Near the start of 2018, I wrote a blog post titled, “New Year, New Goals.” In that post, I listed my top four personal goals that I wanted to achieve for the year. This post is a follow-up to summarize how I did for the year. I’m not here to make excuses for why some goals weren’t met — I’m just being transparent about how I did with each of the goals I had set out to achieve at the beginning of 2018.
❌ Obtain My VCP-DCV 6.5
Welp, I definitely fell short on this one. I took a crack at this exam back in May, and for my first-ever attempt, I got a 290, however a minimum score of 300 is required to pass. I was so crushed, but knew I wasn’t going to let this get me down! I studied more, read more online documentation, and even took a series of Hands-on-Labs.
After VMWorld US had wrapped up, I gave it another shot in October. Again, I fell just short with a score of 285. I honestly don’t know how I did worse, but I did. My goal was to give it another shot before the end of the year, however I waited too long to schedule a time slot. By the time I felt ready to schedule, the remaining exam dates for December had filled up! So, it looks like I’ll have to give it another shot in 2019, and it looks like this goal will be on the list again for next year.
✅ Attend my first VMworld Conference
I was VERY fortunate and had the opportunity to attend my first-even VMworld conference in Las Vegas back in late August! Although my current company prefers to send one person from the team each year and rotate through, we’ll see if I’m able to make it to the conference in 2019. You can read all about my first VMworld experience in my earlier blog post, “My First VMworld Experience.”
❌ Publish at least 20 blog posts for the year
Including this post, I published 18 total blog posts for the year, and fell just short of my goal of 20. I felt like I was off to a good start in the spring, and again through #BlogTober, but once the holiday season fell upon us, I got distracted with other activities and simply missed the mark. No excuses; I clearly lost sight of this goal as the year went on. Let’s see if I can successfully achieve this goal in 2019.
✅ Obtain vExpert
I had initially applied for the vExpert program during the mid-2017 timeframe, however I didn’t quite make the initial cut. Although my application was rejected, I at least received some feedback as to why. One of the reasons was that my blog was literally brand new, and I didn’t have any posts dating back to the previous year.
After not making the initial cut, I was determined to try again in the next round. This event (as well as LOTS of encouragement from the #vCommunity) also nudged me to consider presenting at my local VMUG meeting as well as getting more involved, overall. As a result of these continued efforts, I truly believe it’s what led to me being accepted in next the round of vExpert program announcements earlier this year. Actually finding out that I was indeed accepted into the 2018 vExpert program was a bit of a funny story, and you can read all about that experience in my blog post titled, “Achievement Unlocked! VMware vExpert-2018.”
I want to wish each of you a happy, safe, and prosperous New Year in 2019! As always, thank you for stopping by!
Doug's Blog 