Do you find yourself forgetting Cert stuff?

loxleynew

Does anyone else find yourself forgetting Cert stuff and find it frustrating? Say I am at a job and get my CCENT, but I get a new job a year later and use less Cisco stuff. Now in another year i'm looking for another job but it involved more networking, but revisiting Cisco i'm like ?? I learned this but forgot it.

anyone else find this happening a lot or do you just in your spare time go overall this stuff while at your current job? How do you deal with this?

PCTechLinc

I find it's always about "use it or lose it." I USED to know Spanish and American Sign Language fluently, but not having to use either in years, I've forgotten most. I have quite a few certs, but if I am not mindful to practice the things I don't use on a regular basis in my job, I will forget a lot of what I learned. That was one huge benefit being an instructor at a college, is that you constantly go over the objectives on a regular basis for the students, so it complements what you do during your day job. At least, that is my personal experience.

Verities

When you work in IT, its use it or lose it, unless you have a photographic memory. I learned this pretty quickly and started documenting solutions and how to do things you don't use that often. I have a huge OneNote file that I use on my OneDrive, separated out by technologies (Apache, BIND, KVM, Postfix, etc) which provides me with a quick KM of stuff when I need it. I keep a separate Atom file on my work computer for, you guessed it, work related solutions that include proprietary information.

urstuffplz1

I think it's a problem for most people in all walks of life that they forget stuff they don't use regularly, unfortunately the only way to combat this is through constant refreshing or practical experience. I do the same as Verities with OneNote. I take notes of topics I study, lots of pictures, diagrams, highlighting and to the point reference links, it will assist in work and be a handy reference guide. Also, I have this book by my side for Cisco related stuff in work: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Routing-Switching-Portable-Command-Guide/dp/1587204304

thomas_

Yeah, it tends to fade away if I don't use it. I just keep my notes from when I was studying and brush up on something if I'm applying for jobs/going on interviews.

MitM

This happens to me, as well. I do find when I have to go back to refresh my memory, I actually wind up learning something new.

What I'm trying to do now is, if I'm learning something new, take a day to go back to refresh on a prior topic. I'm going to start studying for CISSP, but one day a week, I'll try to dedicate some time to networking stuff (ASA, Palo, OSPF, etc)

Slowhand

It's a skill, like anything else, it slips away if you don't use it. The other side of the coin, though, is that it's really easy to get it back if you re-visit the forgotten topic, very much the same way that you can go back and re-learn something you forgot from school or go back to a manual transmission if you haven't driven one in years.

tmtex

Yes and I have been asked basic questions on interviews where I was like .....Umm

TechGuru80

Ideally you learn the stuff good enough so a quick refresher will help get the wheels spinning again. With that being said it really is a "use it or lose it" kind of situation. If you aren't studying for something, try to constantly lab and practice the skill sets outside of work. Also hopefully you aren't changing to jobs that are drastically different so you still get a little bit of exposure.

dontstop

Slowhand wrote: »

The other side of the coin, though, is that it's really easy to get it back if you re-visit the forgotten topic, very much the same way that you can go back and re-learn something you forgot from school or go back to a manual transmission if you haven't driven one in years.

Exactly this.

For me personally I believe the benefit in Certifications is the broad and structured exposure you gain from studying for a certification and learning how to learn. It's demystifying things that you "don't know you don't know" and making sure when something does pop up you have some idea about it atleast. I find it much more reassuring having a vague idea about something then being totally dumbfounded by it.

As said, once you've done something in the past you can pick it up fairly quickly and more accurately than someone learning it for the first time. Don't stress about not having eidetic memory it's not how our brains are suppose to function, once you get into the job/role you'll pick it up all again very rapidly.

ming746

Honestly a lot you find on certs you don't run across much in the real world depending on the cert but i was out of the loop for awhile and forgot a lot of what I knew on the job. Is just a testament you have to keep yoiyoiur mound sharp and sgtay away from drugs and nonsense guys

Have fun but be responsible. Drugs aren't meant to be a lifestyle and you d t use at all but if you do it needs to be a rare exception to celebrate like new years or something d then back to real life. They are a loaded gun just waiting to destroy your life

Take it from someone who's traveled that dsark road and still trying to bounce back. It robs you of so much more than just your pocketbook

UnixGuy

I would add one thing:

I found one great way to "use it" is to actually Build on it by doing something more advanced.

Example: you did CCNA? start doing the CCNP, and LAB. This way when you're labbing for the CCNP you are forced to constantly use the CCNA knowledge and apply it so it becomes a second nature.


Last point, don't sweat it. We all need to Google stuff every now and then.

Cardboard

I got good at building router and switch configs on my live equipment during my CCNA training. If I had to do it now, after several months out of practice? I could get it done, as I remember what commands I used, but there'd be a lot of stumbling around referencing my training videos, and google searching. I'm not happy about that.

Fadakartel

Cardboard wrote: »

I got good at building router and switch configs on my live equipment during my CCNA training. If I had to do it now, after several months out of practice? I could get it done, as I remember what commands I used, but there'd be a lot of stumbling around referencing my training videos, and google searching. I'm not happy about that.

Don`t worry im a network engineer in an ISP and im stuck doing SDH/DWDM (80% of my job is this) I only do Cisco stuff for special projects, and sadly i can`t remember a lot of stuff i did in CCNP/CCNA had to look at my notes on how to configure an IPSLA. Trust me even doing labs I can`t keep up with the amount of stuff I need to refresh while learning SDH/DWDM.

scaredoftests

forgetting..what?

DatabaseHead

It's the reason why I stopped doing certifications. I've spent thousands of dollars of certifications and for most of them I have very little to show for it. It seems employers are more understanding in regards to not retaining information from degrees, but certifications seem too carry a little more expectations around them. If you list the CCNA you are expected to know the material, if you list a degree in accounting but been in supply chain no one expects you to be an "accountant".

It's the way it works in my world at least....

xxxkaliboyxxx

I took 6 months of intensive french and got to a working proficiency level. I scored awesome in my OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview)...... I would say I could have a convo with a 5 year old right now.

Same principles, perishable skills, use it or lose it, etc. Now if I retrain myself it will be a lot easier and the light bulbs comes on everytime I watch a French movie or TV Show. It gets stored down in your brain, but I wouldn't be able to translate between the DoD and the international nuclear workers if I was asked to do it tomorrow.

apr911

By far the thing I've forgotten the most of is my routing knowledge. Aside from making changes to already existing routing infrastructure, I have never really used my routing knowledge for the planning and deployment stages to the point where I struggle with basic routing questions. I might not be able to answer the initial configuration questions but I excel in my ability to look at a configuration, understand it and then modify it to meet my needs.

I've also forgotten most of the physical security concerns (such as fire extinguishing systems) and the various security models (Bell-LaPadua, MAC, etc) related to my CISSP.

I've also "forgotten" how to do most things on a Cisco ASA, Cisco CSS and Cisco ACE. I can still operate and function on the devices and can still configure them but its definitely rusty and a long way away from where I used to be when I could practically configure any one of the devices in my sleep. At one point my Cisco knowledge was proficient enough that I was offered a position with their High-Touch Technical Support team yet if you put me on a device today, I'd be hard pressed to configure it without some sort of guide to help.

Really though, thats how I view most certifications now... There is too much complexity involved with all of them to really do anything without a guide. Back when I was a Windows admin I used to sit in interviews in which a colleague would inevitably ask about FSMO roles (because everyone seems to know what they are) and where/how you would move/seize the role. I used to argue with those colleagues (after the fact of course) that it is inherently a bad question to ask because even if a candidate did have the process memorized, I would never allow someone to conduct such a delicate operation from memory.

Slowhand

UnixGuy wrote: »

I would add one thing:

I found one great way to "use it" is to actually Build on you it by doing something more advanced.

Example: you did CCNA? start doing the CCNP, and LAB. This way when you're labbing for the CCNP you are forced to constantly use the CCNA knowledge and apply it so it becomes a second nature.

This is excellent advice. It's true for IT topics, it's true for math, it's true for sports, and it's true for just about anything in life. The best way to enforce learned skills is to use them, and it's even better when you use them to build up to even more advanced skills.

UnixGuy wrote: »

Last point, don't sweat it. We all need to Google stuff every now and then.

This is also very, very true. I was on a conference video call with two Sr. network engineers and our resident Microsoft architect last year. We were discussing how to proceed on a project that had run into an issue, and no one hesitated to bring up TechNet when we were trying to figure out the answer. Being knowledgeable doesn't mean memorizing every detail, but knowing enough to jog your memory or be able to look things up in an educated way. It's only ego that shames people for looking up solutions before trying it on their own.

OctalDump

I think it's like a lot of learning: use it or lose it. However, generally it's quicker to learn things the second time around.

ITBot

I just had an interview recently where I forgot some basic ccent stuff. Embarrassing. Most of the work I do involves Citrix and Applications so it's easy to forget these things. I'm reviewing CCNA studies right now and I'm planning to jump into CCNP pretty soon as well to help cement all that knowledge and as someone else said, it does come back pretty quickly. I'm still embarrassed by that interview though!