CCIE's with less than a year of experience

N2IT

I'm no network guru at all. I was wondering if you could explain something to me. How are people getting the CCIE with less than a year of experience or just right at a year? I was doing some LinkedIn reviewing and I noticed a several CCIE with very few years of networking, in fact one person had less than a year documented, their last job was medical related, nothing to do with IT or networking.

Is it something you can power through if you are dedicated or have the resources ($) to pay for a course?

dsgm

In my opinion and i am sure many other, i dont think it can and should be done, maybe it can if you have no life and all you did day in and day out was study and lab

E Double U

Anything is possible.

srabiee

Perhaps they are very smart but reclusive people who built a monster lab and sit at home studying 24/7? I'm just trying to think of how it would be possible. Doesn't that exam cost tens of thousands of dollars from start to finish? Does that amount even include hardware costs for a personal lab?

This would be akin to a Microsoft MCM or VMware VCDX holder with less than a year of experience. Unfathomable.

N2IT

@srabiee - I tend to agree but without going through the program I really have no idea to base anything against. I know people lie on their PMP applications all the time and get accepted and pass the PMP. Maybe this is sort of like that.....

Not trying to smear the certification, I am shock to see this. CCIE has always been held high in my circles and never questioned the person who has the CCIE.

Legacy User

Are the CCIE's you've came across in different specialties or solely RS? From what I've seen each CCIE holds a different level of difficulty. So while it may seem far fetched considering it is a CCIE even INE had a blog entry CCNA to CCIE Voice study plan in one year. But if all of the ones you've seen were for the RS tracks then those people are either impressive or suspect depending on how you look at it.

echo_time_cat

Do they actually have the CCIE though? I wouldn't believe it without proof.

One of our engineers has his CCIE number right in his email signature...

If someone with less than a years experience had a CCIE, I'd suspect them of brain dumping their way through it... but from what I've seen that is a very tough cert to obtain... even for brain dumping.

markulous

I can see someone cramming for the written portion or even finding a **** somewhere, but for the lab part of it, I'd assume you have to really know what you're doing.

Dumb question I'm sure, but are we certain they actually have it and just aren't lying about it? Yes, it would be incredibly stupid to lie about something like that, but I wouldn't put it past some people.

networker050184

It's just like anything else. Practice makes perfect. Anyone (within reasonable intelligence of course) who puts the time in can likely pass the exam. Especially with all the vendor material these days. Besides it's not a real world exam so while experience helps, it's not like you're going in there to set up best practices etc. We have about 5 CCIEs on our support team that are no where near the level I would consider someone to be an expert.

N2IT

They had numbers listed but I didn't bang them against the registry. I don't want to infringe on them like that, I feel awkward, but after seeing that on several occasions I wanted to check in with the board and see what you all thought.

srabiee

I don't think you can brain **** either the CCIE written or CCIE lab. I could be wrong though.

N2IT

@ Networker I find that interesting, I was always under the impression it was a "real world" exam sort of like the Red hat labs etc.

Legacy User

I'm not to sure now due to the changes made with the lab retakes. But I know people were dumping the lab as well. I read an article how in the Asia regions CCIE's went from being paid $65k which is considered high to $30k since everyone was dumping the exam. It only works out for Cisco partners to pay 30K for someone with that title just so they can get the discounts.

This the article:
http://www.bradreese.com/blog/4-29-2014.htm

networker050184

srabiee wrote: »

I don't think you can brain **** either the CCIE written or CCIE lab. I could be wrong though.

The written is a standard mutlichoice question test. About as easy to **** on as any other I'd say. And where there is a will there is a way. Some people will work harder to **** than it would have been to just learn the stuff!

N2IT

@Dmarcisco wow. That's the first I read anything like this.

That would infuriate me if I took the time to obtain that beast legit and here comes some clowns dumping their way through the exam.

Legacy User

Well I'm sure the technical interview will weed out weak candidates anyhow.

Just wanted to add while I know people overseas have/are dumping the lab. I hope that trend doesn't work its way over here making the CCIE the minimum for most ccnp level positions.

N2IT

I went back through the CCIE's I saw on LI and notice some of them were pure sales roles. Does this make sense? I'm familiar with pre sales engineering but these were sales folks. (Again some not most)

mackenzae

How does one **** themselves through the lab portion of the test? unless they are claiming the CCIE title just because they passed the written?

srabiee

Everything is pointing more and more to cheaters/dumpers. Pure sales role with CCIE and less than 1 year of experience? Wow....just..wow.

mackenzae

N2IT wrote: »

I went back through the CCIE's I saw on LI and notice some of them were pure sales roles. Does this make sense? I'm familiar with pre sales engineering but these were sales folks. (Again some not most)

Maybe if they were CCDE's? I would think that would help a sales person more than a CCIE.

nster

Some people list CCIE, sometimes without even going through CCNA or CCNP, but in reality they just braindumped the written exam and don't actually have the full CCIE.

echo_time_cat

If they are Sales Engineers with a service provider, it can make sense for them to be a CCIE. That being said, with little experience I am still surprised and skeptical.

networker050184

N2IT wrote: »

I went back through the CCIE's I saw on LI and notice some of them were pure sales roles. Does this make sense? I'm familiar with pre sales engineering but these were sales folks. (Again some not most)

My first thought would be Cisco or VARs churning them out straight from college to intensive CCIE program. Always nice to have your people with some shiny numbers next to their name when working in that arena.

Danielm7

We have a Cisco sales rep with a CCIE, he's extremely technical though and not your typical sales type. Otherwise, the CCIEs I work with have 20+ years in networking.

hurricane1091

I mean I can just look at the "expectations vs reality" argument and not understand how the CCIE is possible without real experience. What I learned through the CCNAs and how it actually applies are two different things. Things make way more sense now then they did. Even reading the CCNP book and seeing things like offset lists didn't really mean much to me until I was at my current job and saw that we are doing it and understood why we are even doing it. I'm not the smartest guy out there though, I'm sure prodigys can get a CCIE without ever seeing it in production.

Legacy User

mackenzae wrote: »

How does one **** themselves through the lab portion of the test?

From what I gather people from those 3 month CCIE boot camps you see overseas would send people to take and purposely fail the lab exam just to see the questions. I'm sure it was done countless times. Thats why if you really look they guarantee if you do there bootcamps you will pass on the first attempt.

N2IT

Networker that makes a lot of sense. Grab them straight out of business or tech school and toss them in a IE program for a few months making them eat breath etc the IE. They pass and off to the sales world.

@Srabiee You would think some have cheated, but we got to be careful to make blanket statements, lots of people have done that certification the legit way, I would hate to dilute the value due to some clowns who ****.

srabiee

Not making blanket statements, just saying that the article that dmarcisco linked to was a real eye-opener. I had no idea this was happening with the CCIE.

Legacy User

The reality is you can **** with just about anything nowadays. But speaking specifically to these parts I don't think anyone would screw themselves over cheating on a prestigious certification. Especially since rumors spread fast and I've come to find out it really is a small world.

But nothing is impossible like mentioned before. I'm sure if you live and breath it for an entire year no breaks I would assume you know the protocols in an out. Whether or not everything you know translates to a real world environment it can really depend.

To add:
That is one of the reasons they changed the retake attempts for the CCIE to deter dumpers as well.

N2IT

Yeah the article was eye opening. Crazy!

philz1982

Anything can be studied for if you have a full year to focus on it. CCIE with a full year of focused study would be easy, especially with how many resources exist.