Yeah, your VCP certification will be expiring
What is VMware announcing?
VMware is implementing a recertification policy for VCP certification. To recertify, VMware Certified Professional (VCP) holders must pass any VCP or higher-level exam within two years of earning their most recent VCP certification.
See more FAQs under "Recertification" category.
Expirations, even for existing VCPs? See also the admittedly cliché "I'm happy for me" TinkerTry.com/vcp5completed.
Well, there is a bit of less-bad news buried in the announcement. I was rather early in getting my VCP, back on a very snowy February 29, 2012. So when I was first reading about this new every 2 year expiration policy, I suddenly realized that my VCP5 might already be expired.
So I logged in to mylearn.vmware.com to click on myTranscripts, and saw this new warning near the top:
VCP Certifications are now accompanied by an expiration date (Valid through date below). Learn more
Besides some changes to the way my certificate looks, seen below (intentionally in low resolution), what does this mean to me? It means I need to study and pass a test of some kind by July 2, 2015. That's actually 1219 days, or 3 years and 4 months, and 3 days between my certifications, calculated here. More generous for this round than I had initially thought. In the future, yeah, it'll be every 2 years.
It seems that as a VCP, I've already become a VCP5-DCV automatically (seen below). The path to VCAP5-DCA seems best for me, and the recommended classes are not mandatory.
Hopefully a VCP6 certification upgrade path of some sort becomes available before my expiration. I likely won't renew using the just released 5.5 Update 1 to prepare. I tend to prefer the bleeding edge, to distinguish myself from the crowd a bit, getting the most from my very limited certification dollars.
I'm posting this in the interest of helping others who might have some of the same sort of questions I did. Hopefully sharing my exact circumstance this helps you out a bit. Let us know your thoughts or plans by dropping a comment below!
