VMware is laying off a small portion of its workforce, according to reports.
In a confirmation to CRN, the cloud-and-virtualization company suggested that the layoffs were part of a workforce-rebalancing strategy, telling the publication that the reductions would impact “less than one percent of the total employee population.”
The company also insisted that it rebalanced its workforce on a regular basis, and that it was currently recruiting in certain areas. VMware has around 31,000 employees worldwide.
VMware is undergoing a seismic shift at the moment with the departure of CEO Pat Gelsinger, who is leaving to become head of Intel. Dell is also planning on spinning off its massive VMware stake this year.
VMware’s cloud and virtualization products, most notably its hypervisors, have been a longtime component of many corporate tech stacks. In many enterprises, these technologies allow sysadmins, network engineers, and other technologists to effectively control and scale massive multiprocessor and cluster installations, as well as run apps in a variety of different environments.
If you’re interested in working with corporate tech stacks and back-end infrastructure, you’ll probably need to become familiar with VMware technology in some capacity. It also pays to keep in mind that many companies hiring technologists to work on that infrastructure will want you to have VMware certifications. Currently, VMware offers 21 formal certifications, along with “digital badges”; the most popular certifications include the VSphere and virtual core cert, including the VMware Certified Professional Data Center Virtualization 2020 (VCP-DCV 2020) certification.
Beyond certifications, VMware offers documentation and walkthroughs about its technology products. Its learning hub offers a combination of live and self-paced online classes. That’s in addition to classes and online instruction via third-parties such as Udemy and IBM.
VMware isn’t the only tech company laying off workers this month. For example, Dropbox announced in mid-January that it would lay off 11 percent of its workforce, or 315 people, as it sought to switch product strategies. In a corporate blog posting, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston wrote: “The steps we’re taking today are painful, but necessary. Our recent decisions regarding our new leadership structure and remote work policy have set us on the right path, and now we need to make sure our teams and investments also line up.”
On a broader level, though, it seems that the tech industry is doing its best to weather the uncertain economic conditions unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to CompTIA, technology-related jobs grew by 391,000 positions in December 2020, while the overall tech-occupation unemployment rate hit 3 percent, much lower than the 6.7 percent rate for the broader economy.
