1st CCIE lab attempt blog and help for candidates.

laidbackfreak

Turgon wrote: »

Informed I have a telephone interview tomorrow. W00t. Time for curry now.[/url]

How do you feel about telephone interviews? Personally I think they suck unless your doing lots of telephone support lol

hoppe the curry was good

yuriz43

I think going back to some of the basics is a great idea for even the more experienced engineers.


I hate phone interviews too! But they sure seem like the norm these days. I just find it hard to articulate what I'm trying to say over the phone. Sometimes you just need to draw out a diagram to explain a solution..

Turgon

laidbackfreak wrote: »

How do you feel about telephone interviews? Personally I think they suck unless your doing lots of telephone support lol

hoppe the curry was good

A necessary evil but something of a blunt tool. After all, if you *really* wanted to catch someone out you could do with prepared questions. What is essentially important is that you can offer examples of how you worked with protocol x or y in the field. At the moment I feel that my interviews are getting better as I have more of them because you learn as you go. As for the job front on the whole Im positive about my prospects. What I really need is for a company that is on the right point of the curve to talk to me. At the moment with the economy as it is far too many companies have fallen into the trap of assuming that there are loads of people out there to choose from and they are expecting it to be easy to land someone who can just go in there and explain to all their CCIE's where they are going wrong on their cores

Expectations are too high. The person they need is golden handcuffed in another company on a paydeal they can't match or earning contract rates they just won't pay. So..they are going to have to realise this soon before people like me have run into a company that has seen the light, are off the market and are helping someone else muddle through. While I cannot solve all their problems as quickly as they might like, I can solve them given time, but when guys like me are off the market there really wont be much left to choose from.

I think a lot of companies are paying a heavy price now for investing far too much in infrastructure and not enough in the people looking after it. Design help in MPLS, Voice, Cloud, Wireless is desparately needed. Knowing how to work with these things is one thing, having a track record on sorting it all out is quite another! For a lot of companies they just wont pay the salaries or the rates for a superstar of 9 years experience to give up what they have and come and work for them. But they could employ a star pupil if they show some ambition.

Someone just contacted me about working in Cayman. Is it nice there?

Turgon

yuriz43 wrote: »

I think going back to some of the basics is a great idea for even the more experienced engineers.

You need to do it constantly. For the senior roles you are often taking a 5 mile view. One of the problems of CCIE prep is that you get so bogged down with the minutia of everything that it's very easy for the 'reasons why' or even the basics of something to become really cloudy over time

laidbackfreak

Turgon wrote: »

Approaching 100,000 views. No more Cisco for me today. P1ssed off with studying it

hey we flew past this without me noticing.... now where's the party lol

Turgon

laidbackfreak wrote: »

hey we flew past this without me noticing.... now where's the party lol

hehehe..same old, same old...

Had a look at the Boson MPLS test this morning. Far too much new stuff to cover there today Onwards with the CCNA Boson now..

Turgon

Im done with the Boson for CCNA. Really quite tiring getting through it all. There were some no brainers in there for me, but also some tricky things that caught me out and some stuff I either forgot or never had to do anything ever than look up when I needed them i.e some of the obscure config register values and some new things as well. Oh yeah I got my banner types mixed up hehehe..

So it's all good but I will need to go over Lammle's book thoroughly now. I will see what I have at home to help me with some MPLS practice for the IE tomorrow.

Turgon

Lammle test engine this morning. More calls with agents. Will look at MPLS on the home rack.

Turgon

Hammered through all 14 end of chapter test questions in the Lammle test engine. Scored high marks everywhere except for IPv6 where I got my link local/site local stuff mixed up and wireless where I got owned. I never work with the stuff.

If this is anything to go by I should nuke the test providing I dont get complacent. Some reading to do and details to cover.

Back on with MPLS now..

GiddyG

Turgon wrote: »

Someone just contacted me about working in Cayman. Is it nice there?

I believe it is, but you have to worry about hurricanes and suchlike from time to time...

veritas_libertas

GiddyG wrote: »

I believe it is, but you have to worry about hurricanes and suchlike from time to time...

Beats snow any day....

http://www.caymanislands.ky/

dynamik

New record of 100k+ views

GiddyG

veritas_libertas wrote: »

Beats snow any day....

Cayman Islands - Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, Travel and Tourism Site

Heh heh... very true!

As an aside, we're just waiting for our heavy fall. It should arrive about 6pm GMT tomorrow evening/night. I'll believe that when I see it...


Turgon.

Keep up the good work. As I've said previously, I am thoroughly enjoying reading about your exploits, both with the CCIE and on the jobs front. I am certain it's going to happen like buses... nothing for ages then you get several pulling up at the same time.

Turgon

GiddyG wrote: »

Heh heh... very true!

As an aside, we're just waiting for our heavy fall. It should arrive about 6pm GMT tomorrow evening/night. I'll believe that when I see it...


Turgon.

Keep up the good work. As I've said previously, I am thoroughly enjoying reading about your exploits, both with the CCIE and on the jobs front. I am certain it's going to happen like buses... nothing for ages then you get several pulling up at the same time.

Thanks man. Im averaging one interview every couple of weeks so its going well. We just need the right job now. Some Im still waiting feedback on, others while I could have done a good job for them I sense they are looking for an exact match of current skills across well just about everything really.

Turgon

Ok today I pulled down some basic MPLS configuration papers off the Cisco website and this evening looked at my home rack to see if anything useful can be configured. I can't say Im surprised at the findings so it will have to be remote racks. With the new lab change I have purchased some reinforcements to help me get upto speed with OEQ, TS and the new topics on the blueprint.

I bought INE OEQ product, Vol I (To cover the new topics), and Vol IV (To cover troubleshooting). I already have Vol II and this has updates for the new things but it's a Vol I job for those areas at the moment.

I will get cracking on Vol I and spend sometime on the remote racks for the rest of December on the new topics. Vol IV I will start in January with some parallel running of Vol II. The OEQ tool I will use each day. Lots of work ahead of me then before I try out a v4 mock exam at the end of February. If it goes well I will do the lab end of April. If I get my head kicked in I will push the lab back to the summer.

The priority right now, quite frankly, is to find some work and get bedded down in a new job.

Turgon

I have an interview on Monday for a job in Europe. I will no doubt be asked obscure things about 6500 supervisors, ACE modules and all kinds of stuff about MPLS. So I expect to take a kicking. It's all good practice, the interviews not the kicking. Meanwhile I have printed off the 83 page section from Vol I that covers MPLS. A strange and foreign country for me although I did get some limited exposure to MPLS on my last piece of design work and covered some of the theory for the written. Brain salad surgery for the next few days reading this stuff. Looking ahead it's Vol I and OEQ until year end, with Vol IV troubleshooting and OEQ in January. Moving in and out of this activity a sprinkling of multiprotocol labs from Vol II and a regular cycle through all the topics using Command Memoriser, Bosons and technology reading from the blueprint. Expect a savage beating in my first v4 mock exam end of February.

Turgon

Update from the agent about the Hong Kong job. They haven't looked at applicants yet. Feedback in January. Sent forward for a job in Switzerland today and also exotic Yorkshire. Fun stuff. Looked over first twenty pages of MPLS section in Vol 1. Now configuring on gradedlabs section..

bertieb

Turgon wrote: »

and also exotic Yorkshire

[Flat Cap and Whippet]
Ey up Lad, ya will be reet messing aboot with those computer-ma-thingys in Yorkshire?
Eeee baaa Gum
[/Flat Cap and Whippet]

PS I'm allowed to act like that with my missus of 8 yrs being a Yorkshire lass, it's all part of the English Lancashire v Yorkshire banter (just don't tell her I'm trying to do a cr@p Yorkshire accent impression

Good luck though Turgon!

Turgon

bertieb wrote: »

[Flat Cap and Whippet]
Ey up Lad, ya will be reet messing aboot with those computer-ma-thingys in Yorkshire?
Eeee baaa Gum
[/Flat Cap and Whippet]

PS I'm allowed to act like that with my missus of 8 yrs being a Yorkshire lass, it's all part of the English Lancashire v Yorkshire banter (just don't tell her I'm trying to do a cr@p Yorkshire accent impression

Good luck though Turgon!

hehehehe..thanks. I live in Yorkshire myself although Im actually a missionary from the other side of the Alps

Turgon

Ok I worked through the Vol 1 lab 14.1 MPLS VPN. I configured this on graded labs loading up the preconfiguration called Vol 1 MPLS-VPN. Everything worked as per the solution. Simply typed it in and observed output from the various show commands illustrated in the solution guide. I think I get this but I will need much more familiarity in the weeks ahead. I think I will look over some theory now.

Turgon

Some work on the Boson covering the MPLS exam yesterday, polishing that off this morning followed by a rack session to continue configuring MPLS examples from INE Vol I through the afternoon. There goes Saturday.

Vol I MPLS LDP - DONE
Vol I MPLS Label Filtering - DONE
Vol I MP-BGP VPNv4 - DONE

The last exercise only partially worked as I was not able to get the route 150.3.6.6 in the RIBs of R4 and R5.

Turgon

Printed out all the questions and solutions to the new MPLS sections in the INE Vol II labs. Only 10 out of 20 labs have been updated with MPLS. Still a lot of material though. This morning scanned over this material as well the rest of the Vol I MPLS workbook. MPLS is complex and I reckon there are 100 hours at least ahead of me on this subnet just to be come competent. With the lack of extensive study hours at home Im going to have to be not only patient about getting through this material but also careful not to upset my family by spending too long each day on all this stuff. Lots to do indoors here and Christmas is coming.

Boson again now and some of that MPLS theory that is still very woolly for me.

Turgon

Vol 1 MP-BGP Prefix Filtering - DONE

Well configured anyway but not working. Similar problems to the last exercise. The peerings are not lighting up and the routes are not going over. Either the solution is incomplete or there are dependencies that need sorting out when I load the preconfigured Vol 1 MPLS VPN topology offered by graded labs. Tried a few changes to no avail. With so much still to learn it's difficult to know what is wrong here. PE-CE routing with RIP next. Im reloading the rack from scratch with the MPLS VPN topology again so I hope I can actually get something working this time before Sunday dinner.

Turgon

Time called on the rack session now at part 14.6 PE-CE Routing with RIP. Nothing of any use working there. So far as I can tell it looks like the exercises have dependencies on the previous ones and with a router reload all previous configs are erased. I couldn't get MP-BGP VPNv4 and MP-BGP Prefix Filtering working anyway. Will need to look over these configs in depth now and map things out.

christino

BTW, Scott Morris confirmed someone passed the R&S lab last week, and of course Service Provider passes are becoming the norm nowadays, let's see what happens to the "dumpers" after January when OEQs would be introduced in there too. 71 SP CCIES in 2 months compared with only 1 for R&S tells a lot. I don't see Cisco taking OEQs off, ever again.

mikej412

christino wrote: »

71 SP CCIES in 2 months compared with only 1 for R&S tells a lot. I don't see Cisco taking OEQs off, ever again.

People were still passing the R&S Labs after the OEQs were started.

It's probably the new technologies, new sucky electronic lab single monitor swap between window interface, slow updates to the 3rd party CCIE Workbooks -- and more likely the new labs, and the troubleshooting section.

And the **** camps and NDA Violation Study Groups haven't had time to piece together the new labs -- and hopefully Cisco is changing the labs and troubleshooting sections faster then than they did in the past.

christino

Mikej,

Yea i understand people were still passing the R&S after OEQs were added, but it sure reduced the pace. After a few months, the **** camps began producing OEQ **** as well, but like you said, hope Cisco changes the questions more often than before. Another thing I would like to see is Cisco introducing the troubleshooting in Written (prometric type) and change the questions more often as well. I remember writing composite bsci+bcmsn back then and having four labs. A lab-type version of the written should be introduced, that way, recertifying cheats would have to pay a lot to **** camps only to be shamed at the testing centers.

Anyone who passes this v4 (without the help of the **** camps) is my true CCIE. I really wish recertifying could be half as tough as this.

Hey, I forgot, MODERATED, China, the most notorious for producing "fast CCIEs" are yet to produce a single R & S guy in 2 months and are pushing more of SP guys.

I understand INE won't come out with the troubleshooting labs before March, I think its affecting sales for third party lab tutors as well and the ones who produce the most success stories in this short time stand a better chance of making the most sales as the gold rush loses steam and picks up again.

Turgon

christino wrote: »

Mikej,

Yea i understand people were still passing the R&S after OEQs were added, but it sure reduced the pace. After a few months, the **** camps began producing OEQ **** as well, but like you said, hope Cisco changes the questions more often than before. Another thing I would like to see is Cisco introducing the troubleshooting in Written (prometric type) and change the questions more often as well. I remember writing composite bsci+bcmsn back then and having four labs. A lab-type version of the written should be introduced, that way, recertifying cheats would have to pay a lot to **** camps only to be shamed at the testing centers.

Anyone who passes this v4 (without the help of the **** camps) is my true CCIE. I really wish recertifying could be half as tough as this.

Hey, I forgot, MODERATED, China, the most notorious for producing "fast CCIEs" are yet to produce a single R & S guy in 2 months and are pushing more of SP guys.

I understand INE won't come out with the troubleshooting labs before March, I think its affecting sales for third party lab tutors as well and the ones who produce the most success stories in this short time stand a better chance of making the most sales as the gold rush loses steam and picks up again.

Cheating on the written has been a problem for a very long time. In my opinion if you cant prepare for and pass the written without using **** you have no business even thinking about doing the lab. Far too many people have shortcircuited the reading lists over the years resulting in poor understanding of the topics. Many of the same people then dumped the lab.

When you see how much time people like me have put into this certification you can understand why there was so much cheating on the lab exam. Many people are just lazy. Im no rocket scientist but the rate at which CCIE R&S numbers was climbing was borderline silly. People are dropping out of the CCIE tracks like flies now that the soft option has evaporated. I may actually have a chance of a number before we hit 30000 now

More MPLS revision today. Will go over the Vol I labs, make notes and then try and get more of this stuff working on a rack.

Turgon

Bingo! INE Vol 1 MP-BGP VPNv4 - DONE

I got this working this morning. You need to do all the previous exercises and leave them in running configuration before this works. This particular lab 14.4 has dependencies on the things done earlier. The implications here are that if you want to do the later exercises you are going to have to put time in configuring all the exercises leading up to it and save the configs someplace, unless you are going to do the whole workbook in one hit.

Forsaken_GA

Turgon wrote: »

When you see how much time people like me have put into this certification you can understand why there was so much cheating on the lab exam. Many people are just lazy. Im no rocket scientist but the rate at which CCIE R&S numbers was climbing was borderline silly. People are dropping out of the CCIE tracks like flies now that the soft option has evaporated. I may actually have a chance of a number before we hit 30000 now

Yeah, I think one of the CCIE's main selling points was the fact that so few people (relatively speaking) could actually pass it. The number actually meant something, and every CCIE I know is absolutely religious about it. Personally, I have a shoulder waiting for a number to tattoo onto it.

Seeing the high increase in the recent number of years was a bit disturbing, as it does have the appearance of diluting the value a bit. So I'm very glad that Cisco is taking action to protect their brands in the certification world. I think it'll also be nice when the economy turns around and there isn't such an influx of folks that think Cisco certs are a magic bullet to making a quick buck, but I suppose that's a few years out. I think one of my driving goals will be to do my damndest to get a number under 30,000 as well.

And I'll be honest Turgon, I think when you finally take the lab exam, you'll knock it out of the park, and you'll come back and tell us you overprepared by a wide margin hehe