My road to VCI (VMware Certified Instructor) can be broken down to these points:
- Pass VCP5-DCV exam with a score of 350 or more I already did that when taking the VCP5 in 2012
- Attend either (or both) VMware courses Install, Configure, Manage or Fast Track a total of 2 times within 60 days I took the ICM class twice
- Attend the VMware Instructor Certification Workshop (ICW)
If you are not employeed by a VATC (VMware Authorized Training Center), but instead are looking to work as a freelance instructor, then you will also need to find a sponsoring VATC.
The ICW is basically a 5 day long exam where you present the Install, Configure, Manage course to the other prospect VCI and typically two or more VMware employees.
Shortly after booking the VMware Instructor Certification Workshop I recieved a call from Undeleeb Din who is the Enablement Lead for the VCI program in EMEA.
The call really made me reconsider if I was ready to attend or not. However my good colleague and fellow VCI Frank Brix talked me into still attending now.
Finally the week of the course arrived and I travelled to Frimley (UK) where the workshop was to be held.
I finally had a chance to meet my fellow prospect VCI’s and just as I feelt really unprepared after talking to Undeleeb the others feelt exactly the same… relief 🙂
Undeleeb handed out a sheet outlining the week, which modules for which days and which instructors would teach which lessons.
Obviously I was “lucky” enough to get picked to go first. Initially I was feeling something like “arrgghhh why me!” but this soon changed into “this means I am allowed to make more mistakes” 🙂
My first lesson was introduction to virtualization, which in my oppinion has some fantastic slides! However I guess I talked in too much detail in my eagerness to prove my technical knowledge and at the same time the other students, who were encouraged to ask questions, started a bombardement of questions, totally sidetracking the module into a million different directions.
For me this was a valuable lesson!
After each lesson Undeleeb would give us some fantastic feedback and great insights on each slide.
And so every day we worked trough every single module and lesson until it was suddenly friday.
Some feelt they were sure to fail and others had no idea… Luckily we all passed and so instantly I was VMware Certified Instructor.
This was a proud moment as I had really worked hard to prepare the modules in a technical way, but what I learned the most during the week was all about presentation skills. I hope to have a chance to be taught by Undeleeb in the future as he constantly suprised me with both technical knowledge and details on how to improve teaching.
