Technical vs. Non-Technical Certifications - VirtualizedGeek Tech Talks Episode 7
Transcript
hi today is April 1st 2013 you're listening to episode seven of virtualized Geeks Tech talk this is actually I was looking forward to doing this uh Tech talk because I get to avoid studying tonight I'm going for my vcp VMware certified professional which is vmware's entry level certification you guys have seen and heard me talk about VW certification uh I've uh ranted a little bit about how I believe that it's a little bit limiting and that it doesn't allow uh people with limited means to take
the exam we'll just leave leave it to that I encourage you to uh read my blog post on uh on VMware uh helping to widen the the digital divide but I've personally decided to take the exam even though I'm in a semi non-technical role I am a Management Consultant the it Management Consultant specifically I get to talk to senior level uh managers uh SE level folks about their it strategy this includes virtualization Disaster Recovery uh generally it infrastructure things um or or it infrastructure topics um
I'm I recently finished up a engagement while I was uh specifically addressing the management issue so I don't get to get down into the weeds of Technology much anymore it most definitely helps that I have a very strong background in technology obviously after uh more than a dozen and a half years of it experience I have a wealth of knowledge in a bank to go back to and draw to to be able to uh relate my technical experience to the business and driving Val value through
it but I don't get to turn knobs much anymore I was taking a practice test for the vcp and you know one of the questions really struck me it said uh if you're conv you know if you're configuring a v switch for those of you who don't know what a v switch is never mind it doesn't really matter uh if you're configuring a v switch and you set a specific configuration you configure uh some ports what do you need to do next configure the uplink uh
and when you're on the screen to configure the Uplink which is the right uh verbage to the menu option is it to a uh you uh select unused interfaces B select unclaimed interfaces C something else I knew that the answer was either A or B then I thought to myself how ridiculous is this that it should even matter uh if if I'm in the interface I'm going to see that unused or unclaimed or whatever the option is in the actual exam I mean the ACT exam
doesn't really mimic real life I've always this has always been my frustration with non-performance based exams in general but getting back to the topic of the applicability of technical certifications to non-technical roles you know I've struggled this for the past few years as as I had manag management positions uh architect positions that really take me away from the daytoday as uh one of my managers like likes to call it Knob turning where I get to press the buttons uh hit the install Buton button uh uh
run cable all the things that I kind of love doing has been a geek naturally I don't get to do those things anymore and the guys that work uh when I was in architect used to love to remind me hey Keith you know you're not really an engineer anymore you're kind of uh you know one of those guys one of those white collar guys that really don't need to touch a keyboard and the pride of me uh would always resist those statements uh back in the
late 90s I got a surf I was a surf at the will engineer a Microsoft certified systems engineer mcse and nt40 before there were p mcc's um I took you know I had my CCNA then I decided to go to school because I wanted to expand my career and potentially going to management the flip side the thing that they don't tell you about management is that you can't be a pure geek in be in management and be a successful manager there's some people who are able
to do that I'm letting you know now I'm probably not one of those guys as I'm reading through uh tonight I have to read through Auto config just to know enough detail about uh VSP Auto deploy not Auto config Auto deploy so I know enough about the details of Auto deoy to actually pass the vcp exam so the question is what value actually does it have for management types that don't need to get into the actual nitty-gritty of ver of uh not just virtualization technology but
Network Technology you know if you're looking at the CCNA ccnp ccie God forbid or the vcdx any of these acronyms that they throw at you now for certifications is there True Value in it for non-technical guys you know I've gotten to a couple of discussions on LinkedIn about uh some sales guys that used to be Engineers talking about how now they need to rely on uh uh sales Engineers to get data from and they kind of you know feel a little bit shamed that they no
longer know all the answers but I'm starting to finally embrace the fact that I'm getting away from uh needing to know everything it's pretty tough hard for an engineer by heart to admit but I can you know I really need to uh be able to uh speak to different levels of business you know I one day I'm interacting with accountants the next day I might be uh interacting with marketing uh sea level guys really don't want to know the nitty-gritty that you just want to know
can I Outsource my it operations to a third party or can I get rid of my data center and move everything to the cloud what exactly are the advantages and disadvantages of those things and knowing what buttons to press on an interface really doesn't buy you that uh knowledge what buys you that that knowledge is uh managing projects understanding the interaction between uh it from an operational standpoint and the business uh what Solutions actually drive value uh what's the return on investment on certain Solutions those
are the things as you move um through the uh management ranks that you start to focus on versus just the pure technology having the technology background is great uh actually going through I'm going to continue to uh commit to finishing getting my certification I I test uh Friday I S the for the my first attempt for the vcp on Friday I don't know if I really expect to pass if I pass great if I don't I will continue to take the test because the background knowledge
is useful now I'm not exactly sure if vmw requires you to recertify or what happens with the next version level again it's been a long time since I've been in a role that really re ired technical certifications but I think the value that I'll earn from at least this certification will be worth it since a lot of the obviously virtualized geek is primarily a cloud computing and and virtualization Focus uh website so that I think adds Direct Value to you guys but it also adds value
to uh my customers at the end of the day because my knowledge and Technology will be that much deeper uh what does this mean to you guys you know if you're pursuing a career of management you obviously do need to stay uh pretty fresh uh technically but uh you really need to pick and choose what battles you pick from a technology standpoint I'm pretty sure I probably won't let I'll probably I probably won't renew my CCNA once that lapses I most definitely won't be getting any
Microsoft certifications I'll be doing some highlevel uh training using training signal for uh Linux um some Microsoft Technologies in general obviously Citrix because that's another heavily virtualization focused solution but I think this is probably going to be my last technical certification uh for the foreseeable future i' like to know what you guys think you know as some of you guys are still in the trenches I think a lot of you guys that uh listen to this podcast or read the blog are still in the trenches
uh staying up at uh 2:00 in the morning getting that server back up and some of you guys that started transition into more architectural roles and into design and eventually management roles what do you guys think have you found that uh you know you you you have one leg pulling you into the technical weeds and another leg uh kind of pulling you out into the higher level understanding the the big picture thanks for listening and watching episode seven of virtualized G geek I again appr appreciate
all one dozen of you guys that watch the videos or the one person and I'm talking to you Lenny that watches it 12 times it's still appreciated thanks a lot talk to you guys next week
