Failing Tableau certifications: Friday Thoughts Episode 2

0:00Hey, it's Tim here. It's another Friday. So

0:01here we are with Friday thoughts. This time

0:03I'm talking about failing certification.

0:06There's actually a lot of content out there

0:08on passing certification, lots of resources

0:10to help you pass certification. But I

0:12wanted to focus on the other side of that

0:14what happens when you set Tableau exams to

0:17try and get a certification, and you don't

0:19pass, essentially you fail. That can

0:22actually be kind of a difficult process,

0:24because in some cases, maybe your company's

0:26paid for the certification. So you kind of

0:29feel like you kind of have

0:29to make the most of it. In other cases, you

0:32might just feel like you maybe let yourself

0:34down. And you can kind of have these

0:36feelings of doubt. And sometimes it's not

0:38something that you maybe want to talk about

0:40. So what I wanted to do is essentially do a

0:43video to sort of create a safe place where

0:45we can talk about failing certification,

0:47and how to come out of that and then go on

0:49to pass whatever certification you want to

0:51sit over whatever sort of timeframe you

0:53want to set it in. So if you want to jump

0:55around this video and go to a specific

0:57section of puts timestamps below. So get

0:59involved

0:59with those, and they'll help you sort of

1:01jump around to the most relevant section

1:03for you. But otherwise, let's get stuck in.

1:05So right out of the bat, you're probably

1:07wondering, look, Tim, like, what's your

1:09point of sort of credibility here? Have you

1:11ever failed a certification? And the answer

1:14is yes, I have actually failed

1:15certification. So I'm actually on the Table

1:17au website here, you can see the cert

1:19ifications that they run, there's actually

1:20quite a few certifications. There's a

1:22little bit of context to this and some

1:25maybe speculation on my part, Tableau for a

1:28long time, I've run the exam

1:29capabilities on a system called loyalist

1:31services. Now, it sounds like a really

1:34weird, you know, service, it's not, it's

1:37just this exam service. And here you can

1:39see my exam record of all the exams I've

1:41ever sat with them. And then more recently,

1:43they've switched to this new service called

1:46Pearson Vue, which has at the moment, one

1:49exam, it did have two, but one's

1:50disappeared off the website. I think there

1:52's a lot of change going on in the

1:53background with these certifications. But

1:55nevertheless, I have some exams here in

1:57Pearson Vue, and the other

1:58exams here. So I'm actually going to focus

2:01mostly on loyalist exam services, because I

2:03've never failed an exam on the new system,

2:05but I have failed exams on the old system.

2:08And so here you can see my exam record, all

2:10the exams ever passed and failed, are all

2:12laid out here. And you can see I actually

2:14did my first certification for the first

2:17time at conference in July 2014. That's a

2:21really long time

2:21ago, and I actually passed it, passed my

2:23first exam. And there's interesting because

2:26I'm a consultant. So that's almost like a

2:28requirement for the work we do, it's pretty

2:30hard to go into a client or, you know,

2:32consulting engagement without having some

2:34level of certification in the tool that you

2:36're having. And so I passed that exam fairly

2:39well. And then I had to sort of step up to

2:41the next step and take on the server

2:43qualification, which I obviously failed,

2:45you can see here, I did the exact same

2:47thing at the next conference the following

2:50year, and I didn't pass, I got

2:5161%. And there's actually an interesting

2:54dynamic when you fail an exam, you get the

2:57exact same outcome, the exact same sort of

2:59results sheet as a pass, except for you pay

3:02more attention to what's actually on that

3:04result sheet. So let me go into this first

3:06failure here in July of 2015. And let's

3:10look at the results details. Now I think

3:12this downloads a PDF, which I'll put to my,

3:15I'll put it to my desktop. And let's just

3:16open that there. And let's just let's just

3:19take a look at it. And you can see that it

3:21's broken down

3:21in different setups. And you can see

3:24preparation, install and config,

3:26administration, troubleshooting, migration

3:29and upgrade. And it gives you a score for

3:31each of those sections. Now, in this exam,

3:34I just didn't get enough right on the core

3:37part of the exam. So the preparation, I got

3:3913 out of 14. That's pretty good. Install

3:41and config, I got 16 out of 26. Not ideal

3:45administration 15 out of 24 troubleshooting

3:48four out of 10, migration upgrade one out

3:51of

3:51six. So you know, I failed this exam by,

3:54you know, 60% isn't a bad mark, I needed,

3:56what is it 75% to pass. So you might think

3:59I'm only 15% away from the past. But

4:02actually, when you break that down into

4:04different categories, I pretty much needed

4:07to go away and learn, basically four out of

4:10the five sections from scratch, because I

4:13just haven't had enough coverage of those

4:15errors. Like if it was one area that I was

4:17weak at, then I could have walked away from

4:18that and thought, you know, as a bad day,

4:20but here, I just

4:21didn't have enough knowledge across four

4:23sections. So when you get something like

4:24this, and you fail an exam, it's not a

4:26great place to be in. And so I just wanted

4:27to talk a bit about, you know, how do you

4:29come out of this? How do you sort of turn

4:31this into a positive thing? How do you

4:33change your mindset so that it becomes a

4:34positive thing to sort of move forward from

4:36? And secondly, what are the tips and tricks

4:39I can give you to sort of look at your next

4:41exam, book your next exam and make sure

4:43that you do actually prepare and pass on

4:46the second on the second taking. So let's

4:48get into that a little bit more. And let's

4:50dive into this.

4:51Now, the first thing you should do when you

4:53file an exam is owner, I don't mean that in

4:56a nasty way. I don't mean that in a

4:58disrespect way. I just mean it in a very

5:00honest way. Okay. When you file an exam,

5:03unfortunately, waving the way these things

5:05work is that Tableau have written the exam,

5:08you fail the exam, you stepped up to the

5:10plate, you said you were ready to take the

5:13exam, they gave you a criteria to sit the

5:15exam. And if you're not ready, you just

5:18need to accept the fact that maybe you sat

5:20the

5:21exam a bit too early, or you weren't

5:22prepared enough. Sometimes, and I've seen

5:25it in fact, it's happened to me before I've

5:27actually failed an exam by one or two marks

5:29. And you can sort of sit there and go, oh,

5:31you know, the exams weren't worded properly

5:34, or are you know, this didn't didn't quite

5:36work out, right? Or if it was another day,

5:38I could have just had another, you know,

5:39sitting at exams. Although those things are

5:42maybe true, the fact is that those

5:45circumstances are the same for everyone.

5:47And if you don't sort of get over this

5:49initial point

5:50of owning that sort of failure, then you're

5:52going to struggle with every subsequent

5:54step beyond this, because you'll never

5:56really let go of those excuses and those

5:58reasons you sort of give yourself that

6:00actually stop you from preparing to retake

6:02the exam. So it's really, really important

6:04to just own the failure, accept it, and

6:07talk to someone about it. And then

6:08sometimes it can sort of be embarrassing to

6:10tell someone that you failed. And in my

6:12case, I talked to my colleagues, my

6:13professional colleagues, or I talked to

6:15even maybe my partner, whoever you want to

6:17talk to someone who's seen you put the

6:18effort into that exam,

6:20is probably the best person to talk to,

6:22because they appreciate that you weren't

6:24just sort of taking it for granted. And you

6:26put some serious time into it. So talk to

6:28them, get that sort of ownership aspect

6:31really down and make sure that you can

6:33really set yourself up to move on and start

6:36preparing to succeed, essentially say, this

6:38is not really I'm not like any sort of

6:40motivational coach in this instance. But

6:42honestly, all of those strategies that are

6:44motivational coach would sort of give you

6:46to sort of step up from failure apply here.

6:48And in my view, I

6:49think owning it is really, really important

6:52. Because when you start to own it, you can

6:54start to dissect and reflect about the exam

6:56in a more meaningful way. So that's step

6:58one, and the failure and talk to someone

7:00about it. Just make sure you can take the

7:02stress off your shoulders and you can re

7:04evaluate what's going on. Now, I just said

7:06something about reflection. And actually,

7:08this is the most important thing. Now, with

7:10most tableau exams, if I actually go to the

7:12exam page, where is that certification here

7:15, with most tableau exams, all the associate

7:18and the specialist

7:19exams will give you results straightaway.

7:21Now, I do know that there's some things

7:24changing with these certifications, I don't

7:26know when or how. But essentially, at least

7:29for the certified associate and the

7:31specialist at the moment, and the service

7:33certified associate, you do get a result

7:36almost instantaneously. And for the

7:38consultant exam that I recently sat that I

7:40've done a video on, you also get the result

7:42straightaway. That's because essentially,

7:44they're picking the questions from a pool

7:46of questions. Therefore, there's always an

7:47answer ready to go. Therefore, the system

7:49can tell you how you've done straightaway.

7:51So as soon as you know that you failed,

7:54immediately reflect on the exam. Now, if

7:56you're sitting some of the exams today,

7:58like the professional desktop certification

8:00or the certified server professional, it's

8:03sort of hard because the feedback that you

8:05failed can come months, maybe even weeks

8:08after you've sat the exam. So in those

8:10instances, you need to reflect on the exam

8:13straightaway, almost treat it as if you

8:15failed, take some notes down. And then if

8:17you have actually failed,

8:19you can go back to those notes and reflect

8:20on them. If you haven't failed, you can

8:22chuck those notes away, celebrate, wear

8:24your badge of pride and move on. But

8:27nevertheless, as soon as you know that you

8:29failed, that is the best time to reflect on

8:31a couple of things. The first thing is how

8:34did the exam feel? How did you work through

8:36the exam? Was your technique correct? I'll

8:39come on to this a little later, which is

8:41you sit the exam, but the exam is separate

8:43from the certification. The certification

8:46is almost the result of sitting the exam.

8:48But

8:49in order to sort of treat this exam

8:50properly, you really have to think of the

8:52way you're going to approach this as a

8:54certification. The certification

8:56essentially proves that you have a certain

8:58ability, a certain skill level. And that

9:01also implies that you can generally handle

9:04anything that's thrown at you. Now an exam

9:07is slightly different because an exam is

9:08just a test on the day to make sure you can

9:11sort of meet the minimum standard. And it

9:13could just be on one day, you meet that

9:15standard on another day, you don't. What a

9:17certification is actually saying is that

9:18look,

9:19you sat the exam, we've tested you enough

9:21that we know that you know enough about

9:23sort of this broad range of topics, you can

9:25go on and do something else, even if you've

9:27maybe not seen it before, you're confident

9:29enough to sort of step up to the plate and

9:31do that. And so it's really important to

9:34reflect on the exam technique and the

9:36certification separately. What I mean by

9:39that is look, your exam technique is how

9:41you progress through the exam. Do you

9:43answer questions quickly enough? Let's say

9:45you've gone an hour and there's 50

9:47questions. Have you actually divided

9:48the amount of time the hour into 50 units?

9:51And are you spending roughly the right

9:54amount of time on each question? If some

9:56are taking you longer than others, that's

9:58great. But you should also expect some to

10:00take you less time than others. If all of

10:01the questions aren't, you know, working for

10:04you, then maybe you're sitting the exam a

10:06bit too soon. Maybe you need to spend a bit

10:08more time getting more latent knowledge

10:10into yourself, right? So you can just look

10:12at a question and immediately know what the

10:14answer is. Now, there is a quirk. And that

10:17is with some of

10:18the exams, especially the consultant exam

10:21that's just come out this being done on

10:22Pearson VUE. You don't have access to the

10:25internet. It's not an open book exam. And

10:27that's the first exam of that kind. But

10:29here's the kicker. I don't know this is the

10:31last exam of that kind. I think more exams

10:33are going to become like this. If you go to

10:35the world of AWS, all exams are like that

10:37they're not open book, you're expected to

10:39have more latent knowledge of the tool. Now

10:42the questions are worded in such a way that

10:43you should be able to differentiate from

10:46the right answer and the wrong answer

10:47without having to

10:48go out onto the internet. Because what they

10:50're relying on use your ability to deduce

10:52the question. So the key thing to bear in

10:55mind here is listen, evaluate your exam

10:57technique, make sure you're spending the

10:59right amount of time in each question. And

11:01if you feel like you're going to go into

11:03exam, and you get a need to look things up,

11:05if the exam allows it, then you maybe need

11:08to spend more time just getting that

11:10knowledge latent in your memory so that you

11:12don't have to waste that time searching for

11:14stuff, save those kind of search activities

11:17for the really complex

11:18things. For example, how exactly do I type

11:21this command for a back end server admin

11:23task, right? That's the kind of stuff you

11:25search because you don't want to get that

11:26wrong. You don't want to get those things

11:28right. And no one wants to go out and memor

11:30ize all the tab command or tab admin

11:32commands that you might need to do back end

11:34work on a server. So just try and sort of

11:38really evaluate your exam technique and

11:40make sure that it's it's working correctly.

11:42Now, when you evaluate your certification,

11:44that's actually about your knowledge. So

11:46when we go back to this

11:48exam summary, the certification is what we

11:50're really talking about here is the

11:52different areas. So in this exam, you can

11:55see here that I didn't do too well, I didn

11:57't do too well on four of the sections. So

11:59when I'm thinking about the certification,

12:02I really need to approach this in a

12:04completely different way. I need to go out

12:06and do these four things more. And that

12:08doesn't mean over the next week or month,

12:10it just means you have to go out and get

12:12that hands on experience. And that hands on

12:14experience can take weeks, or it can take

12:16months, it really depends

12:18on the individual and the circumstances you

12:19're in. If you're a consultant, it probably

12:21take you weeks because you come up against

12:23these things all the time. If you're not a

12:24consultant, let's say you just work in an

12:26organization. Well, it might take you a

12:28long time because you don't have

12:30latent access to all these tools and

12:32software just sitting there. And you don't

12:34come across them that frequently to ever

12:35come across some of these quirks that you

12:37might get tested on. So when you evaluate

12:39your certification, just really make sure

12:41that you're looking at the different areas

12:43that they're telling you to go learn from

12:45now, how do you know what those are before

12:48the exam? Well, if you go to the

12:49certification page for any of these exams,

12:52you can essentially get a breakdown. So if

12:54I just take the server certified

12:55professional, I'm actually due to reset

12:58this next year, I've got I'm currently

12:59certified in it, but I'm due to reset it

13:02next year. And we'll sort of break this

13:04down in a lot more detail later on. But it

13:06's an expensive exam is not a cheap one. It

13:08's $800 at the moment. And if I download the

13:11exam prep guide, you can see here that it

13:13actually has a very detailed PDF that has

13:17exam guide in and sort of spelled out. It

13:20gives you details, for example, the format

13:22and say man, this exam, I set this exam at

13:25the London conference, I think three years

13:27ago, the Excel

13:28in London, and it was tough, like, we sat

13:31in a room, it was actually a hot day, but

13:33the room was very well air conditioned. And

13:35it's a seven hour exam, I call this the

13:38beast of certifications, because it just

13:40takes a long time. I also think this is why

13:43it doesn't run that often. And not many

13:45people sit it because actually, that seven

13:47hours really puts you off. I've done exams

13:49for more complicated technologies in less

13:52time. So I think this is actually a good

13:54candidate for an exam that needs a change

13:56in format, because you're not going to be

13:58able to do that.

13:58You can actually test a lot more with a lot

14:01less resources. But essentially, like it

14:03gives you a breakdown of the exam, it gives

14:06you a question breakdown of the format. And

14:09it gives you some sort of context of what

14:11the exam is going to test you on. It's a

14:13hands on exam, you're going to install

14:15things, you're going to have a server that

14:18you're going to have to set up, they're

14:19going to give you some questions. And they

14:20give you an example of some of the

14:22questions, right, and they give you an

14:23example of some of the setups they want you

14:25to build. And then the key thing is this.

14:28And I don't think enough people spend time

14:30on this page of skills measured. This is

14:32literally a breakdown of each of in every

14:34topic that they could possibly test you on.

14:36And the way to look at each of these bullet

14:38points is listen, if you can't talk and

14:41explain one of these to a friend, and sort

14:44of come off convincing, then you probably

14:46need to spend a bit more time learning it.

14:48The reason I say come off convincing is

14:50because you can't have like this super

14:54knowledge of everything. It's just

14:55impossible because you can't come across

14:57every

14:58quirk, and just a new experience of using

15:00Tableau. But when you are able to explain

15:02something that comes across convincing,

15:04what you're able to do is make sure that

15:07you get the fundamentals across to someone.

15:10And that's what you really want to do.

15:11Because if you once you understand the

15:12fundamentals, things like detractor

15:15questions where they you know, they they

15:16give you a question. And there's, you know,

15:19four answers of which two could be correct.

15:22But there's only one correct answer. And

15:23there's one clearly wrong answer. Those

15:25detractors that are thrown in there, those

15:27can sometimes be where your fundamental

15:29understanding is really tested, because if

15:32you don't have that you can't deduce those

15:34very, very quickly. And whereas if you have

15:36this sort of super knowledge, that stuff

15:38just comes second nature, it doesn't even

15:40feel like a detractor. So at the very basic

15:43level, you make sure make sure that you can

15:46explain most of this to a colleague to a

15:50friend in a fairly convincing way. Now you

15:53won't get everything, it's impossible to

15:55master everything. But if you don't feel

15:57comfortable talking about the topics, or

15:59you don't even understand, what are they

16:01actually asking here, then it's maybe worth

16:04going to that section and building a deeper

16:06understanding. When you do that, do that

16:08from scratch. Don't just you know, go in

16:10and say, Oh, I know about versions, but I

16:12don't know about hardware requirements.

16:14Really start from the beginning, start and

16:17ask yourself, or does diversions have an

16:19impact on hardware hardware requirements?

16:21Well, the answer is yes, because over time,

16:23those things have changed, those minimum

16:25requirements have also changed with some

16:26versions.

16:27So really make sure that the knowledge is

16:29interlinked.

16:31And so that's really how to reflect

16:33on the certification in general.

16:35The exam is about the process of sitting

16:37the exam,

16:38the technique, how you approach questions,

16:40how much time you leave.

16:41Do you start from the end and work

16:43backwards?

16:43Do you start from the beginning and work

16:45forwards?

16:46Do you mark the questions that you found

16:47difficult,

16:48move on, and then come back to them at the

16:50end?

16:50Those are all critical exam techniques to

16:52be aware of.

16:53However, when it comes to certification

16:55and evaluating whether you're ready,

16:57you really need to make sure

16:59that you go through this exam prep guide

17:01and you break it down and you can really go

17:03through it.

17:04In many ways, this should be the first

17:05activity you set

17:06before planning any certification.

17:08Download this PDF, go through it,

17:10and see how much of this am I comfortable

17:12with.

17:12Make notes on this, and then go off

17:15and start learning all of these things in

17:17that order.

17:18This order that it's sort of put in

17:20is actually a really good order.

17:21And when you're planning a Tableau server

17:23environment,

17:24of course, you think about architecture and

17:26planning first,

17:27then you prepare the upgrade, then you do

17:29the upgrade,

17:30and it just carries on in a very logical

17:32order.

17:32So it's actually a good way to also make

17:34sure

17:34that you're sort of revising the things you

17:37need to revise

17:38and you're comfortable talking about each

17:40of the concepts.

17:40So that's how to break down and reflect on

17:43everything.

17:43It's a bit of a long section, that one,

17:45but it's really, really important that you

17:47sit there

17:47and you do this activity after the exam,

17:50because if you don't, what will happen

17:52is it will sort of leave you.

17:53The experience of the exam will leave you,

17:54and you sort of won't have that raw pain

17:56that you kind of need to push you on for

17:59the next steps

17:59to make sure that you pass the next exam,

18:02okay?

18:02So that's evaluation and reflecting on the

18:05exam.

18:05Let's move on to the next point.

18:07Okay, the next one I really want to focus

18:09on is details.

18:10Now, I've actually got a really good

18:12example here.

18:13I sat the series of exams in 2016.

18:17You can see here, I don't know why

18:18the April 17th exam is there,

18:21but essentially just look at these exams

18:22here

18:23and sat in 2016.

18:24If we ignore this Tableau Server Delta,

18:26you can see that I essentially sat three

18:29certification exams

18:30in the space of seven days.

18:32That's crazy.

18:33I failed one of them there, and here was

18:35the story.

18:36I actually had a pro-level certification

18:38booked

18:38at a conference, and I needed to sit the

18:41Delta

18:42in order to enable the pro-level

18:44certification.

18:45Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to sit

18:47that.

18:47So essentially what happened here was

18:50I booked this exam on the first.

18:52I didn't leave enough time.

18:53I was pretty blase because of course I left

18:55myself

18:55six days between the exams, and I failed.

18:58I failed by a reasonable margin.

19:01It wasn't like a just a fail.

19:02It was a reasonable fail, and I just didn't

19:05pass the exam.

19:06And so I then sat the exam three days later

19:09.

19:09I was able to find a slot at like midnight

19:12or something in the UK, which is probably

19:14a reasonable time in the US,

19:16but in the UK it was some weird sort of

19:18time.

19:19And in fact, I sat at nine in the morning.

19:21Why am I lying to myself?

19:22It felt like I sat at some really weird

19:24time.

19:24Although this might be the American time

19:26that I sat it at.

19:27Is that really true?

19:28I have no idea, but nevertheless, I sat

19:31this exam,

19:32and essentially I just absolutely sweated

19:36the details.

19:37Like I actually went in, I looked at what

19:40had changed

19:40in Tableau 10, I got the manuals out,

19:42I went into the pages of what's new.

19:44I made a series of videos for the record.

19:47So if you've ever wondered where the video

19:49started,

19:49I actually made a series of videos

19:51detailing the changes

19:52in Tableau 10, it was kind of kick-started

19:54by this

19:56because I hadn't done so well.

19:57So I passed the exam on the second taking

20:00because I sweated the details.

20:02And so listen, the details matter.

20:05It's the ability to be able to discern, for

20:07example,

20:08between the difference between a backup

20:10command

20:11that saves the config logs and one that

20:14doesn't.

20:14It's the ability to understand, you know,

20:17what is TSM and in which version did it

20:19come in?

20:20You know, all those details in the back of

20:22your head

20:23really help break down questions really,

20:26really quickly

20:26when you're in the exam.

20:27And if you have some of those details

20:29really nailed down

20:30and you're sort of really comfortable with

20:32them,

20:32generally speaking, then they won't throw

20:34you off

20:34in the middle of the exam.

20:35And secondly, detractors will just become

20:37so much easier

20:38to work with.

20:39Now, detractors are basically questions

20:42that are asked,

20:43and then there's like two questions that

20:45could be correct,

20:45they sound correct, but are actually wrong.

20:47And then there's another one which is

20:49correct.

20:49And there's one which is flat out wrong.

20:51The detractors are thrown in there to make

20:53it harder

20:53for you to sort of pick the right one out.

20:55And so when you know the details,

20:57detractors are just so easy to blow through

20:59because you can just rule them out.

21:01You don't even, there's this sort of weird

21:03scenario

21:04in some of the exams where you look at the

21:05question

21:06and it asks the question,

21:08and you can literally scan the first word

21:10of the handset.

21:11And if it mentioned something that you know

21:14has no relevance whatsoever to the question

21:16,

21:16you just rule it, you don't even need to

21:17finish reading it.

21:18You just look at that and just move on and

21:20just read it

21:20as like, nope, nope, nope, yes, it has to

21:23be C

21:23because that's the only one that's actually

21:25gonna work

21:26in this instance.

21:27And so just having that detail in your head

21:29really eliminates those instances

21:31where you're wasting time wondering,

21:32is it this or is it that?

21:34And trying to sort of conjure something up

21:36from the back of your memory.

21:37Now, the other thing to do is to review

21:39resources.

21:40It is possible to go into the exam

21:42and just work through the tablet guides,

21:44work through resources,

21:45work through the manuals of the various

21:48tools.

21:48That is enough in most cases,

21:50but actually if you failed an exam,

21:52why not lean on some of the resources out

21:54there

21:54in the community that I've been detailed

21:56for exams.

21:57Now, if you go out there

21:59and just type in passing tablet exams,

22:01you'll find tons of stuff.

22:02I'm trying to make a video about the

22:04failure side

22:04because again, these things do happen.

22:07We probably don't talk about it enough.

22:08I know there are people out there

22:09who've talked about it in the community,

22:11but it's really important to go lean on

22:13those resources.

22:14What are those people saying that helped

22:16them pass?

22:16What are those people saying that caused

22:18them to fail?

22:19And really make a list of that.

22:21And just look at those things and ask

22:23yourself,

22:23well, are these things that I'm gonna make

22:25a mistake with?

22:26And once you've sort of cataloged those,

22:28and you don't need to do this laboriously,

22:30you just need to sort of sift through some

22:32of it.

22:32Once you've done that,

22:33you can then start to sort of really

22:35approach the exam

22:36with confidence.

22:37And sometimes that is actually all you need

22:40going into an exam.

22:41We've all been there where you're a little

22:43bit nervous

22:43and then you sit down to do something

22:46and then you just choke because the anxiety

22:49and the nervousness sort of just tipped you

22:51over the edge

22:52and it sort of made you freeze in the

22:53moment.

22:53That happens to all of us.

22:54It happened to me in the Tableau Server

22:57certification

22:58that I actually passed.

22:59But man, I totally sweated that exam.

23:02The first hour, I couldn't get anything to

23:04work

23:04like it was supposed to.

23:06Then I tried to undo everything I did

23:08and then I messed it all up.

23:10I spent another hour of my seven hours

23:12just undoing an absolute disaster

23:15to only then realize that it wasn't my

23:17fault.

23:17There was actually an issue

23:18with the whole environment being set up.

23:20And because I didn't have the confidence,

23:22I just didn't have the confidence to get up

23:24and say,

23:24"Hey, there's something wrong with this

23:26environment

23:26and that's why this isn't working.

23:28So I'm gonna move on and try the next thing

23:30and then come back to it later on."

23:32And so, confidence is such a big thing.

23:35So really make sure that you are going out

23:38there,

23:38looking at the resources

23:40'cause they help you build a level of

23:41confidence

23:42about knowing what's coming

23:43and knowing how to tackle those things.

23:46There's also some helpful resources

23:47which just flat out give you, so example,

23:49questions that people have sort of formed

23:51in their head,

23:52example scenarios to work through,

23:54particular topic groups that you need to

23:56sort of go into.

23:57Let's say you're going to exam

23:59and maybe connecting to data isn't a strong

24:01point.

24:02Well, go out and look at videos, look at

24:04blogs,

24:04look at some of Tableau's own content

24:06about connecting to these things.

24:08Those are all there to help you.

24:09And learn however you learn,

24:12but I always recommend augmenting your

24:13learning

24:14in every single way.

24:15So read the documentation, read some blogs,

24:18watch some videos, actually do some hands-

24:21on stuff yourself.

24:22I can't emphasize enough how much you learn

24:24doing the stuff hands-on,

24:25even if it's like a fake environment

24:28and you're just trying to get your sort of

24:29experience

24:30that way, that's also fine.

24:31If you're doing a Tableau server exam

24:34and you install something,

24:35of course that's also not a real

24:36environment.

24:37No one's actually going to use it.

24:38But the point here is that you're just

24:40going

24:40through the motions and getting comfortable

24:42with it.

24:42So really do that.

24:44Make sure you use all the resources that

24:45are available

24:46to you via the community.

24:48And hey, if you've even got a bit of time,

24:50contribute something back like I am with

24:52this video,

24:53like others have done in the past.

24:54I'm very late to this trend.

24:57Contribute content so other people can also

25:00learn

25:01from what you've learned during the

25:03experience.

25:03Now, the last couple of points

25:05are sort of like general points.

25:07Now, the one thing I want to highlight is

25:09listen,

25:09certifications are not endpoints, okay?

25:12They're milestones.

25:13And what do I mean by that?

25:14Well, a lot of people may think that,

25:16listen, okay, once I've got my Tableau

25:18server

25:19certified pro exam,

25:20I can go out and be a server on pretty much

25:23every

25:23environment, a server admin in every

25:26environment.

25:27That's just not true.

25:28The reason is, is certification,

25:32although it is pretty tough to pass

25:34and the exam is demanding,

25:36it's a milestone to say that you are ready

25:38and comfortable to do a certain level of

25:41task.

25:41It doesn't have ever mean that you've come

25:44across

25:44and experienced all those tasks.

25:47And in every single company, if I just take

25:49Tableau server,

25:50the setup, the configuration is going to be

25:52entirely different.

25:53So whilst I can happily sit here and say

25:55that I'm Tableau

25:56server certified, I will never take for

25:59granted

26:00having to go into an organization and

26:02upgrade

26:02and make sure that I haven't covered my

26:05bases

26:05and read into all the quirks of their

26:07environment

26:08and ask them all the simple questions

26:11that you think you shouldn't ask,

26:12but you have to absolutely ask because if

26:14you don't,

26:15they're actually going to ruin your day

26:16when you then come to do things like the

26:17upgrade.

26:18So always go through the checklist.

26:20I always read resources.

26:22These things are so, so important.

26:24And so one thing you should sort of seek

26:26solace in

26:27if you failed a Tableau exam is listen,

26:29it's just a milestone.

26:31It's just a thing to say,

26:32hey, this is where your knowledge is at

26:35and you're still traveling forward.

26:37And if you can kind of accept that,

26:39then you treat your failure more as a

26:42process

26:42rather than as like a milestone.

26:46You don't want your failure to become this

26:47thing

26:47where you kind of mark it in time,

26:49I failed and that's it, that's the end of

26:51my journey.

26:52No, you want it to be a progressive thing.

26:53And so it's really important to be able to

26:55sort of

26:55take the exam if you failed and move

26:58forward,

26:58have that as part of your experience.

27:00Maybe you sat in the exam once,

27:02maybe you've sat exam twice and you failed.

27:05Well, each of those attempts

27:06will have imprinted some sort of value back

27:09onto you.

27:09And you need to take that value with you,

27:11whether it's experiencing the exam, your

27:13understanding,

27:14or your learning experience.

27:16At the end of the day,

27:17no two people who are certified

27:18have the same level of knowledge.

27:20If that was the case, everyone would be

27:22certified, right?

27:23Because there'd be sort of finite point

27:26that everyone could get to

27:27and then everyone would never need to learn

27:28anything again.

27:29The other thing is that the platform

27:31changes.

27:31So the exam is valid for three years,

27:34but Tableau releases features like every

27:36quarter.

27:37So let's say you sat the exam like me three

27:40years ago.

27:40Well, Tableau released how many?

27:4312 different releases of Tableau since.

27:46And so of course I was certified back then,

27:48but there's nothing since that's really

27:51tested my knowledge

27:52until the certification expires.

27:54So they really are milestones and not end

27:57points.

27:58They're not sort of the end all and be all.

28:00And so if you fail an exam,

28:01listen, don't worry, don't worry,

28:02because not everyone knows it.

28:04Yes, they might have something that says

28:06that they do,

28:07but we're all learning, things are always

28:10changing.

28:10And if you just stand still,

28:11then you're essentially falling behind.

28:13So even just the process of attempting the

28:16exam,

28:17even if you fail is a step forward.

28:19And that's a really sort of important

28:21dynamic

28:21to think about and step forward with.

28:23Okay, so that's pretty much it.

28:24I just wanted to package some of those

28:26thoughts together

28:26in the way that sort of makes the most

28:28sense.

28:29What I will do before we finish,

28:30we'll just go through my exam dashboard

28:32and just look at all the exams that I've

28:35sat.

28:35It's sort of interesting because most of

28:36them are here

28:37with Loyalist Exam Services.

28:39And so you can kind of see the history of

28:41exams here.

28:41So my first one at TC14, I passed.

28:45TC15, EU TC15, so this is the European

28:49conference.

28:50And July the 15th, I failed, that was the

28:54one I failed.

28:55I then sat it very quickly after.

28:56So that's another thing.

28:57It's really good to sit the exam as soon as

29:00you possibly can

29:00immediately after.

29:02There is no sort of, at least at the moment

29:05,

29:05there's sort of no real restriction on

29:07doing a retake.

29:08Just need to make sure you're actually

29:10ready for it.

29:10But I think after one retake,

29:12maybe there is something that kicks in.

29:14So I'm not 100% sure on that, check the

29:16details.

29:17But yeah, it was an interesting time here.

29:19So I sat the exam within one month.

29:22I had to do lots of deltas as well.

29:24I've sat several service certifications as

29:27well.

29:27I've sat several server deltas as well.

29:30So deltas exams were like a transition exam

29:32.

29:32So basically let's say I had the Tableau 9

29:35certification.

29:36I could set a Tableau 10 delta,

29:38which would essentially test me on the new

29:40stuff

29:40since the version 9.

29:42And that would sort of extend my

29:44certification essentially.

29:45So that was a easy way to extend your

29:47certification.

29:48The kind of phase that away,

29:50they don't really exist anymore.

29:51So now what you have to do is you have to

29:53make sure

29:54you do the associate exam or you pass the

29:57next pro exam

29:58before your associate exam fades away.

30:00So I'll come to that in a little bit

30:02when we look at the title dashboard,

30:03which is basically all those things I'm

30:05certified with.

30:06So if we go down, you can see that,

30:09listen, after November, 2016, I kind of got

30:12in the groove

30:12and I've never really failed an exam.

30:15In fact, look at this wonderful marvel,

30:18at 12th of January, 2020, I got 100%.

30:22That can't be real.

30:23Is that actually true?

30:24I got 100%.

30:26That is nuts.

30:27I don't remember that.

30:32Man, I should have boasted so much more

30:33about that.

30:34Look at that.

30:35That's amazing.

30:38I just completely forgot that.

30:40That's incredible.

30:41I mean, let's see here.

30:43How many questions would it have been?

30:45As a salesforce.com exam, yeah, fine.

30:48Exam type, yeah, yeah, yeah.

30:50Crazy.

30:52That is, that is, that is nuts.

30:56I actually didn't know I got 100%.

30:59That was, that's crazy.

31:01So yeah.

31:02Wow.

31:04So yeah, I've never had that.

31:06In fact, the deltas are easy to get 100%

31:09because it's only like 20 questions.

31:10It's a smaller set of questions.

31:12It's easy to know what's changed.

31:14But yeah, I did not know that I got 100

31:16in that associate exam.

31:17I think I just did it and moved on

31:19because I'm trying to get the pro level

31:22certifications done

31:23and then COVID kicked in

31:24and then that sort of went into the back

31:26burner.

31:26But nevertheless, it's there.

31:28It's really cool to sort of have that there

31:30.

31:30And so if I go to the title dashboard,

31:33you'll see here that these are all the

31:37things

31:38I have titles for.

31:39So you can see some of them have expired

31:42and I'm still Tableau Desktop 10 certified.

31:46That's, that's, that's crazy.

31:49So if you have Tableau version 10,

31:51somewhere out there,

31:52I'm probably one of the few people

31:53who's still certified on it 'cause it never

31:56expired.

31:56That's absolutely brilliant.

31:57But at the same time, there's obviously

31:59tons of other people

32:00who've also sat that exam,

32:01whose certification never expired.

32:03You can see the two active ones I do have

32:06today.

32:07So the Tableau Desktop certified associate

32:09and Tableau certified professional,

32:12they all expire in January 2022.

32:14So you can tell what I'm doing next year.

32:17I have a lot of certifications to get

32:19through, okay.

32:20And some of these are, these are old ones.

32:23So I won't really sort of look at these old

32:25ones here.

32:25I'll just focus on these ones at the top

32:27here.

32:27I'm certified with those two.

32:29Now I'm also certified trainer, which doesn

32:31't show up here

32:31because it's done through a separate

32:33process.

32:33And then I've also got the Pearson view.

32:35So if I go back to the Pearson view

32:37homepage, the Tableau,

32:39and what I actually have to do is search

32:42Tableau

32:43and then this will hopefully bring us to

32:45the Tableau page.

32:47Potential, ready to set test.

32:49That's not working.

32:50So let's do this.

32:51Pearson view, Tableau.

32:54This will find the Tableau Pearson view

32:57page

32:58and you'll see this is sort of the

33:00information pages here.

33:01And you can see the exams delivered by

33:03Pearson view

33:04include these three exams, except for when

33:06you go in

33:07to log in, if I just log in here,

33:09so you can see the exam record.

33:12You can see that the exam catalog only has

33:14one exam,

33:15the specialist exam.

33:16So it's kind of interesting

33:19why the others aren't up there yet.

33:20Maybe they are changing those briefly

33:22and so they've taken them down temporarily.

33:24But if I go here to my exam history,

33:26you can see that I do have

33:27the certified associate consultant as a

33:31pass.

33:31And if I click on that,

33:33hopefully we'll get some sort of result

33:34sheet.

33:35Nothing happens.

33:36That's annoying.

33:38So there's clearly a bug here.

33:39I think the website is going through some

33:41sort of work

33:42and they're just sort of playing around

33:43with it.

33:44But nevertheless, yeah, that's basically

33:47all my certifications.

33:48So in 2022, it's going to be a wild year

33:53because I'm going to need to base it.

33:54I'm just going to reset all my tablet cert

33:56ifications.

33:57I'm probably going to let the desktop

33:59certified

34:00associate expire because between now and

34:03December,

34:03I just don't have time to kind of invest

34:05and do the desktop certified pro.

34:08And I've got a hunch that by the time I

34:11actually get around

34:11to doing that and getting the feedback,

34:13I think things will have changed anyway.

34:15So I'm going to hold off, let these expire.

34:19And then in January, we're just going to do

34:21it from scratch.

34:21I'm just going to go and get certified

34:23in everything from scratch.

34:24And the great thing about that is that I

34:26can obviously

34:26document the journey and maybe make some

34:28resources

34:29for everyone on this channel.

34:30So yeah, in 2022, my plan is to basically

34:35do a certification series on Tableau Server

34:39and Tableau Desktop.

34:41And I'm going to do all the certifications

34:43and including the specialist exam.

34:45So I'll really start from the bottom

34:47and I'll work my way up.

34:48Now, in all honesty, some of those won't be

34:51challenging.

34:51The Tableau specialist exam especially won

34:55't be challenging,

34:56but I'll do it anyway, just so we can get

34:58some sort

34:58of perspective on the experience and how it

35:00compares

35:01to some of the more challenging ones.

35:02And so it'll be a fun journey and hopefully

35:05you'll enjoy it.

35:05If not, no worries, let me know

35:07what you'd like to see instead.

35:09But that's pretty much it.

35:10I've been talking for a really long time.

35:11I think that's sort of the point of these

35:13Friday thoughts.

35:13They're supposed to be sort of more long

35:16form,

35:16me just talking, kind of put me on in the

35:18background

35:18and just switch off.

35:20So yeah, if you've enjoyed this video,

35:22you know what to do.

35:23Otherwise, if not, I'll catch you in the

35:24next one.

35:25Take it easy.

35:25(upbeat music)

35:27(upbeat music)

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