What 2V0-602 actually tells a hiring manager

This certification is not a broad IT badge. It is a VMware-specific foundations exam tied to vSphere 6.5, which means it signals familiarity with the core building blocks of a VMware virtualized datacenter: ESXi hosts, vCenter Server, virtual machines, storage concepts, networking concepts, permissions, snapshots, cloning, templates, and basic operational tasks.

From a hiring standpoint, that matters most in organizations that still run a meaningful on-prem or hybrid VMware footprint. If I see 2V0-602 on a resume, I do not assume the candidate can architect a multi-site SDDC or lead a major migration. I assume they have put in enough focused study to understand how VMware environments are structured and can likely support day-to-day administration with some supervision.

That makes this cert more useful for:

Windows or Linux admins moving into virtualization
NOC or infrastructure support staff trying to become server/VM admins
Junior systems administrators in VMware-heavy environments
Managed services engineers supporting multiple client vSphere estates

It is less powerful if you are trying to break into IT with no experience at all. VMware jobs usually sit a layer above true entry-level help desk. Employers rarely hire someone into a VMware-focused role based on this exam alone unless that person already has adjacent experience in servers, storage, networking, or enterprise support.

The biggest practical value of 2V0-602 is that it reduces doubt. It tells employers: this person knows the vocabulary, understands the platform, and can probably be onboarded faster into a vSphere environment than someone starting from zero.

Where this cert still has market value

This certification is tied to vSphere 6.5, so you need to be realistic: it is not the newest VMware track, and some employers will prefer newer VMware certifications or broader platform experience. Even so, older vSphere versions remain in production longer than vendors like to admit, especially in conservative IT shops.

You are most likely to see value from this cert in companies and teams such as:

Regional healthcare systems running virtualized server estates for EMR, imaging, and back-office apps
Manufacturing firms with stable on-prem infrastructure and limited appetite for rapid cloud migration
Financial services and insurance companies with private virtualization clusters for regulated workloads
Higher education IT departments supporting mixed legacy and modern server environments
State and local government datacenters where hardware and platform refresh cycles are slow
Managed service providers (MSPs) that administer VMware environments for midsize clients
VARs and infrastructure consultancies doing vSphere support, upgrades, and migrations
Colocation and hosting providers with VMware-backed customer platforms

This is a niche compared with broad cloud certifications. The VMware market is real, but it is not expanding the way AWS, Azure, and Kubernetes markets are. That does not make it a bad certification. It means you should treat it as a specialized infrastructure credential, not a universal career accelerator.

If you want a role in pure cloud-native engineering, DevOps, or platform engineering, this cert will not carry much weight by itself. If you want to work in enterprise infrastructure, hybrid environments, private cloud operations, or datacenter modernization, it is much more relevant.

Jobs that genuinely map to vmware-2v0-602

The job titles worth targeting are the ones where VMware is part of the daily toolset, not just a line in the environment summary. In actual postings, this cert tends to show up as required, preferred, or "nice to have" for roles like these:

VMware Administrator
Systems Administrator - VMware
Virtualization Engineer
Infrastructure Engineer - VMware
Data Center Systems Engineer
Server Administrator (VMware environment)

A few honest notes about those roles:

VMware Administrator is the cleanest fit. These jobs often involve host and VM provisioning, vCenter administration, patch coordination, monitoring, snapshots, templates, permissions, and support for internal application teams.

Systems Administrator - VMware usually blends Windows Server, Active Directory, backups, and virtualization. In smaller companies, VMware is one piece of a broader sysadmin job.

Virtualization Engineer can mean very different things depending on employer. In a midsize company, it may still be an operational role. In a larger enterprise, it can mean cluster design, performance tuning, storage integration, DR planning, and automation. 2V0-602 helps more with the first version than the second.

Infrastructure Engineer - VMware often appears in MSPs and enterprise operations teams. Expect a mix of VMware, storage, networking, backups, and ticket-driven project work.

Data Center Systems Engineer is common in organizations with strong on-prem presence. VMware is often paired with UCS, SANs, HPE, Dell, Veeam, and Windows/Linux administration.

To find the best-fit openings, search job boards using combinations like:

VMware Administrator vSphere
2V0-602 OR VCP VMware
vCenter ESXi Systems Administrator
Virtualization Engineer VMware healthcare
Infrastructure Engineer VMware MSP

The best opportunities are often not labeled as junior. Instead, they ask for 2-5 years of infrastructure experience and then list VMware exposure as a requirement or preference. That is why this cert works best when paired with some real operational background.

Salary reality: solid infrastructure pay, but not automatic premium pay

For US-based roles connected to this certification, salary is driven less by the certificate itself and more by three things: how much hands-on VMware administration you have done, whether the role includes broader systems responsibilities, and whether the employer treats virtualization as mission-critical infrastructure.

Here is the realistic picture.

At the entry level, there are very few jobs that are purely "junior VMware" roles. What usually happens is that someone with help desk, desktop, NOC, or junior sysadmin experience adds VMware knowledge and moves into a more infrastructure-focused position. That is why the lower end of the range still assumes some enterprise IT exposure.

At the mid level, VMware becomes part of your identity as an infrastructure professional. You are expected to handle host lifecycle tasks, VM provisioning, performance basics, backups, incident response, and coordination with storage/network teams. This is where the certification has the best ROI because it helps validate operational credibility.

At the senior level, pay rises because the work stops being just administration. You are expected to own upgrades, capacity planning, HA/DRS design choices, disaster recovery alignment, storage/network integration, hardening, and often automation or migration work. At that point, the cert matters less than the track record, but it can still support your profile.

Geography matters a lot. VMware-heavy jobs in New York, Northern Virginia, Boston, Seattle, and the Bay Area may exceed the ranges listed here, especially in regulated enterprise environments or consulting roles. In lower-cost regions, pay may sit near the middle or bottom of the range even for strong admins.

Also, VMware roles in 2026 are often judged against cloud and automation skills. A VMware admin who can also work with PowerCLI, Veeam, Windows Server, Linux, Azure/AWS connectivity, and infrastructure documentation will usually out-earn one who is limited to GUI-only vSphere operations.

How VMware careers usually progress in the real world

People rarely start in a dedicated VMware seat on day one. The more common path looks like this:

General IT support or junior systems work
You start in help desk, desktop support, NOC, or junior server administration. You learn ticket discipline, enterprise tooling, Windows/Linux basics, and how infrastructure teams actually operate.
Systems administration with some virtualization exposure
You begin creating VMs, managing templates, handling snapshots, checking host alerts, and working in vCenter under guidance. This is the stage where 2V0-602 is most useful because it helps formalize what you are already touching.
Dedicated VMware or infrastructure administration
Now you are responsible for host maintenance, patch coordination, cluster awareness, permissions, backup integration, and issue triage. You are expected to understand the relationship between compute, storage, and networking rather than just individual VMs.
Virtualization/infrastructure engineering
This step adds design and ownership: capacity planning, performance tuning, migration planning, DR strategy, lifecycle upgrades, and automation. By this stage, one older foundations cert is not enough on its own; employers want proof of projects and deeper platform knowledge.
Specialization or platform leadership
From here, people branch in several directions:
- VMware architecture/private cloud
- Infrastructure automation with PowerCLI, PowerShell, Ansible, Terraform
- Backup and disaster recovery engineering
- Hybrid cloud/migration engineering
- Datacenter operations leadership

That progression matters because it shows where this cert fits: early-to-mid career infrastructure validation. It is not a senior architect credential. It is a stepping stone for professionals moving from general systems work into virtualization-heavy responsibilities.

Skills you should pair with 2V0-602 if you want better offers

This is where many candidates get stuck. They earn a VMware cert, but their resume still reads like generic support. If you want this certification to translate into better jobs, build around it.

The most useful companion skills are:

Windows Server administration
A huge share of VMware-backed workloads are Windows servers. AD, DNS, DHCP, Group Policy, patching, and basic server troubleshooting are still highly relevant.

Linux fundamentals
You do not need to be a Linux engineer, but you should be comfortable with common admin tasks, SSH, services, logs, filesystems, and package management.

Storage basics
VMware admins constantly intersect with SAN, NAS, datastores, LUNs, multipathing, and performance issues. You do not need to be a storage architect, but you do need to understand the concepts.

Networking basics
vSwitches, VLANs, NIC teaming, trunking concepts, IP addressing, DNS, and firewall coordination all show up in real VMware work.

Backups and recovery
Veeam is especially valuable in VMware shops. If you can speak to backup jobs, restores, replication, and recovery testing, you become much more marketable.

PowerCLI / PowerShell
This is one of the biggest differentiators. Plenty of candidates know how to click through vCenter. Fewer can automate VM deployment, reporting, snapshots, compliance checks, or inventory tasks.

Monitoring and documentation
SolarWinds, vRealize Operations, PRTG, Nagios, or whatever the shop uses—being able to interpret alerts and document changes makes you look like an operator, not just a lab learner.

Cloud adjacency
Not because cloud replaces VMware overnight, but because employers increasingly want people who understand hybrid reality. Basic AWS or Azure networking and connectivity knowledge helps a lot.

If you can combine 2V0-602 with hands-on experience in two or three of those areas, your profile becomes much stronger than someone presenting the cert in isolation.

How to present this cert on your resume without overselling it

The mistake candidates make is listing the certification and then leaving the rest of the resume too vague. Hiring teams want proof that your VMware knowledge is operational, not just theoretical.

A better approach is to tie the cert to concrete environment details and tasks.

Instead of writing:

VMware certified professional with knowledge of vSphere

Write bullets like:

Administered VMware vSphere environment supporting 120+ virtual machines across ESXi hosts using vCenter.
Provisioned and maintained Windows and Linux VMs from templates; managed snapshots, resource allocation, and scheduled maintenance tasks.
Supported backup and recovery operations for VMware-hosted workloads using Veeam.
Assisted with host patching, VM migrations, and monitoring of cluster health in production environment.
Used PowerShell/PowerCLI to generate VM inventory and resource utilization reports.

If you do not have production VMware experience yet, use a home lab or training lab honestly:

Built lab environment using ESXi and vCenter to practice VM provisioning, templates, snapshots, networking, and access control.

That is better than pretending the cert itself equals job-ready experience.

In interviews, be ready to discuss:

What vCenter does versus ESXi
How templates differ from clones
Snapshot use cases and risks
Basic HA/DRS purpose
VM resource allocation concepts
Datastore basics
How you would troubleshoot a VM performance complaint at a high level

If you can explain those clearly and connect them to actual tasks you have performed, the certification starts to work for you.

Who should pursue this cert, and who should probably choose something else

This certification makes sense for a few specific groups.

Good fit:

Sysadmins in VMware environments who want formal validation
Infrastructure support staff trying to move into virtualization duties
MSP engineers supporting client datacenters
Professionals in on-prem heavy industries where vSphere is still core infrastructure

Less compelling fit:

Brand-new IT entrants with no enterprise experience
Engineers focused on cloud-native app platforms rather than infrastructure operations
Senior infrastructure professionals who already have strong VMware project experience and need a more current or advanced credential instead

If your goal is to become a cloud engineer, DevOps engineer, or SRE, this cert is probably too narrow unless your employer specifically runs a hybrid VMware estate. If your goal is to become a stronger systems or infrastructure administrator in an enterprise environment, it is much more relevant.

The blunt version: 2V0-602 is useful when VMware is already part of the career direction you are choosing. It is not the best cert to use for discovering a direction.

Salary Information

Level	Salary Range
Entry Level	$60,000 - $80,000
Mid Level	$85,000 - $115,000
Senior	$115,000 - $145,000

Common Job Titles

VMware Administrator
Systems Administrator - VMware
Virtualization Engineer
Infrastructure Engineer - VMware
Data Center Systems Engineer
Server Administrator (VMware)