Walking backwards

sexion8

Hey all, just a little intro to those on this list, hope I can be of help and vice versa. I'm currently titled a "Network Security Engineer" at a VoIP company. I've 8+ years networking experience, 14+ years sysadmin (Irix, AS400, SunOS, HPUX, you name it) 8+ security experience (tiger team contractor for IBM for a little while).

I've never bothered with certs since I've never really needed them. I've been fortunate enough to deal with the geeks in departments where I interviewed and passed all forms of ON SITE testing. (One test included a Birthday attack internally for a security position). Anyhow... I'd like to think I'm experienced enough, I've designed and implemented decent sized backbones (a OC12 based campus WAN with 30+ VLAN's), have worked with everything up to OC3's (currently working statically on multiple DS3's etc.). Currently I deal a lot with Asterisk/SIP/H323 stuff. POTS, etc., ,etc.

So... Long story short, in/around 1997 when I first started learning about certs, I thought: "Neat, let me get this CCIE book and do the do"... Studied for months on end while working in the field (networking/security).... Found out later about the steps required... CCNA --> CCNP --> CCIE ... Didn't bother studying much more. The dotcom days spoiled me since I was already making more than most of those certified.

Well, decided to hit the books in order to actually get certs just to see if I can do them. I've never been a studying kind of person, since textbooks don't appeal to me. I've written security documents, networking documents, Denial of Service documents, you name it, but alas the time has come for me to stop being lazy...

So my plan for the year? I aim to take the CCNA, CCDA, CCDP, ,CCNP, CCSP all within 90 days/daze of each other. Thoughts? I was even thinking of doing the insane and focusing on the CCIE-Security and bypassing the other exams (remember there are no pre-requisites to take the CCIE... I'm unsure about the lab portion of things though) I've always had a tendency to do things my way, and the way I find that works as opposed to following instructions especially from a book.

Any thoughts on this? Should I focus on the CCIE and devote all my study time to this exam? Or should I do things in succession CCNA -> CCNP -> CCSP -> CCIE. Ive more than enough equipment both at home and at work to pass most of the labs I could think of with the slight exception of CCVP (I dislike CME stuff). Eventually I would like to just be a CCVP, CCSP (CCIE/Security would ultimately rock though), any pointers/advice

Kaminsky

Hi SexionB,

You don't have the problem of getting certs to get a job / better job in the field your interested in like a lot of folks on these boards. (although I am certainly not a nerd even when I was doing CS at UNI most folks thought I was a Drama or Sport Scientist or some such) You have good money coming in and your future is very sound especially with the way the net will be going in the next couple of years. I geuss you really want to do these certs to prove to yourself, more than to others, that you have what it takes when measured up. Admirable and very human. (at job interview your experience would thrash any cert anyway... we all know that)

Personally, I don't think you should jump for the CCIE straight away. Reason being that there will be those bloody annoying knowledge gaps that need to be filled. Sure you could bypass them but that's not the point of wanting to get the certs is it? I think that if you did there would always be that niggling feeling in the back of your mind that that CCNP/CCSP your working with might just know some stuff you don't and that will really wind you up. If you do the route, which should theoretically be a doddle with just a run through of the syllabus, then you will always know in the back of your mind that you DO know what they know .. and more!

On a selfish note, it would be great to have someone of your experience sharing your knowledge with us students. Especially as your a security buff. That is going to be the hotest ticket in the very near future.

Good luck

keenon

i would say if you capable of taking the IE written and passing it do so.. but know that the time until your lab you would be learning all the stuff the in reverse.. CCSP, CCNA but thats all according to how you wish to do it

malcybood

sexion8 wrote:

So my plan for the year? I aim to take the CCNA, CCDA, CCDP, ,CCNP, CCSP all within 90 days/daze of each other. Thoughts? I was even thinking of doing the insane and focusing on the CCIE-Security and bypassing the other exams (remember there are no pre-requisites to take the CCIE... I'm unsure about the lab portion of things though) I've always had a tendency to do things my way, and the way I find that works as opposed to following instructions especially from a book.

Any thoughts on this? Should I focus on the CCIE and devote all my study time to this exam? Or should I do things in succession CCNA -> CCNP -> CCSP -> CCIE. Ive more than enough equipment both at home and at work to pass most of the labs I could think of with the slight exception of CCVP (I dislike CME stuff). Eventually I would like to just be a CCVP, CCSP (CCIE/Security would ultimately rock though), any pointers/advice

The thing I would say about getting into the swing of things with Cisco is that they like you to learn things on how they perceive it not how you may think of networking concepts/theories in your every day job.

I done the CCNA course 5 years ago but never sat the exam, but have since, like yourself decided to self study.

I think if you are starting from scratch and are not used to studying for certs, you should maybe start on CCNA to get into how Cisco like you to learn things and follow the track that way so you get a feel for how the exams are presented etc. I think that going straight for the CCIE is very ambitious without any Cisco cert/study exp but saying that, nothing is impossible and it depends on your industry exp I guess!

Is your work pushing you to pursue the certs or is it purely off your own back? If so hat off to your drive & motivation

Malc

sexion8

malcybood wrote:

Is your work pushing you to pursue the certs or is it purely off your own back? If so hat off to your drive & motivation

Malc

Nah, my job is fine with me in fact when I told them I think its about time I stopped being lazy, they purchased me just about everything I would need to do lab work while @ work http://www.infiltrated.net/mydesk/homelab/lab_at_work/CiscoLab%20012.jpg. Its more to me like... "Might as well." I'm actually planning on moving back to Europe in about 3 years, so I figured out there they may help me more then they could help me here.

I guess I've been lucky throughout the years because I've learned alot and had the opportunity to work at large company's which gave me the chance, and that in turned exposed me to so much (Checkpoint, Netscreen, NFR, Juniper, Cisco, Foundry, Redback). My resume reads more impressive than most CCNP's, CISSP's, CISA's even some CCIE's. But the certs really never meant much to me. I've worked at a company owned by Metromedia Fiber (they own a slew of NSP's/Colo places) for a while, Chemical Bank (now Chase) 3 years, IBM (contractor doing security work Tiger Team/Managed FW's Checkpoint and Netscreens), a University (network designer/engineer/helldesk/you_name_it) a couple of dotcoms (Register.com/Comet Systems)... Now I'm happily working at a VoIP company (I never name ).

I'm happy where I'm at, I just want the certs I guess to see if I could, and somehow I think they might mean more abroad then they've meant here at least to me.[/url]

malcybood

Well I'm glad you have joined the forums to bring your wealth of experience to the plate.....Good luck with whatever Cisco track you go for.....oh yeah and looks like a cushty lab

Malc

Kaminsky

sexion8 wrote:

they purchased me just about everything I would need to do lab work while @ work http://www.infiltrated.net/mydesk/homelab/lab_at_work/CiscoLab%20012.jpg.

They purchased that for you to study ? <listen to the sound of the rest of the forum whimper>

If/when you do return back to Europe, it is going digital in a big way with most of UK homes going digital (even the tele) right down to the little villages. I know BT are on a huge project to digitalise (if thats a real word) Spain as well and in the UK fibre is coming right down to the roadside junction boxes. Companies and homes are "webbing up" all over the place.

Remember the sound of the footy scores coming in on a Saturday afternoon on the teletype ?

sexion8

Kaminsky wrote:

If/when you do return back to Europe, it is going digital in a big way with most of UK homes going digital (even the tele) right down to the little villages.

Last I was in EU was July 2000, Sweden to be exact. This time around it will be Spain (Orense). The economy seems to kind of suck in Spain if you ask me. But I am basing this on what I read. On the flip side of things, I envision Spain being what the US was during the mid to lat 90's at some given point. It seems they have one major player out there (Telefonica), and I truly can see things picking up once they do away with that horrid siesta.

As for the lab @ work, it happened like this, there are four guys on my team, we run a managed VoIP service for customers not to mention svces similar to Vonage. Me, I maintain about 20+ managed VoIP server with my lowly client having about 40 phones. There are a mixture of Asterisk machines, CCM, CME machines in the mix. We also tend to manage their networks in between. The company I work for hired about 3 big guns one formerly a Bell Labs (30 yrs experience) guy with deep ties to DoD. So after he introduced himself to us, I shot it right from the hip as such: "Look all of us here specialize in specific things, with some focusing more than others. If you expect to tackle big clients, we should all get certified, Fortune 500's eat that stuff up like chocolate." I drew up the pros and cons, costs along with the fact that when client come in, the for some reason bring them into our work area from time to time. We get word off hand so we "pretty" things up.

My production environment? .... I have some nCite SBC's, Foundry's, Cisco up the wazoo, and Dell in a colo located internally. So that wows clients. Then they have that awful tendency to bring them to us when we're slacking on Youtube and IRC all day, so I figured, why waste about 10+ more years. Altogether they spent a whopping 4k on equipment for us to get certified and keep us happy. Me? As you can see from the picture (and soon I will take better ones ... www.infiltrated.net/mydesk/ I know its messy @ times), most of the equipment is on my desk. My other cowokers, they play whenever they want. Me... I'm trying to take it a bit more serious, I'm 33 and have let time pass me by for the minute, my networking/voip coworkers... Heh, under 25 all three. When it comes to security though, same happened, I did some dual studying for the CISSP and CISA back from 1997-2001. Then I married, traveled too much for dotcom flunkies, and wasted time. I thought nothing at the time cuz I mean, during that time, I had offers left and right, minimum salary offerings I had then were about 50-60k. This was without certs, which is why I never thought much for them then.