When to start CCIE studies?
Now, obviously a loaded question so bear with me as this is just to really gauge some of you folks either working at it now or have accomplished it. Also I fully understand that "when to go for it" depends heavily on one's personal life and how much time they can invest in the grind, and also what their current level of experience is, etc. So I figured I'd tell you a little bit about me.
Right now I work as a 2nd level Net Ops support role for a very large enterprise network (50,000+ Cisco devices, ranging from 2690 switches to Nexus 9ks and everything in-between, also including other vendor equipment such as F5, Citrix Netscaler, Riverbed, Arista, and Juniper). This company is my first exposure to a network role which I think has been a really good one for me considering I was working help desk support just 3.5 years back. My role is basically to ensure 90% of all network events are resolved within the company, that remaining 10% would be escalated to our 3rd level support for things unresolved within my group, this could be complex routing issues, unidentified software bugs, design related issues, etc, etc.
I have been in my current level 2 role for 15 months now. Previous to that I was working a level 1 support role (same company) that really did not give me the spring board to learn as much as I have in my current role. However now I feel in my current role I am approaching my learning ceiling.
Also, I feel my story may be a bit different from others of equal amount of time exposure to the industry. In my job I am forced to look at the BIG network picture and to consider everything outside the narrow focus of just routing and switching. As mentioned my role also supports other vendor equipment which also forces me to look outside just routing and switching issues, but also more complex things such as TCP/IP traffic behaviors, web services/ load balancing, WAN acceleration/optimization/analysis, as well as all the physical parts of hardware support too. The IE track I think will help me learn the big picture to even further to better support those layers of networking.
So, obviously I am ready to get down and dirty with the really complex stuff to learn it and develop serious skills. I also feel my role has given me an above average exposure over what most people with just 3.5 years of experience for a smaller network environment could obtain, so I feel I'm a bit ahead of the pack. I've also been studying CCNP on and off about 2 years now (had a baby in the middle of studies); recently I have restarted my efforts to finally finish it off so that I can move on to bigger stuff (expecting to finish NP before the end of the year).
The amount of content to absorb while studying on the CCIE level is huge and yields huge returns in knowledge and skill obtained. I recently actually spoke to one of our network SMEs and he told me I am wasting time studying NP if all I am after is the increase in knowledge and skill, he told me to jump to IE stuff right away. I tend to agree with him a bit however I still feel I have learned a good amount from my current study journey; remember I’ve only been at the networking game under 5 years. I also tend to agree with him because some of the stuff in the NP track is mildly difficult. I'm ready for more!
Also, I feel as helpful as it would be to branch out after I complete my CCNP to jump on something like a Design, or Security, or whatever other alternate track it would just ultimately side track me and cause me to lose the time and focus to achieve my goal (CCIE). My main skill sets have always been focused on Routing/Switching so I feel why should I put that focus aside to study something else for a bit that might not offer me as much total gains towards my end goal. I feel if I focus my efforts to studying CCIE content I stand to gain stronger skills and knowledge to take me to the next level (Tier 3 support for my company or another outside opportunity) as well.
Now, I don't feel I am ready for CCIE in 2 or even maybe 3 years. However as I think about I ask myself why not start now? I have built a huge reading list which will take a considerable amount of time to go through. So I think I stand to gain a lot or the most based on my goals to start now. My NP will expire in 3 years which I think I can renew at that time by taking IE written, then begin the major hardcore prep for the Lab test.
My goal is simple by definition: become an expert in core networking concepts. I think once that is achieved the other side stuff will come easier and also my core networking skill will make me valuable in those areas due to my high level networking knowledge.
Thoughts?
