This blog post is going to be a detailed story about my personal experience on the VCI-ICW workshop which took place from 18-22nd of August 2014 in VMware office at Singapore . and explains ""
WHY I will Never go for another VCI-ICW workshop "" and it is for those who looking for How to become a VCI
I am not a native english speaker and using this language for my tech classes . So bear with me on all grammatical errors that comes naturally for this kind of a post
Post part one
If you are in to VMware technology in general and wish to be a VCI in particular , it may be helpful to you if you come across this post before you bet your money on this
$2250 workshop to become a VMware certified Instructor .
If you are the type who wish to hear the story in one line ,
I attended the VCI-ICW workshop and I failed . No surprise , I have heard the stories of so many current VCI's explaining their previous experience of failing once and then re attending the camp to try their luck again . And to me all those stories really emphasized the fact that VMware is really keen on maintaining the quality of their official training program and VCI's are the key factor on imparting quality technology to would-be virtualization professionals . .....until I come across it and come to know the insider story .
It is not a hate post by a person who failed on a test to tarnish an organization or some persons involved in it . But it is about the injustice done to me as a technologist , a trainer and even as a normal human being by a group of individuals working in a company called
VMware .
I am planning to complete this blog post by taking enough breaks in between and posting
all the proofs , documents , email transactions , voice transcripts , video recordings and everything relevant to prove my points . I am not talking the whole stuff to any court of justice simply because I strongly believe that in todays connected world , the social media is the biggest influential factor and the common man using the media is the judge .
Since it is the narration of the facts , it surly involves real locations , dates and real names . It is not an anonymous post and my profile is here for every one to view . And I will make sure that the profiles of every one involved in this story will also be highlighted through this blog post .
So this is going to be a real insider story of what is happening on a typical VCI workshop and how ill organized the VMware is when it comes to the case of their most important technical status called VCI
This is for the first day of my post , It is late night here in my part of the world . I will come up with the story of ""
WHY I will Never go for another VCI-ICW workshop "" on next few days
Please share your thoughts , comments and suggestions on this particular post. and bookmark this blog for updates because there is every chance that I may be banned from the groups on which I post this as many of the persons around me know what really happened and who are guilty on the case .
Let me download all by e certificates and transcripts of all my vmware mylearn accounts till date .By the unprofessional treatment I got from VMware on this specific issue , I am not sure about accessing my account on mylearn.vmware.com after I finish my post .
Day two : Post part two
As expected , this post like got disappeared from most of the vmware community facebook pages . No surprise :-) , most of the page admins are vmware employees and everyone care about their daily bread , is it ... But friends , It gives me a clear idea that you know what I am going to write and you are concerned . I am admin of several pages too and If I am going to delete some posts I will give a warning to the poster so that he/she will know what his mistake is .... Since I did not got any such messages , I think it is just accidental and re posting it
Ok , so let me continue from where I have left ,
VMware VCI , how to become a VCI
let me introduce myself and my credentials. I had been a Trainer for the last 14 years and am running an Institute for Technology Training at my home land on IT Infrastructure management. Moreover I was taking hands –on-Training for VMWare for the past 4 years and most of the Trainees are attended your ICM and passed VCP . Please find my profile at www.shyamlal.com .
I was trying to become an official vmware instructor ( VCI) for the past three years and contacted different VATC’s.As you are aware , the official sponsorship from a VATC is mandatory for attending the session.
After about a year of continuous e-mail transactions I got a Singapore based company which is conducting training in different countries as my sponsor. I applied for VCI workshop to Singapore office and got approval for attending the session from aug 18-22 on Singapore. I cancelled all my training assignments and preparing for it for almost 18 hours per day for the past one month with slides send by vmware to me for taking the training sessions.
The fact that I was a Trainer in VMWare among others like Microsoft, Cisco,CompTIA and the like was intimated to your Singapore Office and they had selected me to appear for the ICW after collecting the Fees from me and advised me to attend the Workshop to be conducted from 18th to 22nd of August 2014 at Singapore and sent me the slides for the camp.
I had therefore appeared for the Workshop in time on the specified date and the two evaluators had started the exercise. The Workshop was also attended by another four candidates, one each from Myanmar, Singapore, Koria and Malaysia.
the person from Korea does not know any words in English and even when he was asked to take a session in Korean language , he could not show any training skills rather than reading through the slides . Strangely the evaluators do not know the Korean Language and they taken it for granted .
Another person proved that he is not even aware that SSO is mandatory for a vCenter environment and almost was the case with one more person. I had high regards for the vmware instructor session and expected that these persons will surely be expelled from the event as they are not fit for a trainer post.
On their first review meeting with me on the 3rd day the Training Evaluators had expressed high regards for my presentation skills and knowledge of the Technology. Things went smooth for me till 4th day afternoon and all of a sudden things took a different turn. They started harassing me with questions that are not even expected for a VCAP-DCD level of exam and told me that day evening that I am not fit for their level of expectation and need to take one more extra session on fifth day and the subject was vmotion. I did well on that too even if they tried to stop me on each and every slide with irrelevant questions. It was just another form of a Ragging rather than an evaluation. I was not allowed to answer their questions and started asking other questions continuously before answering the previous question as in a Rapid Firing Manner.
Then I begin to suspect that something fishy is going on and got so many questions regarding my training sessions on vmware products. Then I suspected that my previous background of conducting vmware sessions was the sudden reason for such a change and that some Conspiracy was going on against my candidature for VCI.
The evaluators told me on the last day that I was not selected since I am not fit for their level of skills and declared me as Failed, which result I had been smelling from the 4th day afternoon on suspecting a Conspiracy against me, which was revealed from their question regarding the sessions that I am conducting at my homeland. It was asked in a sarcastic tone and their body language made it clear that I had committed a sin. In fact I am aware that after becoming a VCI I am not permitted to conduct unofficial sessions and if such things happen I will lose my VCI status. It is against all common sense that taking a session before becoming a VCI is a disqualification and I presume that the evaluators had not mentioned as this a reason for denying VCI status for me and described my session as not up to their level of expectations.
Before visiting Singapore for the Workshop I had conducted several session to Corporate Customers at their premises and at our organizations training labs and facilities and imparted VCAP level skills and the funny matter is that the evaluators found that I had no skills to impart VCP level sessions which is expected from a VCI.
The factor of subjectivity of the evaluators was not checked at any point and they are allowed by the Company to act at liberty to award VCI status at their whims and fancies which situation is telling upon the credibility of the Company and its Education Division.
I thought such type of unfair practices happens only back in our homeland. The real shock comes next , the guys who did not perform even the basic level skills of the web client got certified including the Korean who could not even speak English and none of the evaluators know Korean language. How about me conducting the session in my language named Malayalam and instructors let me permit that ?
Then I came to know that the two of the persons who passed was from the same company from which one of the camp instructors comes from.
Even if I was passed the exam, I would have lost my faith in vmware since these guys were also passed.
The feedback of the camp was forcibly taken on 9.15 AM on last day. After I submitted the feedback , I have seen the report of the same reached the laptop of the evaluators which they are reading through before they are going to have a final discussion with me . It is really shocking!! , if the confidential feedback I have given about the camp and instructors are send to the instructor itself , I really doubt the ill managed procedure prevailing in your organization . I think the same case applies to all the ICM boot camps also . . Can any Company disclose the Confidential Information on its employees make public and especially to the concerned person without any loss of time such remarks have been furnished on the evaluator.
This is the initial picture of the sscenariowhich I wish to convey to you . Hope you got a basic idea about what happened . But there is more to the story that's why it took me two months to come up with this blog post after the incident happened .
I was aware that an injustice happened to me , but I have faith in the organizational structure of Vmware and strongly believed that I will get justice from their higher authorities and what happened to me is just a single incident which is not reflecting the whole process of VMware VCI selection process.
But what followed next was really shocking than the whole camp experience itself .and by the last two months I come to face so much information about how ill organized the entire process are taking place in such a billions of dollar worth organization . I will come up with more on that on next update .
In meantime , watch a glimpse of the performance of one of the person selected as a VCI and may be conducting training sessions for vmware . He does not know more than two or three words in English and none of the instructors know a single word in Korian language . it is such a miracle that they can evaluate him and declared him as the winner .
for your information , I was gone through a one hour pre- VCI camp telephonic interview so that I have to prove that I am ready for attending the camp . I just wondered who conducted the telephonic interview for this person and then our instructor Mr. Asif Rafeek come up with the answer that he conducted the telephonic interview . Now just wondering which language they talked to each other for that telephonic conversation .
Now sensing that the US $ is pronounced similarly in almost all lanuages and people can easily recognize that
So Let me continue with my points,
After the camp is over and I know that there is a clear case of conspirecy is going on against me , I tried to collect more information about the behind the door activities .
It was pretty sure that the sudden change in attitude of the evaluators towards me is because of some external pressure . I probed the matter a little further with my IT friends in bangalore , India and I got a clear idea of what happened . One of the VCI from india made pressure to the higher authorities of education division in India to expel me from this VCI list . The higher authority comply request of a basic trainer and put pressure on the Singapore office to remove my name from the list of passed persons . I have met all the eligibility criteria , sponsorship and payed $2250 to attend this 5 day evaluation and none of that were considered and company have given priority to some casual request from someone from India .
I am not making a wild guess on this topic and every insider is aware about this fact .
I know there is no point in seeking justice from the same persons who denied me the basic justice , so I filed a complaint to The board of Directors , The audit team and the CEO of VMware .
I thought such a multinational with high regards for ethics in their business guidelines will treat this matter fairly .
As expected , the team responded and a committee was formed to inquire into the allegation .
I got an assurance that VMware is really taking this stuff seriously and wish to have a detailed discussion with me on this stuff
here is the screen shot of the email .
.
Then a gentleman from India named Srinivas dialled me on behalf of VMware US division and had a 3 hour phone conversation with me to extract the facts . He does not have any counter arguments and assured me that he will get back to me after contacting the US offcials . Quite natural. I think his duty is to just enable a conference call between me and the US team .
and after one week , there was one more phone call which lasted for 2 hour . and after that call he said that they need two week to have a detailed probe in to the matter with all the persons involved and will get back to me with in two weeks with a detailed report of the same
So I waited for two weeks and still maintained by trust on a public limited company who is also answerable to their shareholders , But the mail from the committee was enough to shatter all those images of such a technology company
I will come up with that mail and what happened after that by today evening or Saturday morning, since I have a lot of work for this friday. Thanks for all the responses , direct calls and also anonymous threatening calls that is confirming that this post is bothering some people inside the company .
I will not bother you with making this post any longer , I have just two more page worth of topic to discuss on next day and from next monday , I have to go back to my normal training assignments and regular workloads . , Please check this post on next day from more updates . If you have any specific doubts about any of the stuff I mentioned , I can answer it on the comment box .
Part 3 Posted on 27/10/2014 Monday
Thanks for all the inputs in the form of comments , facebook updates and direct calls . Let me finish this post by this update .
So we were discussing about Srinivas call from Bangalore office to get facts from me about the VCI-ICW camp at singapore . On the second call to me about 4 weeks back , I find that his questions are not so friendly as he did on the first day . He want to prove that I done something wrong . It was like a questioning session by a low enforcing agency . But I have enough answers to substantiate my points . After the call he said he will get back to me with in two weeks . But I did not heard from him for three weeks . So I contacted his US counterpart Mr Anselmo Guevara and after one week I got an E-Mail from him .
and this was that email
Dear Mr. Pushpan,
We refer to your email dated 28 August 2014 to VMware’s Board of Directors, CEO and Audit Committee Chairman.
Our Ethics and Compliance team has now completed its investigation of your allegations related to your attendance of the Instructor Certification Workshop (“ICW”) in Singapore during the period 18-22 August 2014, and the outcome of our investigation does not substantiate that there has been any violation of VMware’s Business Conduct Guidelines by our employees or partner employees (the second ICW lead instructor). Accordingly, we consider this matter closed.
Please be assured that VMware remains dedicated to the highest standard of compliance and ethical behavior in the way that we do business with our customers, partners and Education Program participants.
Sincerely,
Anselmo Guevara
Ethics & Compliance Office
So that's it . My 5 page complaint with so much allegations , 5 hour of conversation to this committee and finally they send me a 5 line email that their investigation does not substantiate that there has been any violation of VMware’s Business Conduct Guidelines by our employees or partner employees
I Did not asked them to inquire about the business conduct guidelines violations , but asked to investigate about the injustice that happened . No explanation about the points I have raised , No answers given , and they are considering the case as CLOSED. and this email is send to me by their Ethics office . what kind of an ethics is this ?
If they just want to protect their team members by simply saying that they did not find anything un ethical and just closing the case , why did they spend this much time in investigating the case .
I send a direct mail again to the CEO , Board of Directors and Audit committee letting know my response to this email , and I did not heard from them till date .
Let me finish this post with an open reply to the CEO and board of directors of VMware
I wish to let you know that for me this matter is not closed yet ,and will not be closed until I get justice . I thought I will get just justice from a company where a technologist is a CEO rather than a business man ( and I am still hopeful for that Mr Gelsinger ) . I am not going to type in all those points again since you have my first mail with you . But let me point out just one or two
1. Regarding the Korean person in the camp , Who conducted the initial pre -ICW telephonic interview with him and on which language he asked questions ?
even on the ICW camp how the trainers accessed his skill set ? and how he was declared selected ? Can I conduct a session on my native language and will these instructors let me pass the camp ?
I am making an allegation that it is clear case of bribery than just an accidental decision
2. How the other two persons who skipped the very basic concepts of virtualization like SSO and resource allocation passed the camp ?
I am making an allegation that it is a case of unjustifiable and partisan attitude in favour towards them since they are team mates and friends of one of the instructor
3. how the evaluators who give me great feed back until Thursday afternoon suddenly found out that I am not fit for it ?
I am making an allegation that it is a clear case of conspiracy from persons in Indian divison of vmware.
You did not addressed any of this matters in your last mail and simply saying all is fair as per your standard of ethics ,
As a normal human being , I don't find it ethical .
I request the shareholders of this company not to under estimate the power of social media and the role any professional or even common man can play in it .
Rather than protecting one or two of your staff , I expect you to be with your organizations best interests .
Thanks for all the persons who read it fully and cared to comment and shared it over social media .
