-value-of-a-vcdx-to-a-vmware-ecosystem-partner/ and after re-reading it I don't think that I said anything in my initial post that wasn't accurate. In the blog post it says that:

And we continue to actively recruit still more VCDXs
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followed by

The primary areas of VCDX value to Nutanix include credibility, product improvement, hiring, and VMware partnership.
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followed further down by

Hiring VCDXs also sends a clear message to the virtualization community that Nutanix is willing to make the investment to bring top talent to the organization.
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From which I took that Nutanix is buying VCDXs to improve the brands credibility. It would have been more closely paraphrased if I had written "Nutanix is actively recruiting VCDXs to improve brand credibility", though I am not certain that the wording would have conveyed a different meaning especially considering that the blog specifically mentioned that hiring a VCDX is sending a message that Nutanix is "willing to pay up (making the investment)". So really, it was all Steve, you should have a word with him about that blog post! ;)
 
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Even someone that can has many options of where they can work can be bought. Let's not kid ourselves.
 
There are so few VMware cert'd people because you have to pay for their ridiculously overpriced classes before you can sit for an exam. The same doesn't go for CCIE or CISSP where I've self-studied to CCIE Written and CISSP having never taken a formalized class. CISSP attempts exclusivity with their certification by requiring a current sitting CISSP to vouch for your competencies or a written letter from your CIO stating that such certification is a requirement of your job. The exam is management-level and by no means difficult, just sitting excruciatingly long. VCP certifications though I don't seem to see in such high regard or demand as virtualization isn't as expansive of a technology as networks or security.

I would arguably hold an ITIL certification above some certs as it teaches you the best practices for managing a service from a strategy, design, transitional, operational, and continuously improving points of view. I see people all across the executive range who execute on this so horribly. The test isn't that hard, there's just a lot of content to cover for even the foundations.
 
shade91 said:
I would arguably hold an ITIL certification above some certs as it teaches you the best practices for managing a service from a strategy, design, transitional, operational, and continuously improving points of view. I see people all across the executive range who execute on this so horribly. The test isn't that hard, there's just a lot of content to cover for even the foundations.
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There's lots of disappointment by those who got the ITIL Expert cert that all the time and money invested didn't lead to any measurable improvement in job offers or compensation. There were quite a few discussions about this on the ITIL LinkedIn group.

Especially in North America ITIL just isn't valued, and often, regardless of where in the world one is at, ITIL Expert doesn't pull more offers/cash than the plain ITIL Foundation. The difference being that ITIL Foundation is $175, whereas Expert is ~$40k list price, but one could get it for as low as ~12-18k.

There really is no reason to not grab ITIL Foundation since it's so cheap and still a lot of people don't have it or don't even know what ITIL is. Advancing to Expert is probably only worth doing if one's employer pays for it.
 
There are over 160K VCPs...so it's not a few. Of those only 3K have gotten their VCAP (and VMware is working on that...) and 140 have gone on to VCDX.

The VCAP is understandable..there just isn't as big of a draw there. The VCDX is expensive in both time and money, though not nearly as expensive as the CCIE if you look at the total cost.
 
I enjoyed doing the DCA, it was fun. DCD is up next. VCDX as a customer will be tough, but there are a few that have managed to pull it off. It will be interesting.
 
I hear you on the design exam, it's much harder as a customer when you are not working on a new design every 3-4 weeks like many consultants do. Maybe vmware will address this with the new cert path? Maybe they could have 3-4 practice designs you could do and then compare to what an actual VCDX came up with. I think that could be a huge learning opportunity if nothing else.
 
If you're a customer and want to do it go find someone that can act as the customer. In the VCDX bootcamps they'll tell you that it's hard to defend a fictitious design and they are right. People come up with their own design but cut themselves slack and don't come up with a realistic design. Go find someone that'll be the demanding customer and then design toward that.
 
I designed my current environment. I'm fortunate enough to not need anything fictitious.
 
NetJunkie said:
If you're a customer and want to do it go find someone that can act as the customer. In the VCDX bootcamps they'll tell you that it's hard to defend a fictitious design and they are right. People come up with their own design but cut themselves slack and don't come up with a realistic design. Go find someone that'll be the demanding customer and then design toward that.
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Or go ask a consultant for a SoW/Requirements list from a customer, cleaned for consumption (replace company names/etc with generics), and use that as a foundation.
 
Don't you need to provide things like VMware Capacity Planner reports or statistic reporting or other documentation on how you came up with the IOPS/CPU/RAM requirements for the infrastructure? I would find that to be pretty important part of the design process and I'm not sure how you could provide that part sanitized. That sounds like a great idea, if someone was willing to provide you with that documentation.
 
QHalo said:
Don't you need to provide things like VMware Capacity Planner reports or statistic reporting or other documentation on how you came up with the IOPS/CPU/RAM requirements for the infrastructure? I would find that to be pretty important part of the design process and I'm not sure how you could provide that part sanitized. That sounds like a great idea, if someone was willing to provide you with that documentation.
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You don't need to provide the actual output. You can just condense and summarize the info.
 
NetJunkie said:
Think of this as the CCIE for VMware. Many of you are probably asking…. ”Well, isn’t that the VCAP-DCA?”
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I was thinking, "Well, isn't that the VCDX?"

Is VCDX more analogous to CCA then?

Where does the new cert fit in in terms of experience level, between VCAP and VCDX?

Is this replacing VCDX or supplementing the existing options?
 
As someone who is currently working on my VCDX-DT, I'm personally doing it because I want to stand out among my peers (and the distinction of being one of the first desktop branded VCDX's). I have a "million" people I work with that all "know" VMware and when you're employeed by a VAR with those million VMware guys, it's hard to make a name for yourself without someone higher up who doesn't need to be technically savy saying "hey, so-and-so has their (insert high end certification), let's go ask him/her". That type of thing can get you noticed real quick.

Let's also not forget that the CCIE has been around since 5 year prior to VMware formation and while networking may have a bigger foothold in the market up to this point, virtualization is poised to take it over. I see being a VCDX as a cornerstone to a long a successful career. However, trying to compare today's VCDX with today's CCIE, I don't think is a very fair. Honestly when you reach VCDX level, you're not so much worried about the break-fix of everyday virtualization life as you are with the top-down design of the entire virtualization infrastructure which is what I think they're going for in the first place. I think their may need to be a separation from VCDX and CCIE altogether and gear it more toward VCDX compared to CCA (Cisco Certified Architect). The CCIE should be compared to VCAP-DCA and VCAP-DCD combined, but the DCA needs to get tuned hard core for that to happen.
 
markwo said:
I was thinking, "Well, isn't that the VCDX?"

Is VCDX more analogous to CCA then?

Where does the new cert fit in in terms of experience level, between VCAP and VCDX?

Is this replacing VCDX or supplementing the existing options?
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The CCIE is an implementation certification. You are told what the environment should do, and you go configure it. That will be what the new VMware high level implementation cert is. Much more involved than the VCAP-DCA.

The VCDX is a DESIGN certification. Where you must submit a very detailed design (often 200+ pages) and then go in front of a panel and defend your decisions included in the design. Very different focus.
 
So if we're going to make associations

VCP = CCNA
VCAP = CCNP
New thing = CCIE
VCDX = CCA

Is this how it's trying to be positioned? I'm still curious on the plans for the exam itself, would it just be a DCA lab on steroids along with a written exam?

Personally, I like it. While I've had the VCAP pre-requisities taken care of for the longest time, I don't see the VCDX in the cards for me unless a vSphere Plan & Design engagement gets thrown on my lap in the near future (which is doubtful) in which I could leverage the project deliverables into the application itself as I'm not keen on submitting a fictitious design.

So yes, having a certification which validates an expert-level of hands on experience behind the keyboard sounds awesome to me. As long as it was marketed correctly to the industry and not unknown/overlooked like the VCAP's are.
 
I would consider the VCDX = CCDE. The CCA requires 10 years (or at least used to) and the CCDE in addition to having to do a panel review and a significant monetary commitment.
 
But the CCDE doesn't require you standing in front of anyone having a design picked apart. Very different than a big sit down exam.
 
It's apples and oranges and trying to set the levels equal to each other is difficult.
 
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itrsteve said:
So if we're going to make associations

VCP = CCNA
VCAP = CCNP
New thing = CCIE
VCDX = CCA
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I'd say more like
VCP=CCNP
VCAP=??? (CCIE Written or CCDE written maybe)
New Cert = CCIE
VCDX >= CCDE

I don't really consider CCA to be a real cert, just a really expensive ego boost
 
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