VMware

Ok, so if I haven't sold you on VMware by reading my last post, maybe after this post you will know more why I'm such an advocate.

First of all, the company I work for was willing to send me to VMware training this past August. If VMware training won't make you an advocate, not sure what will. Besides that, I really do think they have the most mature product out there. So anyhow, yeah, I went to the VMware v3.5 FastTrack training and a month after the class I took the VCP exam and passed!! WOOT! I think that's the first test I've had to take in like 8 years! I'd have to say that it was a pretty big challenge and if you weren't interested in the product to begin with, it'd be tough to pass the exam. I studied for about 6 hours every week for a month after the class - going over the material from the class and I got 85% on the test. I'd have to say that I definitely think the class and certification has benefited me in my job already - there a bunch of things I was able to fix in our environment because of it.

If you ever take the class and have hopes to become a VCP, I think the best tip I had was to just go over the class manual every night and each night take the mock exam off their website, then copy the answers you get wrong into a document and study them out. They give you 100 tries on the mock exam, I probably took it 10 or 15 times and I think it helped me a lot. I wouldn't take the exam any later than a month after the class so that the material is still fresh. If you have more time than I did, you may want to take the exam only one or two weeks after the class.

I feel really blessed to have such a job that they were willing to train me in times that are a bit tough to even find a job. The class was not cheap either! A couple weeks after my class, I found out that any and all training for the remainder of the year was cut from the budget for our whole division, so a double blessing!