Your Journey to ServiceNow Certified Master Architect?

[Daniel Falayi1]

Hi,

Please, would any of our Legendary ServiceNow Certified Master Architects (CMA) be willing to give us a little insight on their journey towards achieving the CMA designation? 

Your insights before and after getting it, future view of the program and how best upcoming ServiceNow consultants can position themselves to achieve this feat.

Thanks in advance.

Daniel

[julian_mills]

Hi Daniel, I help run the program, and have asked the CMA alumni to head over this way to provide you with some of the content you request. 

If you haven't seen it yet, we do have a page with some critical information on the program here: https://training.service-now.com/cma.

Julian

[Daniel Draes]

Hi Daniel,

sorry for not getting back to this earlier, I have been vactioning most of October.

Anyway, happy to share my journey as a member of the first group going through.

The path to get in was certainly different for us then for the coming generations as we had to be nominated whereas nowadays people can apply for it. Nevertheless, it surely helps to have a good network in the ServiceNow ecosystem and people around who can support / speak for you. 

I guess being an active community member here and in local SNUGs will help on that as well.

As for the program itself, I really loved it. Even as a seasoned ServiceNow employee I still learned a lot. Parts through the content of the program, but more so through the experience sharing with the other members of the program. It is quite a time commitment you have to make, this is not to be underestimated. As they say, it is like taking an evening course at your local high school / university to get another degree. Not that difficult maybe, but surely exhaustive 😄

As for the future... i guess this is better answered by Julian. The future is now is what we used to say ... in this context we are shaping this future as we go. 

Let me know if you have any more specific questions. Happy to answer.

Daniel

[charlesemyers]

Daniel,

I see you are still interested in the program. It was great to meet you at the KM19 conference. My thoughts are around perceptions.

I think many of us initially had reservations about sharing knowledge with each other so that we did not violate any of our companies policies. However, it was easy to see that none of the co-hort team members had that in mind. We quickly learned to recognize the experience and knowledge that each brought to the program.

Even today, we reach out to one another and get advise, help, knowledge sharing with our team members. Some are more active than others, but we all appreciate each others ability to provide insight based on experience.

Being the first co-hort and the first to come due with the maintenance points and recertification, it will be interesting to see where we might struggle in a specific area.

The recognition is wonderful, but you must be part of a company that will support the certification through specific assignments, additional training, and allow you to be the leader this certification is designed for you to be. 

Keep working on meeting the certification requirements. Also look for opportunities that allow you to be client facing and has a proactive role where you can develop soft skills that an MCA or senior consultant needs.

You can have all the technical experience in the world, but if you do not have soft skills that gives the clients you work with "confidence in you", then you are not going to succeed.

I have faith in you - keep at it.

Charles