Question regarding entering vmware field.

TurK-FX

Hi everybody. I am desperate finding jobs, so everyday I am thinking new way to improve myself and be qualified to land on a nice job. Although I have good education( computer engineering associated, software engineering bachelor. But I suck at programing), I can't seem to find even entry level A+ jobs. I decided to go with cisco. But my researches conclude that there are not many entry level jobs in ny city area. All the jobs adds ask for senior position. I was trying to find something that I can combine with A+ and ccent. I think virtualization ia the future and I want to get my hands on this field.


I have no experience except running virtual machine in win7 to learn linux and windows 2008. What is fastest annd easiest way to get certified. I feel like this certification would help me to het some entry level position, and I would decide what to focus from there. I am self-learner. And I have access to trainsignal and cbt videos from a friend.

Essendon

As much as I hope you get into virtualization, but trust me - no one's going to hand over the keys to their virtual infrastructure without you having some systems administration experience. VMware's flagship exam, the VCP isnt entry level and passing it would require significant effort - not discouraging you or anything, giving you some facts.

I reckon you should work on your CCNA and/or an MCTS on Active Directory. You are much more likely to land an entry level gig with a either of these certs rather than the VCP. In addition, the VCP isnt just an exam, it's an exam + training (which costs a minimum of $1100).

Perhaps your resume isnt upto scratch and maybe you should put it up here, get it critiqued and then flood it again on your local job sites.

Good luck!

ChooseLife

I concur with Essendon.

It's good to know virtualization and seems you already have some experience running desktop virtualization products - that is great and should give you advantage over other candidates (make sure to include it on your resume).

There are no entry-level virtualization in VMware space (not sure about MS) that would be appropriate for your level. I think it is best for you to focus on getting an entry-level job at this point, then build up experience, move into system administration and then get familiar with virtualization as a sysadmin.

pumbaa_g

MS Seems to be having a Virtualization offer for some time, have a look at it. Its a start atleast

BroadcastStorm

You got degree, I highly think you need to redo your resume.

jibbajabba

I think in virtualization it is rather the other way around ..

Not exam > job but job > exam.

In every single job interview I have been to which was VMware related, I got asked a lot of technical questions. But not the nature of "how many vCPUs can a VM have" or "what is the maximum size of a VMDK using 8MB blocksize" .. but rather real world scenarios. For example "How would you migrate across sites without downtimes, what are the requirements" and so on .. In fact, most highlevel job I applied for I didn't get was not because of my lack of VMware knowledge, but the lack of storage .. They go hand in hand. I for example come from a mostly ISCSI shop - most "big" infrastructures using FC - Whilst you can always youtube yourself the knowledge in how to work with certain pieces of software (i.e. how to create a LUN on an EMC / NetApp etc.) - you need to understand the concepts otherwise you will fall flat on your face.

VMWare is one of the few exams (I think) which really require real world experience to not just pass, but to make it even worth it.

I was lucky that my previous companies were always at the start of VMware and no one in the company had proper knowledge, which is why it usually was "all hands on deck" and everybody was working on it, simply because they had to.

I got my experience that way and getting the exam was simply due to the partner requirements.

It surely opened me a lot of doors - but even with 6 or so VMware certs (including some you can only get as a partner, such as VTSP and VSP), I still lack some fundamentals (like I say, storage and networking is another) that it is really hard to get high level exposure ..

The best bet is to work towards a vmware certification, but no use as sole ammunition to get a job, but rather use it as "add-on".

Even our first line guys have limited access to vSphere (restart a VM, console interaction etc.) - so that is already priceless on their CV. Knowing the interface is half the battle (well, quarter maybe).

Considering the cost of the exam and the mandatory course, ChooseLife is spot on - get an entry level job where virtualization is part of it and not the main requirement, get your exposure and with luck you might even get the course paid by a company ...

If you are really interested regardless, get yourself a PC dedicated to play with VMware - or any other virtualization software (Citrix is still a big player in VDI for example) and get cracking.

vSphere can virtualize itself so with one piece of tin you can usually get a proper cluster up and running (using nested hosts, google it).

Once you are setup with the hardware, you need to get cracking on with labbing. Every piece of software in vmware comes with a 60 days eval. Sure, you have to reinstall after that, but you need to learn that anyway

If the cert is your focus in the long run, get the blueprint, start at the top.

Example:



See, it even tells you what you need to achieve the goals including hyperlinks.

Even if you just want to get exposure, if you do go through the blueprint, the knowledge for the exam comes automatically AND you don't sound like an idiot when you do get an interview

RouteThisWay

Jibba's analysis is pretty accurate. Job -> Exam.

I transitioned my generic jack of all trades Sys Admin job (managed small 3 host/~50VM VMWare environment) into a Virtualization Engineer position (~50 host/1100VM VMWare environment- plus, XenDesktop for VDI, and looking at Hyper-V for some things).

When I interviewed for this position, it wasn't your typical Q&A about ports, technical trivia, what does DRS do etc. It was a pretty grinding mixture of phone and inperson interviews going over my experience with VMWare. Talking about my setup in my current position, issues I ran into and how I fixed them, listen to them explain a small portion of their environment and giving my impressions/recommendations/etc, etc. It was very different from jobs I have interviewed for where I would be asked "What port is FTP on? Name the FSMO roles and their operation. etc etc".

Granted, as Dave points out, "experience = knowledge" is not entirely true... it does help. Having a good background with the training/certification side mixed with experience is your best bet.

You have been given really great advice in this thread.

emerald_octane

My experience with VM at the enterprise level (ESX) came up sort of accidentally. I applied for an internship that dealt mostly with Windows Server 2008 which I had experience in however the entire infrastructure ran on a very high end layout ESX infrastructure (9x hosts locally, 24x hosts remote (tokyo, san jose, Philadelphia), 3x hosts disaster recovery) and I had to learn vCenter VERY quickly. At the time my experience dealt mostly with desktop virtualization so this was awesome to me. Imagine a 18 year old (me) getting to view all this advanced config working with $100,000 storage clusters wowza lol.