DoctorLexus's CCIE R&S Thread

doctorlexus

Thanks for the replies. I was just thinking about it recently in how, as technology expands, they keep adding more and more to these certifications. Makes me wish I had stayed with IT and done this 15 years ago. Plus my old brain just doesn't remember things as clearly as it did in my youth.

Nevertheless, I want to take a long journey like this. I think it would be very satisfying. I just need to figure out my focus and prioritize. There are so many things I've tentatively put on my plate that I want to do, and I know it's not realistic to do them all.

doctorlexus

On an additional note, and in reference to one of Iris's other posts about generalizing early and specializing later, I've been debating exactly how much generality I should try to cover before going deep on a topic.

Iristheangel

Depends on what you see as generalization. If you're doing a CCIE in anything, I would say that's a specialization right there even though things like R&S do touch on other subjects in some ways (SP, Wireless, Voice, etc).

That being said... when you study for a CCIE, you'll hit a point where you can't study anything else because you just can't split your time until the CCIE is done. If you have a new job coming up that requires you to learn a bunch of new technologies, you might not be getting that CCIE for awhile until you get up to speed at that new job. If you want to learn voice, security, virtualization to fit an immediate skills gap to get the job you want in the next 1-2 years, do that first before getting too far into the CCIE because there's a different between "maintaining" and "learning" in hours a week you put in labbing. If you have any short term learning goals that will apply for the career growth for the next 1-2 years, get them done now and get the job you want to stay at for a couple years FIRST before getting too deep into the CCIE. That stability will help.

doctorlexus

Iristheangel wrote: »

Depends on what you see as generalization. If you're doing a CCIE in anything, I would say that's a specialization right there even though things like R&S do touch on other subjects in some ways (SP, Wireless, Voice, etc).

That being said... when you study for a CCIE, you'll hit a point where you can't study anything else because you just can't split your time until the CCIE is done. If you have a new job coming up that requires you to learn a bunch of new technologies, you might not be getting that CCIE for awhile until you get up to speed at that new job. If you want to learn voice, security, virtualization to fit an immediate skills gap to get the job you want in the next 1-2 years, do that first before getting too far into the CCIE because there's a different between "maintaining" and "learning" in hours a week you put in labbing. If you have any short term learning goals that will apply for the career growth for the next 1-2 years, get them done now and get the job you want to stay at for a couple years FIRST before getting too deep into the CCIE. That stability will help.

Seems like solid advice. I wanted to do a CCNA Wireless, a linux cert of some sorts to brush up on all my old linux knowledge, and then OSCP is a personal goal of mine. Just not sure, at my age, if I would be better off diving deep and fast into one thing. I guess everyone feels rushed to one degree or another to get where they want in life, but it seems like if you're young, you have more time to explore. Whereas being older, you want to get up to speed on something marketable as fast as possible so you don't look like this at work:

gorebrush

It's alright. I think I need a CCDE.