The Hitchhiker’s Guide to TTX Certification path
About the Author
I am Saurabh Shashank, a Senior Data Engineer with Walmart International. A decade of data engineering experience has taught me that change is the only constant and learning is the best way to deal with changes.
Chapter 1 : The motivation
I joined Walmart in the year 2020, during Covid, when the virtual way of working was finding its feet in the IT world. A new organization and a new role brings new challenges and a steep learning curve. You are introduced to new jargons, abbreviations and technologies on a regular basis. Amidst all this, I was receiving emails from Global Tech Academy regularly that encouraged me to explore new trainings and learning curriculums. I was intrigued to explore the Certified Developer Program targeted at Walmart developers. It felt like a great learning concoction.
Today (in 2022), it has been a little more than a year & a half at Walmart. And now I’m DevX101 and DevX201 certified. Isn’t this amazing! These two levels of the Certified Developer Program have helped me build new competencies for my next role. The next target for me was a role based learning, particularly the Architect Accelerator Program.
Chapter 2 : The Journey
Certified Developer Program and Architect Accelerator Program are well organised curriculums. The self-paced learning acts as a bonus. Learning material is categorised and segregated by time. Personally, I was able to make consistent progress by organizing my day well — during hours at work, at midnight and sometimes at early morning hours. The mobile friendly delivery medium for all the courses be it ULearn, O’Reilly, LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Stream for videos of recorded sessions was a plus. I was able to pace my learning by choosing to use the 2X speed or 0.5 X speed options as appropriate. There have been occasions where I have paused and replayed the sessions after having a coffee since I had dozed off mid-way during the session.
Chapter 3 : The Destination
The DevX certification has not only helped me gauge my mastery but has also added new skills, I am very comfortable now with multiple Walmart tools and technologies. I have been able to apply my learning of public cloud, OneOps, WCNP, Looper, and Concord in my day-to-day work.
The Architect Accelerator Certification has enabled me to become a better Data Engineer. It has equipped me with additional important skills on design, networking, and stakeholder engagement. I’m looking forward to implement the skills that I have learned in my current and future roles.
I am proud to be a part of a select group of the Certified Developer Program and Architect Accelerator Program certified associates and I would encourage all to be leaders of “Walmart Global Tech Certified Developer Program” which will help in driving adoption of our GTP products and services as well as in building strong tech talent and architect practitioners. I also thank the Global Tech Academy team for their time and effort to develop these programs and provide opportunities for us to learn and grow at Walmart.
— Happy Learning —
