VMware Edu & Cert Community
rtausch
Contributor
Contributor

Very upset about VCP requirements!

First off, I have gained MCSE, CCNA, CompTIA and many other certifications without having to pay for an expensive course. All I had to do was build a test system, buy a study guide, read tons of materials and sit for the test. WHY has VMWare made it to where someone who doesn't have a lot of extra money and cannot take off time to go to an authorized training??????? Does anyone know if taking an authorized course is manadatory?? That is what I have heard. If that is the case, I'm going over to Hyper-V where I can get the cert a lot easier.

RT

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rtausch
Contributor
Contributor

Speaking of VC-VIP, the word VIP has a very cheesy sound to it so I hope they know what they are doing with the VIP insinuation, even though it is not the "very important person" it still looks like that on the outside. Who knows, maybe it could carry the same now respected Security + certification that CompTIA has. For many who could not afford the CISSP, they went with the vendor neutral Security + cert and it was listed for a 2-3 years at a top 10 IT cert which was a little surprise. May still be rated high. I took that test and got 49 out of 50 questions correct but I felt it fell WAYYYYYYY short than CISSP and GIAC which goes without saying....but it was still ranked high, surprisingly. I'll certainly consider the VC-VIP but for now I'll see about the Hyper-V cert. I worked in an environment with 205 servers, 60% were Hyper-V virtualized so a book and a test is all I need. Going back to VC-VIP, it would be nice if they changed the name.....VIP insinuates something, some expectation. I mean "Very Important Person" is subjective, lol, even though it means Virtual Infrastructure Professional......it still looks odd as an acronym.

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rtausch
Contributor
Contributor

I went to the Virtualization Council page and it looks impressive. Not sure how their cert will stack up. The did say something that is what I have been saying:

"The Virtualization Council now offers independent certification for virtualization professionals. An industry-first, up until now professionals, no matter how qualified were only able to obtain certification directly from the software distributor and on their terms, schedule and conditions"

I say amen to that statement.....but hold reservation untill I see it listed in the top certifications list which usually indicates the most desired certificates in an upcoming year which are based on the buzwords of the industry and what employers are looking for since potential clients often base on what employers are looking for........convoluted but thats how they work when they don't really know how to screen or determine qualified individuals or companies. And the beat goes on.

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Josh26
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Scott Vessey wrote:

Achieving VCP is more challenging than the process you went through to gain those other certifications you mention - which really explains in itself why VMware have such a policy.

I would strongly dispute that.

What makes the VCP challenging is that you need to get someone to pay for it. The technical skill required to certify is actually quite minimal compared to other certs I've passed.

Current holder of MCITP: Enterprise Administrator, CCNP, VCP4 and VCP5.

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I didn't mean the level of technical skill was particularly high (remember VCP is foundation-level these days too), I meant VCP was more challenging overall because it has the training requirement - you can't just setup a little lab, read some books, look at practice questions, and pass the exam in order to achieve the certification like you can others...


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Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog
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Josh26
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

rtausch wrote:

I went to the Virtualization Council page and it looks impressive. Not sure how their cert will stack up. The did say something that is what I have been saying:

"The Virtualization Council now offers independent certification for virtualization professionals. An industry-first, up until now professionals, no matter how qualified were only able to obtain certification directly from the software distributor and on their terms, schedule and conditions"

I say amen to that statement.....but hold reservation untill I see it listed in the top certifications list which usually indicates the most desired certificates in an upcoming year which are based on the buzwords of the industry and what employers are looking for since potential clients often base on what employers are looking for........convoluted but thats how they work when they don't really know how to screen or determine qualified individuals or companies. And the beat goes on.

Consider this.

Your employer would like his business to sell hosting under the VSPP.

This is only possible if he has a VCP on staff. He therefore wants a VCP. How would he therefore compare a VCP job candidate with a Virtualization Council certified candidate?

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rtausch
Contributor
Contributor

A lot of good suggestions.....with all this, I am going to see what the least expensive and least classroom-ish way I can do this.

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abirhasan
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Evening training may help to have VCP certified some people.

abirhasan 
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TupleSpace
Contributor
Contributor

There are classes available that you can take VMware training that qualifies you to take the VCP exam and only
pay Community College prices of $36 a unit. It's a 4 unit class and with student fees & parking etc.
the total cost of the class is $154 plus the cost of books. The class is not a "Fast Track" 1 week
class. It is a 3-6 month night class, meeting once a week.
Here are the links to the College and the course description if you wish to verify the information.
VMware Course information:
Here are many other Colleges including Coastline Community College that are listed under the VMware IT Academy Program here:
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SysAdminE
Contributor
Contributor

I agree with you, even though I just passed my VCP5 this past weekend (Aug 11, 2012). My employer paid for the course and I had the training provider throw in the exam, so all I had to do was study.

The course “VMware vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage [V5.0]” is terrible. Per the VCP 5 blueprint it’s supposed to cover ~80% of the exam objectives. The official course labs only consist of two ESXi hosts, which is a joke. Who would really set up a two host cluster???

I read the course materials and went through all the labs twice plus read a bunch of articles and KBs and set up my own lab with three ESXi hosts, vDS, and other things that were not covered in the course. Anyway, I barely passed (317 out of 300 required based on range of 100 - 800). The exam covers a huge amount of material, so I could have studied more.

The exam was poorly written and looked like it was written by someone whose native language was not English. And the questions were just silly, like giving me choices where the wording was exact except for one little word. The exam can be passed by anyone who studies enough or possibly uses an exam simulator (I didn’t try any). This is all just a big racket by VMware. Because of the course requirement, there are probably hundreds or thousands of experienced VMware admins who are not VCPs because they don’t have the funds to pay for the required course. I personally would not be a VCP if I had to pay for it myself.

BTW, if you want, you can just pay $250 and take the exam. At least you can provide proof that you passed the exam, even though you didn’t meet the requirements to actually get the VCP.

Regards, Sys Admin Extraordinaire, VCP5
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TupleSpace
Contributor
Contributor

Here is a correction to the link to Coastline Community College's low cost VMware authorized training class:

The class only costs $200 and I do believe if you pass the class with 90% of VMwares requirements, you get a discount voucher

that will significantly reduce the cost of the exam.

(Please note the class is only available to those that live near the LA/Orange County area as it requires you to physically attend the class)

https://bannerlsp.cccd.edu/pls/PROD/pw_pub_sched.p_course_popup?vsub=CST&vcrse=C220&vterm=201223&vcr...

Note: The course starts in a couple of weeks & there are only 5 out of 30 spots left for this class.)

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jhboricua
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I'm attending VMWorld. Today, at the VMware Store, I saw two VPC5 study guide books, one from Sybex and the other from Pearsons. None of them mention that it is mandatory to attend a VMware official training course. The Pearson book in particular, entitled 'The Official VCP5 Certification Guide', is borderline misleading. It actually encourages the reader to go ahead and register for an exam, more than once I might add, giving the impression that self-studying and passing the test is enough to earn the VCP. I went through the pages several times to make sure I was not misreading it. Didn't see a mention at all of the training course requirement. None. Sybex hardly goes over the requirements at all. That should tell you all there is to know about this sillyness. It IS a money grab, pure and simple. Almost as bad as asking a $100 entry fee to run 3 miles in SFO... Oooops.

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I don't have either book, but I would have expected them to mention the overall process to achieve VCP5 so I'm surprised if they don't. VMware themselves make the requirements very clear at http://www.vmware.com/go/vcp


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Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog
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SysAdminE
Contributor
Contributor

You could study on your own and pass the exam, and then put something like this on your resume:

VCP5 (pending course requirement, exam VCP510 already passed)

I’ve seen resumes where people put something like “PMP (pending)” or “CCNA (pending)” meaning they’re planning to take the exam. That’s just silly because I could put “pending” for a lot of things. What I’ve proposed here is different since you would have passed the exam already. Passing the exam is much more difficult than sitting in a class for a week.

Regards, Sys Admin Extraordinaire, VCP5
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meister_sd
Contributor
Contributor

I was looking around at the various links in this thread and the cheapest qualifying class, I could find, is $3500. Way too far out of my price range since I'd be footing the bill. I looked at the course list and it seems the CBT I have (TrainSignal) covers everything and a decent admin will know most of it, too. I'm going to have to go the route suggested (VCP 5.0 - pending course requirements - passed test). I looked at the list of Colleges hoping for something in SoCal and found some in LA/Orange but didn't find any in San Diego. Anyone seen anything here in SD? I'd love to take it at a college and spend even more time in an instructional environment. I learned a lot on my own doing when doing CCNA but when I took classes at Grossmont College, there was a lot more detail covered and I liked that.

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crawfordm
Expert
Expert

You should check out the list of schools on the VMware IT Academy -

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0At5YcMvz2XzJdHFCSVJWcUEzaGpPZ2pxd0taVXVJcnc&hl=en_US#gi...

I took my class online a couple years ago at http://www.cccti.edu/vmware/ and only paid $500

It was well worth it just to get qualified to take the VCP.

Marc

------------------------------------------------------------------ If you found this answer useful please consider the use of the Helpful or Correct buttons to award points. Thanks, Marc Crawford CCNA, MCSE, MCTS, A+, Net+, Sec +, VCA-WM, VCA-DCV, VCA-Cloud, VCA-NV, VCP-NV, VCP-DCV, VCP, VCAP5-DCA http://gplus.to/marccrawford http://blog.marccrawford.com @uber_tech_geek
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meister_sd
Contributor
Contributor

I overlooked the "online" part of the college course. It's now $1500 Smiley Sad but it is in a realistic cost now. The next start class is Nov 5th. Might have to sign up.

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TomHowarth
Leadership
Leadership

This is a mandatory requirement and one of the reasons the VCP holders are still held in fairly high regard as opposed to MCP holders.

Tom Howarth VCP / VCAP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: http://www.planetvm.net
Contributing author on VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment
Contributing author on VCP VMware Certified Professional on VSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410
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rtausch
Contributor
Contributor

"""This is a mandatory requirement and one of the reasons the VCP holders are still held in fairly high regard as opposed to MCP holders"""

That is not even remotely correct. The high regard that a Tech is held in comes from skills, experience, and performance, and pertains to what they work on day-to-day not from paying more for one course over another or a mandatory requirement that has nothing to do with Microsoft vs VMare. The initial question was regarding the mandatory course requirements being too expensive and classroom based but there has been a phenominal number of quality responses indicating some local colleges and other ways of achieving the classroom oriented intstruction that does not have to require a very busy person to give up time that he does not have.

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TomHowarth
Leadership
Leadership

NO you are incorrect,  the fact that a Certain standard is needed even if it is class room driven, means that there is a standard of knowledge that in known.

Tom Howarth VCP / VCAP / vExpert
VMware Communities User Moderator
Blog: http://www.planetvm.net
Contributing author on VMware vSphere and Virtual Infrastructure Security: Securing ESX and the Virtual Environment
Contributing author on VCP VMware Certified Professional on VSphere 4 Study Guide: Exam VCP-410
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SysAdminE
Contributor
Contributor

I am a VCP and I would have been better off buying the Sybex VCP book and studying that along with my home lab. The official VMware course that I took through New Horizons was a joke. And it's not like a college course where they actually test you after the course. I could have slept through most of the course (I took it online) and would still have been credited with taking it which would have met the educational component of the VCP. The only standard that there is is that the standard fee for the course is around $3,000; which VMware probably gets half of.

While I did find the VCP exam difficult, any reasonably intelligent IT server/sys admin with no real-word experience could study hard and pass it. The course requirement is a barrier to those who have to pay for training themselves. No other major vendor requires that, which is what irks some people.

Regards, Sys Admin Extraordinaire, VCP5
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