E-x-p-a-n-d Your Skills… (25 VMware, DevOps & Cloud Basics!)

Free Devops Training

So you’ve decided to E-x-p-a-n-d your skills and focus your career goals on Hi-Tech jobs. And you even feel confident because you love technology. But every time you find a tech job listing that sounds perfect for you all your confidence drains out. Instead of hope and excitement, now you feel depressed and overwhelmed because of the crazy long list of qualifications the hiring manager wants that you don’t have…

Look:

Expanding your skills is challenging when you don’t know where to begin, especially for someone just out of tech school. You need guidance. Whether your goal is to become a VMware Admin, DevOps Engineer, or Cloud Computing Expert, VMinstall.com has made it easier for you… Start with the Basics!

Before we get started I want to ask you to subscribe to VMinstall. The form is on the home page,  just insert your name and email address and press the big orange “Send Me Strategies” button so you won’t miss out on any new lessons I post. Don’t worry, I promise to only send you updates and interesting emails.

Stick with me because we’re going to cover a lot and remember, our focus isn’t only on skills, it’s also on understanding the big picture and learning to think strategically…

Let’s start with a list of 25 mindset changing tips beginning with books to read:

1. The Phoenix Project is a novel by Gene Kim that will help anyone wanting to understand DevOps. Gene uses a story to show how DevOps works. This is a good place to start if you want to learn about DevOps from a business or personal perspective.

2. VMware is always changing but some of the fundamentals have stayed the same almost since the beginning of vSphere. Mastering VMware vSphere 6 and Mastering vSphere 5.5 are both books that go deep into the way vSphere is set up and managed. Scott Lowe and Nick Marshall are both experts on the topic and these are excellent reference books to have at work.

3. Finding a good book on Cloud Computing really comes down to necessity. There are bunches of books written on the topic of cloud, but depending on the cloud service provider you choose to use changes the way you will support your applications.

My point here is Clouds are not the same: AWS, Azure, VMware Air and Google all have unique offerings.

Sure, IaaS is similar (spin up VMs), but the real magic is in PaaS or Platform as a Service. And unless you are a startup or just spinning up a WordPress website, I suggest finding cloud books that are specific to the business or project needs. (Don’t waste money on general cloud books!)

4. Docker Containers is another topic I recommend having a basic understanding of and The Docker Book by James Turnbull is an easy read and covers a lot (Read my Docker Book).

5. Virtualization Changes Everything: Storage Strategies for VMware & Cloud Computing by Vaughn Stewart is another book I suggest reading and keeping at work (Read my Storage Strategies  Book review).

Coming up next we’ll look at Training Options, Job Tips, and Interview Questions, and then we’ll finish up with goodies for beginners. I suggest reading them all.

IT Training (Free and Paid Resources)

6. Huge Opportunity for Beginners: Online DevOps Training – this lesson covers multiple skills you should develop if you are interested in becoming an automation engineer (DevOps).

7. IT Training for Beginners (Alternatives & Freebies) – in this lesson I share a list of free and paid resources for online training.

8. Becoming a DevOps Engineer: A Personal Interview with Bobby Lopez – this is an interview I had with an Automation Engineer (DevOps/Cloud).

9. FREE VMware Career Guide for Beginners – This is a free eBook I wrote that covers common questions new admins have. (Download it, it’s free)

(New) 9.1. VMware Training For Beginners – The perfect VMware online training for new admins who want to level up their skills BIG and join the VMware Engineers on the cool projects that involve designing and building infrastructure.

Devops For BeginnersTechnology Job Tips & Interview Questions

10. 10 Reasons VMware Admins Should Boost OpenStack Skills – a must-read if you want to be indispensable.

11. 25 VMware Interview Questions: Tough & Technical (Download) – a free resource for hiring managers.

12. 10 Tough Incident Manager Interview Questions (Download) – another must-read if you want to become an incident manager.

13. 30 Linux Interview Questions: Passion Pays Off Big! – this lesson demonstrates the systematic approach to how I write interview questions.

14. Accelerate Your Career — 11 HOT IT Jobs in 2016 & HOT Jobs in 2017 (Apply NOW) – a must-read comprehensive assessment on which jobs are hot in today’s job market.

15. How to Hire an IT Manager (Free Hiring Kit) – this is a complete hiring kit, including IT Manager Interview Questions.

More Resources for Beginners…

16. VMware for Beginners: Collection of 16 Virtualization Basics (Part 1)

17. 17 Virtualization Basics: Part 2 for VMware Beginners

18. OpenStack for Beginners (Alternatives for VMware)

19. DevOps For Beginners (5 Step Guide)

20. 3 Open Source Storage Software Alternatives For Beginners

21. VMware vSphere Manager’s Guide for Beginners

22. VMware vSphere Troubleshooting Guide for Beginners

23. Udemy – My Favorite Online Learning Resource

24. Virtual Machine Software: Top 10 Alternatives is a list of hypervisors that run on servers and desktops. You can download and test each software in your lab or on Free VirtualBox Software.

25. Virtualization Jobs Are Hot! How To Hack Your Resume provides a proven strategy for giving your resume the edge against all the other applications competing for the same job.

Bonus #1. You’ll need a lab for growing your server admin skills. Start off with a good workstation or server with lots of CPU cores (4 or more) and memory (32GB or more). I recommend reading this lesson about cheap server hardware alternatives to see if one of these options can help you get started.

Bonus #2.  And if you’re looking for more books to read, then visit the learning center and check out the 10 Best VMware Books and the 10 Best DevOps Books (updated daily).

Still hungry for more? Well, let’s keep going…

Click here to start reading the rest of my 175+ guides, lessons, and tips on VMware, DevOps, and Cloud Computing…Enjoy!

Feel free to contact me if you still have any questions.