Occasionally I’ll wear my “blueberry” VMware certification shirt to work.

Some people in the community love these shirts, some people don’t. I, do.

Blue also happens to be my favorite color.

Occasionally someone I work with in my current workplace will comment on it. Before the last year, it was a bit of personal marketing while working as a VAR engineer. When I’d show up on site maybe there was a bit of “you can trust me because hey look it says right here I’m not some rando off the street.” In my current role, it’s not always obvious that I’m engaged in the VMware ecosystem. Since the shirt is, very blue, it gathers comments that range from “oh I didn’t know you were a…” to genuine curiosity of “what does that mean?”

Occasionally though, someone makes the less than flattering comment: “you know no one here cares about certifications, right?”

My usual response? “I do.”

In the moment I might get a little defensive and mention the number of hours required to sit for multiple VCAP exams, the underlying VCP exams, between training classes, time spent doing self guided learning or the process and stress of the actual exam.

The cost of the training, both in currency and time, is sometimes carried by the owner or sometimes their employer. I’ve been fortunate enough in my recent career to have had an employer that would make those investments on our behalf. It wasn’t always that way. Despite being deeply engaged with VMware products since 2007, it took until 2011 to obtain my first VCP. The financial hit for the required class was too much for me to take on at the time.

That VCP was my first industry certification of any kind.

I’m acutely aware that certification doesn’t mean you’re an expert, or that there are plenty of folks running around with certificates for things they have no practical experience with. That’s one reason why I’m such an advocate, and so proud of obtaining two practical/administration VCAP certificates. You can’t just memorize a test dump to walk in and regurgitate against multiple choice questions. You have to demonstrate your competency in a -slow- live environment.

So it’s fine that “nobody” in your organization cares about certifications. They have a value, if sometimes only to the holder.

In the wake of the last comment I got at work, I ordered two new blueberry VCAP shirts. My old one was getting a little rough looking. They’ll come in handy, especially in my next role.