Update

Wow, more than 3 years have passed since my last update on this blog.

I am trying to figure out why, but maybe I should just post some updates from my life and draw the conclusion after:

1. In August 2011 I got married

2. In April 2012 I started running (read this as running competitions, trail-running marathons)

3. In December 2013 I got the VCP 5 certification

4. In April 2014 my son was born

5. In April 2014 I changed my employer and job

But enough about me, as this blog is about certifications, I will write in this blog how I achieved the VCP 5 certification

As I can read from the last post, the idea came to my mind in November 2011, but the first step to that was to take the VMware official course. As it was a fairly expensive one, 1500-300 Euro, it was kind of hard to get the company I was working for to pay for it. Luckily for me, the summer of 2012 brought some high management changes in the company and in December 2012 I got the approval to take the course. It was a 5 day online course which I highly recommend - vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage. At this point (March 2015) it still uses the vSphere 5.5 version. When I took it it was on 5.1. I learned a lot of things there, but the most important for me was the storage part, where I had little experience.

After I took the course, a couple of work projects/ business trips took much of my energy, together with points 2 and 4 from the list above, but in November 2013 I finally scheduled the exam and in December 2013 I took the VCP 5 certification. The exam wasn't very difficult, but I would not call it easy either. Bear in mind I have been working with vSpehere (vCenter) for the past 2.5 years, but not only as administrator but also as a software developer, QA, support, so I had a lot of knowledge of the inner mechanisms of vCenter.

Fast-forward to March 2015, I now work again in the networking field, Software Defined Networking. Again the certification paths are on hold, but I am sure they will converge in the future.

"You can't connect the dots looking forward you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something: your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path."

Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Address, 2005