CCIE - Not for Everyone, I Assume
StevenFL02
Member Posts: 33 ■■□□□□□□□□
in CCIE
Hello, everyone.
I am rather new to this site. I am currently in a Cisco Networking Program (just started). I plan on obtaining my CCNA and seeing what happens from there.
Anyways, obviously I have a LONG, LONG ways to go.
However, I do have a couple of questions regarding the CCIE.
I imagine that everyone isn't cut out for it. Do most people pursue it and just never get there (obtain CCIE)?
Is it just one of those things, after years and years of networking experience, that you realize you MIGHT have a chance to pass?
Did any of you have CCIE as your goal from the beginning?...or this too unrealistic?
Thanks a lot, everyone.
I am rather new to this site. I am currently in a Cisco Networking Program (just started). I plan on obtaining my CCNA and seeing what happens from there.
Anyways, obviously I have a LONG, LONG ways to go.
However, I do have a couple of questions regarding the CCIE.
I imagine that everyone isn't cut out for it. Do most people pursue it and just never get there (obtain CCIE)?
Is it just one of those things, after years and years of networking experience, that you realize you MIGHT have a chance to pass?
Did any of you have CCIE as your goal from the beginning?...or this too unrealistic?
Thanks a lot, everyone.
Comments
It is really a matter of opinion, but I believe anyone here can obtain a CCIE. Its just matter of knowledge, study, and experience. What it comes down to is motivation and drive for it, and if people want it bad enough. If you want it bad enough and put in the work required you will get it, but it won't be an easy trip
I think CCIE is good goal to start out with, gives you something to aim for. When I started doing triathlon's I made the Ironman as my goal in the first month of training, even though it would take years to get into that shape. For some it may be discouraging, but if something crazy and long off motivates you, then go for it.
I am planning my first CCIE before Im 25, hoping to get it at before I turn 22 or during 23 so I actually have 1-2 years for study and hoping for my 2nd (Voice) at 27.
I actually feel though that I have a major advantage over alot of people because I was raised in the technology field and I'm the type of person who you can show me how to do somthing once and I can show you how to do it back 5 different ways. So basically IT is like my 2nd native language ^_^
any who
The simple answer is that most people who pursue the CCIE never get there.
The number of CCIE's we have after more than 10 years shows this. There are many, many more people 'doing' the CCIE at some stage of their career than there are passing it. This is why the production of so many books and rack vendors is sustainable, there wouldn't be so much choice if there wasn't money in it and there is money in it, (hell some CCIEs become fulltime CCIE level trainers) because so many people take a bite of the CCIE pie and puke at some stage giving up entirely.
Not everyone is cut out to make the CCIE grade. One problem is the intellect required to understand and master so much material. I know a four time CCIE who says he has only ever met one CCIE who he thought was an idiot and he has known hundreds of them.
So you need to be quite smart.
But the other defeater is the sheer amount of effort you need to put in to cover the syllabus and understand the fundamentals of how networks hang together and how they interoperate. That takes a lot of time and great attention to detail.
For my part I had my eye on this back in 2001 after I cleared my CCNP but it went on the back burner while I concentrated on my work. My career hasn't suffered at all by not having the CCIE and all the hands on exposure I have had in the field is certainly helping my study perspective now I *finally* have a year in front of me where I can work and study at the same time very effectively without either suffering.
When I started there was a book list and a couple of rackvendors out there. Not a lot of choice and you were pretty much forced to play with things at home to really understand how they worked using examples of CCO and in the Cisco Press books like Doyle etc. Getting a remote rack slot was difficult at times and you had to study very unsocial hours to work those slots. So you were really forced into buying gear at home. It was expensive and that commitment alone put off anyone half hearted about the CCIE.
But I think some candidates today get a little blinded by the comfort zone of todays training offerings.
Today there is a plethora of materials available to help candidates, even videos. If you look at groupstudy today you will see a lot of the chat is vendor workbook orientated as opposed to technology driven.
Vendor workbooks are an excellent resource for practice but not the whole story by any means.
I can tell you from hawking groupstudy for years it's not vendor workbooks that get you through the test, it's understanding the scenarios fully and the underlying technology behavior.
Most of that you learn without a workbook on your own time picking away with small scenarios on equipment at home and painful hours pouring over Cisco Press and CCO examples. There is less of that activity going on these days and it is what makes CCIE's.
I think one of the problems is that with the range of materials to choose from many people are buying different workbook products expecting a magic bullet from one vendor or another and not doing their *own* research. Vendor workbooks do not teach you a technology, you do that on your own time. The CCIE written process should help candidates with that, but regrettably many **** the written these days shortcircuiting the necessary foundation reading.
The variety of products out there is a good thing because not everyone is cut out for spartan learning experiences pouring over RFCs and big books but that doesn't mean you shouldn't also do that! A few years ago that was all we had and it produced many CCIEs. Those guys are the gurus we all bow down to today on the Groupstudy mailing list and are the ones driving the technical content of workbooks (which are very good by the way).
But, no one spoon feeds you the CCIE.
I think a lot of candidates who would otherwise have stayed well away from the CCIE a few years ago have been sold on marketing fluff and are running up credit on a track they are not cut out for.
If you choose to go for it, good luck it's very hard work but worth it!
I know that's right brother......
It would be nice to beat his record
oh the other hand you litterly have to live and breath cisco to pass this rough exam.
I'm sure by the time i pass it, i will be like #22 or 23xxx >.<
So, are you going to get a Cisco tatoo above your ironman Mdot logo tatoo? :P
(haven't done a full IM yet
TIME
MONEY
A GOOD BRAIN
You also need to exclude things from your life, like:
A SOCIAL LIFE
I work full time, and have to do all my studying in my "spare" time. I am married. I also am planning to have a little one soon. These are also important to me. Actually more important than the CCIE.
Do I plan to go for the CCIE? It depends on how I feel after I get the CCNP, but it is in the back of my mind (and heart). You have to ask yourself also, why do you want it? Is it for money, or for a better job, or for the prestige, or just to prove it to yourself? Maybe everything. I know a few CCIEs and I can tell you one thing, and that is plan to devote around 2000+ hours of study time for it. I have found that to be a pretty good average. That a full time one year job!
And to elaborate on one of the above posts, I wonder how many ACTIVE CCIEs are still around? I think the number is out there, but some people who get their number don't recert. I remember one fellow who got his number about one year ago, and he was telling me, oh crap, I have to prepare to re-cert! Well, hopefully it is like riding a bike right? :P
If it was easy though, everyone would be doing it. Thats what makes the CCIE so special. I always try and remember that about my certs.
Just so you know you are not the only one who has other things in their life besides certifications. I work full time, married and have three children
excellent, so am I and my team as it happens. see you there. i'll ask you subnetting questions when i pass you on the run
I just finished up my BS, working on my CCNA now, work full-time and have a wife and three children. You have to balance your time and make time for all that you can and/or put in some late nights or early mornings.
How much do you want it? That is the question!
but yea i know the ccie is not for me i'm feeling ccnp though. i'm too dumb.
When you get about 5 years of Cisco experience under your belt, you'll feel differently. Seems everyone who works with the stuff long enough ends up taking the CCIE written to recertify their professional level certs, then it becomes, what the hell I'll try the lab. Although with addition of professional level certs recertifying other professional level and associate level certs, you may see this occur less often.
somone had the tag line: What one man can do, another can.
That is true of the CCIE.
__________________________________________
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
(Leonardo da Vinci)
Yeah there's the catch. These Cisco certs are like crack, once you start you can't stop. I should open a Cisco certification rehab.
Anything is possible if you set your mind to it and are willing to work to get it.
Out of curiosity, I've heard that one needs networking experience in order to get a networking job (seems confusing, doesn't it?), and that the certification is just a piece of paper when it comes to getting that coveted job. However, I see that you've been in the networking field without CCNA certification, so you seem to contradict that particular line of thinking. If I may ask, how did you get into the networking field?