1st CCIE lab attempt blog and help for candidates.

Turgon

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

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

The problem is lack of exposure for a lot of CCIE's, I mean in the field. If the technical interviews I am having is anything to go by it is what you have been *doing* workwise that is really the clincher. I can't think of anything worse than having the CCIE moniker without demonstrable experience in the field to back it up. Of course you have the number and more power to you for that, but without field your knowledge is a little vanilla and your usefulness compromised because you work with what you have to work with out there. Not that I'm God's gift to networking by any stretch of the imagination but my experience is solid and the CCIE will gilt edge things and get me headed into the architect direction before I get too old

As for my chances..well I hope you are right about that but I have studied at a disadvantage because I really haven't been able to knock out lengthy daily study sessions on those racks. The NOC job that gives me slacktime to do labs on the company dollar never happened, and the 9-2AM sessions during the week were just not an option. That would have been devastating for our family life and caused terrible fatigue when I need to be on top of my game at work. The *best* way to get through this track is to study like an animal for 12 months if you can find the time. The way I have done it creates its own difficulties though. You feel like the track will never end and it can be really difficult to stay on top of the technologies because it takes so long to rinse and repeat them. That is getting better now though (finally).

Vol 1 PE-CE Routing with RIP - DONE

It didn't work. No idea where those 31.x.x.x RIP routes are supposed to come from. Not in the configs. Backbone routers?

Just had a technical interview for a contract in Continental Europe. It went brilliantly.

veritas_libertas

Turgon wrote: »

Just had a technical interview for a contract in Continental Europe. It went brilliantly.

Good Luck!

Turgon

veritas_libertas wrote: »

Good Luck!

Thanks Man.

Ok well Vol 1 PE-CE Routing with OSPF next. Reloading the MPLS-VPN config from graded labs. Let's see if I can get this one to work.

Turgon

INE Vol 1 PE-CE Routing with OSPF - DONE

That one didn't work either but at least I got it configured. I put in the exercises for VRF Lite, MPLS LDP and MP-BGP VPNv4 before attempting this as Im fairly sure that the elements for those are needed for this exercise, but it still didn't work. Early days for me on MPLS so I will just have to persevere for the moment until the understanding sinks in. A good day though on the racks and things are starting to click a little bit. Time for the family now. Many hours on MPLS today off and on, broken up by an electrician visit to the house today and an interview in the afternoon. Tired

More MPLS another day soon.

christino

Reading Turgon's updates both inspirea and scare me at the same time. LoL.

Positively, I once had a friend who studied 8 hours a day (for 16 months), religiously and scored 100% in the version 3. I think it's not just preparation for the exam, it's about carrying the venom on way beyond the exam, and maybe becoming an "Immortal"!

Best of luck in the job search, I'm tryna change job in 2010, hope I get a Financial Institution or Telco. I need both experiences (CCIE apart) to set up my company in 2012 and never work for anyone ever again.

Turgon

8 hours a day would sure help. I bet he was glad when it was all over. Good luck with your plans!

Turgon

Flew through the technical interview the other day and received a call this afternoon to confirm that the second interview would take place within the hour. I had just got back from shopping for groceries with no time to prepare. Had it with the solutions delivery manager and the solutions delivery director over the phone. Informed later by agent I was the man they wanted. CIO in the US approached for approval. Formality. Still awaiting some paperwork but suffice to say that barring dragons falling from the sky I got the contract. Will be overseas in the New Year. Cool.

MPLS tomorrow.

Bl8ckr0uter

Turgon wrote: »

Flew through the technical interview the other day and received a call this afternoon to confirm that the second interview would take place within the hour. I had just got back from shopping for groceries with no time to prepare. Had it with the solutions delivery manager and the solutions delivery director over the phone. Informed later by agent I was the man they wanted. CIO in the US approached for approval. Formality. Still awaiting some paperwork but suffice to say that barring dragons falling from the sky I got the contract. Will be overseas in the New Year. Cool.

MPLS tomorrow.

Hells YEA!!!!! Looks like all of that paid off for you?

Congrats man. What type of job is it? Security? I know you said you were reviewing some stuff for checkpoint stuff, will you be supporting checkpoint at all?

GiddyG

Turgon wrote: »

Flew through the technical interview the other day and received a call this afternoon to confirm that the second interview would take place within the hour. I had just got back from shopping for groceries with no time to prepare. Had it with the solutions delivery manager and the solutions delivery director over the phone. Informed later by agent I was the man they wanted. CIO in the US approached for approval. Formality. Still awaiting some paperwork but suffice to say that barring dragons falling from the sky I got the contract. Will be overseas in the New Year. Cool.

Blooming marvellous!

Turgon

knwminus wrote: »

Hells YEA!!!!! Looks like all of that paid off for you?

Congrats man. What type of job is it? Security? I know you said you were reviewing some stuff for checkpoint stuff, will you be supporting checkpoint at all?

Thanks. Filling in for the Network Architect. Bit of everything really

Turgon

GiddyG wrote: »

Blooming marvellous!

Yes thanks. Good news indeed. For those still looking for work keep applying and get as many interviews as you can to improve your chances of find a company that is genuine about hiring someone soon. A lot of companies are just looking to see who is available at present as recruitment budgets are tight. Also some of the requirements are hopelessly optimistic. The skills and expereince some of these adds are looking for are only held by a few people who have been in a senior role for many years managing complex core infrastructures. They earn a lot of money and they are not going anywhere. So keep applying for jobs to get through all this and you may bump into a company that is realistic about its expectations!

For those of you in work, do whatever you can to keep your job. It's never a fun time to be unemployed but 2010 will be difficult. Regardless of how good you are if the suits put up the wrong pie chart at head office you could be laid off, so be prepared for that and try out some interviews if you can get them. The practice is essential should the worst happen.

bertieb

Turgon wrote: »

Thanks. Filling in for the Network Architect. Bit of everything really

Awesome, way to go!

Now, get back to the studies

laidbackfreak

Turgon wrote: »

Thanks. Filling in for the Network Architect. Bit of everything really

Nice on fella good news as long as you can keep pushing your studies.

Food on table obviously comes first n foremost

veritas_libertas

Turgon wrote: »

Flew through the technical interview the other day and received a call this afternoon to confirm that the second interview would take place within the hour. I had just got back from shopping for groceries with no time to prepare. Had it with the solutions delivery manager and the solutions delivery director over the phone. Informed later by agent I was the man they wanted. CIO in the US approached for approval. Formality. Still awaiting some paperwork but suffice to say that barring dragons falling from the sky I got the contract. Will be overseas in the New Year. Cool.

MPLS tomorrow.

Congratz man! Your coming to the States? For how long?

Turgon

laidbackfreak wrote: »

Nice on fella good news as long as you can keep pushing your studies.

Food on table obviously comes first n foremost

Thanks. Yes that is always the priority. I had to fight for this job. Good contractors get contracts even when the market is tough so It's nice to remain in that eschelon. The problem is it is a rolling one month contract. Given that the renewal decision will be made by the end of my third week in the job there is no pressure there then

But it's not entirely all down to me. I will do a professional job whatever Im asked to do. But if the technologies Im presented with run away from me there is only so much catching up I or anyone else can do. Much depends on just how underresourced and chaotic things are there. There is something else as well. Hopefully I do very well in there, but if the wrong pie chart appears at head office I will be laid off.

Given the pressure then to take in so much quickly on the job, make a great impression and the fact Im in an unfamilar environment and away from the family for the first month, I fully expect to be getting back to the hotel shattered. I will most probably have extra work to do and things to ponder on when Im in the hotel.

So my plans to be ready for the lab by April are already in ruins. All my time, energy and focus has to be expended on paying the bills but Im comfortable with that.

Turgon

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

laidbackfreak

Turgon wrote: »

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

right back at ya hope you and yours have a cracking xmas and the new job just keeps rolling

Any thoughts on what to do about your lab now ? or jsut push it back till later in the year?

veritas_libertas

Turgon wrote: »

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours Turgon

GiddyG

And a Very Merry Christmas to you too, Turgon.

SysAdmin4066

I may be a little off base and you dont have to answer if you dont want to, but how much potentially do you make per year doing contract work?

Turgon

I work in the UK- EU so rates here are different from the US. But I imagine you could at least double a UK rate for the equivalent job in the US with everything else you have to pay for out there. I guess look at the contract rates for experienced Network Designers with Telco background in the US and that may give you some insights. But it really all depends!

SysAdmin4066

Anywhere from 30 to 50 an hour I would imagine for contract work here, so you're saying in the UK you're looking at 60 to 100 an hour? Cost of living varies here, especially by state. California is one of the most expensive places you can live on earth let alone the states. Median home prices were over half a mill at the peak. So that 6 figure job here is not as well paying as say Arkansas or Texas or the midwest, Illinois or Missouri. 6 figures here is about what you can expect though, 40-50 bucks an hour with benefits.

mikej412

SysAdmin4066 wrote: »

Anywhere from 30 to 50 an hour I would imagine for contract work here

I wouldn't have gotten out of bed for that 15 years ago (and I was still an employee back then).... but I guess there are desperate out of work contractors trying to hold on to their McMansions (or pay their rent) driving down rates.

SysAdmin4066

I suppose, 15 years ago I was 12 so that would have been awesome! But yeah most contracts are just straight pay, no benefits so you have to make quite a bit more. So what are you contractors looking at as a good year then? An annual number? I've never done any long term contract work, I've always had a full time, benefited position. I've been thinking about it but I'm just so worried now with my new daughter, my mortgage (mcmansions, gotta love em), car notes, etc. I am a wuss I suppose.

Forsaken_GA

SysAdmin4066 wrote: »

Anywhere from 30 to 50 an hour I would imagine for contract work here, so you're saying in the UK you're looking at 60 to 100 an hour? Cost of living varies here, especially by state. California is one of the most expensive places you can live on earth let alone the states. Median home prices were over half a mill at the peak. So that 6 figure job here is not as well paying as say Arkansas or Texas or the midwest, Illinois or Missouri. 6 figures here is about what you can expect though, 40-50 bucks an hour with benefits.

I recently did a short gig as a sub-contractor that I'm pretty sure is close to what Turgon handles (can't go into details, bound by NDA), and my hourly rate was well over $100/hr. I know one of the other subs on the project was charging well over $200/hr, but he brought 15 years of experience to the table, so he could get away with it.

All in all, I generally bring in an extra $20-30k/yr doing short contracts.

sides14

Contract rates (in the States) truly depend upon which option you choose: 1099 or W-2. You make more doing 1099 work, but you are responsible for all of your insurance (liability and personal), taxes (both employee and employer portions of Social Security and Medicare), etc. Having performed both employee and contract work in both Arizona and California (Southern), rates are very subjective. I have watched extremely great engineers get offered next to nothing and talkers get offered the world. I currently work for a Fortune 10 company in telco and we pay contractors to test and extend simple T1s from the NIU to the equipment at $65 per hour. While this is a tremendous amount of money for very low level work, getting someone with absolutely no experience will cost you more (troubleshooting, rework and lost revenue).

Merry Christmas to everyone and best wishes for a Happy New Year.

P.S. With Turgon coming to the States, I am going to start calling it the British invasion. I have two great British contractors working in my office.

Turgon

SysAdmin4066 wrote: »

Anywhere from 30 to 50 an hour I would imagine for contract work here, so you're saying in the UK you're looking at 60 to 100 an hour? Cost of living varies here, especially by state. California is one of the most expensive places you can live on earth let alone the states. Median home prices were over half a mill at the peak. So that 6 figure job here is not as well paying as say Arkansas or Texas or the midwest, Illinois or Missouri. 6 figures here is about what you can expect though, 40-50 bucks an hour with benefits.

Well over 100 dollars an hour for the US based assignments I have looked into. My latest gig is in continental Europe. Some of those pay 900 or more dollars a day particularly Switzerland, I was put forward for one of those recently I may still get a call about it. But comparisions are difficult for UK/EU and US rates.

Turgon

Plan to do a spot of MPLS studying today providing it doesn't cause too much grief indoors. Merry Christmas all. Also need to bone up on PIX/ASA and basic IPT phone setups one of these days before I fly out.

Turgon

Scooted through exam C in the MPLS Boson practice test. The terminology is at least becoming a little more familar. Now configuring on remote rack. MPLS LDP done on R4,R5 and R6. Next up MP-BGP VPNv4. Let's see if I can get it working this time..

Turgon

Ok I couldn't get it working again. I suspect that the given solutions are incomplete and there is more work to be done on R6's config. Moving on to PE-CE Routing with OSPF now..