CCIE Certification

I was talking to a co-worker today who has spent nearly $50,000 in the pursuit of his CCIE (still has not passed the lab), and I was wondering how much people have invested in the pursuit/attaining their CCIE lab?

Myself I am on my second lab (1250 + travel) and a subscription to a vendor's practice labs (400) about $3500 total so far. I am lucky that I have TONS of gear to practice on so nothing invested there.

I am curious to know what the min/max/average amount of money people have invested.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

mikej412

I'm not sure I want to think about this now (or ever)

dtlokee wrote:

about $3500 total so far.

I think I've spent that (or more) on all my Cisco Books so far (for all the Cisco Certifications). And I think I've spent $25 dollars less than that on all my Cisco exams (not counting Labs) to get to this point.

The Cisco Press books for the R&S take up about 4 foot of shelf space (but sounds small if you say just over a meter's worth of books). I already owned all the recommended non-Cisco books... so I don't have to count those.

If you don't count the 1st Edition Doyle Vol 1 and Hamilton/Clark LAN switching (and the Prentice Hall Caslow/Pavlichenko book).... there is also the 2 feet of "old Cisco books" from when "Cisco couldn't switch a packet to save their life" that I'm not counting in this total either.

Last time I looked, I was over 12 feet (3 meters of books) of book shelf space for all the Cisco Press books I own.... and then I probably added another meter's worth for the updated Security V2 book list and more MPLS/SP books.

If you don't mind reading online, a Safari subscription could easily save a couple thousand on books.

dtlokee wrote:

I was talking to a co-worker today who has spent nearly $50,000 in the pursuit of his CCIE (still has not passed the lab), and I was wondering how much people have invested in the pursuit/attaining their CCIE lab?

What's that joke about TIME does equal MONEY?

The CCIE does take lots of time and effort and COULD cost a bunch of money.... but access to the Documentation on the web is free. If you're willing to plan ahead and have good study habits, you can use rack rental effectively and still get by cheaper than building a home lab. And now there is Dynamips/Dynagen....

I look at an RTP Lab attempt as $2k and a San Jose attempt as $3k... but I'm 6'4" and don't "ride steerage" when I'm going for the Lab exam...

At about $8K I had the home lab for R&S, Security V1, SP (and the CCVP and other Cisco Certs I have)... and with $2.6k more I added the 3750s (for the 4 switch home lab for R&S).... and $2.8K for the 2 unrestricted PIXs 515s and 1 ASA5505 that should work for V2 Security Lab. A few routers and switches and rack rental for the rest costs a lot less.

I plan on waiting until after my 4th attempt each at R&S and Security before I start dropping $5k for vendor bootcamps -- I'd rather put in the time on my own first (except for Voice -- then I'll happily spend on the bootcamp before I get the home 6500

).

Rather then figure out 3rd party Vendor product cost..... I'll grab a beer and go study. As I've mentioned to a couple of people -- If I'm chattin' I ain't studyin' -- and the same thing goes for posting...

boonchin

Well,

Great to hear that some of you can afford a home lab, to attend a bootcamp or try as many lab attemp as you can.

As for me, the currency conversion however, does set some limitation during my process to obtain my ccie voice.

Each Lab attemp will cost me 8,000 dollars (at least). And, a bootcamp can easily spent me another 20,000 dollars.

So far, I have spent about 9,000 dollars just for rack rental and lab workbook.

Hmm, my date is on 13-September-2007 in Brussels. So, practice practice and more practice

dtlokee

mikej412 wrote:

I plan on waiting until after my 4th attempt each at R&S and Security before I start dropping $5k for vendor bootcamps

I am a trainer and we deliver many bootcamps (no CCIE yet, but CCNA, CCNP, CCIP, CCVP, CCSP, CCDA, CCDP et al) and I really don't find they are that effective. Sure people pass some of the cert exams but lots of the students that pass already have a solid understanding of the material before they come to the bootcamp. Unless you bring the braindumps into the classroom (I don't but I know trainers who do to maintain required pass rates set by some schools) it's very difficult to take somone from little to no Cisco experience to a CCNA cert in 5 days. I don't think I could ever go for a bootcamp for CCIE lab when I see how difficult it is for the students in a CCNA bootcamp. For now, I'll stick with good old fashoned study time.

mikej412 wrote:

At about $8K I had the home lab for R&S, Security V1, SP (and the CCVP and other Cisco Certs I have)... and with $2.6k more I added the 3750s (for the 4 switch home lab for R&S).... and $2.8K for the 2 unrestricted PIXs 515s and 1 ASA5505 that should work for V2 Security Lab. A few routers and switches and rack rental for the rest costs a lot less

I am very lucky that I have access to all the equipment at my school when it's not in use (around $750k - $1m worth and we do have 6500's

). I even have access to an IOS XR lab running on 12000's that a local ISP has set up(not that it's of any use to the R+S lab). So I haven't shelled out any money on equipment/rack rental. I have spent some money on Cisco Press books that I didn't include but for the most part I use the Cisco Courseware for my studies (they really don't have a CCIE study track, but there are some books available)

boonchin wrote:

Each Lab attemp will cost me 8,000 dollars (at least). And, a bootcamp can easily spent me another 20,000 dollars.

That would make me wait until I knew I was darn good and ready before taking the lab. My first attempt was basically a "let's go and see what it's like and maybe I'll pass" attempt. I was talking to somone who wanted to buy an ASA 5510 for study but sait it would cost him 1/2 his yearly salary. Too bad Cisco dosen't take exchange rates into account for the lab.

Thanks for the replies

Ahriakin

mikej412 wrote:

If you don't mind reading online, a Safari subscription could easily save a couple thousand on books.

Yup it does take some getting used to but Safari is a life (and wallet) saver. I have a 10 slot monthly subscription right now and I'm trying to get work to pay for the annual-unlimited. I still buy some paper books, mainly those I know I will need for future quick reference but the majority of my reading is now by ebook or Safari. This last Microsoft Exam (70-299) I didn't have a single paper source for. One other advantage is that you are more likely to use multiple sources when using a subscription service - if you are trying to decide whether that extra VPN guide is worth it there's an automatic process going on in your brain trying to justify the cost (even if it's just subconsiously), with a subscription there's no conflict and you make the decision based purely on your need and the benefits of that book. One less complication.
I'm just a CCIE fledgling but in the last week alone I spent about $2k building a new virtual server for Dynamips and PEMU, getting memory upgrades for 'free' routers from work and picking up some cables and switches from Ebay etc. Books bought previously that will be used for this come to approx. $400. A years worth of Safari (if the company don't pay up...) is another $440 for the unlimited plan
Probably not a good idea to let my wife see this thread.....

Paul#4

You can pass the CCIE R & S lab nowadays, including airfare and lab exam cost, for $5,000 or less.....

$1,250 lab fee
$300 CCIE written fee
$500 vendor workbooks
$500 Cisco press books
$500 miscellaneous
$0 Dynamips
$1000 rack time

That is barely over $4,000.....

People overspend for the CCIE to make themselves comfortable, but the truth is the CCIE R&S is more attainable then ever with lower budget.

Good luck

mikeeo

You can pass the CCIE R & S lab nowadays, including airfare and lab exam cost, for $5,000 or less.....

$1,250 lab fee
$300 CCIE written fee
$500 vendor workbooks
$500 Cisco press books
$500 miscellaneous
$0 Dynamips
$1000 rack time

That is barely over $4,000.....

People overspend for the CCIE to make themselves comfortable, but the truth is the CCIE R&S is more attainable then ever with lower budget.

Good luck

Really? Whats your number?

kenny504

mikeeo wrote:

You can pass the CCIE R & S lab nowadays, including airfare and lab exam cost, for $5,000 or less.....

$1,250 lab fee
$300 CCIE written fee
$500 vendor workbooks
$500 Cisco press books
$500 miscellaneous
$0 Dynamips
$1000 rack time

That is barely over $4,000.....

People overspend for the CCIE to make themselves comfortable, but the truth is the CCIE R&S is more attainable then ever with lower budget.

Good luck

Really? Whats your number?

LOL....aha...

CCIE-4-HIRE

Paul#4 wrote:

You can pass the CCIE R & S lab nowadays, including airfare and lab exam cost, for $5,000 or less.....

$1,250 lab fee
$300 CCIE written fee
$500 vendor workbooks
$500 Cisco press books
$500 miscellaneous
$0 Dynamips
$1000 rack time

That is barely over $4,000.....

People overspend for the CCIE to make themselves comfortable, but the truth is the CCIE R&S is more attainable then ever with lower budget.

Good luck

$1000.00 racktime? Naive?

Darthn3ss

CCIE-4-HIRE wrote:

Paul#4 wrote:

You can pass the CCIE R & S lab nowadays, including airfare and lab exam cost, for $5,000 or less.....

$1,250 lab fee
$300 CCIE written fee
$500 vendor workbooks
$500 Cisco press books
$500 miscellaneous
$0 Dynamips
$1000 rack time

That is barely over $4,000.....

People overspend for the CCIE to make themselves comfortable, but the truth is the CCIE R&S is more attainable then ever with lower budget.

Good luck

$1000.00 racktime? Naive?

i could see it adding up over time.