What must I do to become a CCIE?

bubble2005

I am a 21 year old Senior College student majoring in Computer Network Systems. B.S. I have one more year remaining. Throughout that time, I have attained a few certifications as indicated under my status. After passing my CCNA exam, I felt so good about it, that I wanted to concentrate fully on the Cisco path. I live in the Bahamas. Now my questions are, where must I work? Which type of job sectors must I apply to (health, education, offshore)? How much experience will I need or will be fitting to take the CCIE?10, 15 years? Which study materials should I use? I am willing to work, and time is not a factor. Hopefully the girlfriend will understand what I'm trying to do. But seriously, I really want to become a CCIE and I don't care about the cost. My next step is going to be the CCDA, then CCNP, finally the CCIE. I have only worked help desk jobs. How can I make any progress to gain networking experience? I have relatives who live abroad, so if it would be beneficial to move, please inform me. I really do not want to be underpaid for the time and experience I am going to put in. Oh yeah, one more thing, I know that you are supposed to love what you do despite the salary, but on average, what is the salary of a CCIE?

Thank you in advance for reviewing my questions.

slinuxuzer

I will offer my opinion of your needed work experience, dont get too hung up on the time you need in the field, because you could have 10 years and still be no where near qualified to attempt this or you could have 3 years and have a great chance it really all depends on the kind of experience you are getting out of your position. As for a job, if you really want CCIE try to find a job where you do consulting for larger companies, this will allow you to work in more diverse environments and gain more robust experience in a shorter time frame, if you have ten years of experience and you only learned new stuff for the first year and then re-used it for the next nine you may only have 1 year of functional experience.

I am not a hardcore cisco guy so I will point you to the forums and other members for specific study aids for this.

P.s. I know this test takes serious study time like I beleive 2,000 + hours just for the lab so the girlfriend might not understand

shodown

The best path IMO is working for a Cisco Partner. This way you can be involved in all deployments of new stuff since every customer is going to be different. We had people coming here as there 1st job after there basic CCNA and being able to go to CCVP/NP in less than a year working support due to being exposed to so many different environments. This is the best path to me and one I would take a look at. I worked for a partner before and I didn't know how good I had it until I left.

Turgon

bubble2005 wrote: »

I am a 21 year old Senior College student majoring in Computer Network Systems. B.S. I have one more year remaining. Throughout that time, I have attained a few certifications as indicated under my status. After passing my CCNA exam, I felt so good about it, that I wanted to concentrate fully on the Cisco path. I live in the Bahamas. Now my questions are, where must I work? Which type of job sectors must I apply to (health, education, offshore)? How much experience will I need or will be fitting to take the CCIE?10, 15 years? Which study materials should I use? I am willing to work, and time is not a factor. Hopefully the girlfriend will understand what I'm trying to do. But seriously, I really want to become a CCIE and I don't care about the cost. My next step is going to be the CCDA, then CCNP, finally the CCIE. I have only worked help desk jobs. How can I make any progress to gain networking experience? I have relatives who live abroad, so if it would be beneficial to move, please inform me. I really do not want to be underpaid for the time and experience I am going to put in. Oh yeah, one more thing, I know that you are supposed to love what you do despite the salary, but on average, what is the salary of a CCIE?

Thank you in advance for reviewing my questions.

You need three things in spades to become a CCIE, aptitude, time and determination. If you have all three you can do it. Getting networking experience is helpful on many levels if you are serious about going for it. You will be forced to learn a lot of stuff and any exposure to at least some of it in the field will help you put it into some kind of context. A Cisco partner would be good I think as they most probably will offer you some support to study a little on works time. Im a very experienced contractor and meaningful 9-5 study just hasn't been an option when I have been working assignments. Im not paid my rates to study for the CCIE. If you get in permanent with a decent company that equation could change a little. Regarding personal life, the road for CCIE aspirants is littered with strained and broken relationships Im afraid. If your relationship is serious you will need to sit down together and explain what you are both in for. If you go for the fasttrack approach and try and do CCIE inside one year, plan for at least a couple of lab attempts and long hours on racks almost every evening and throughout most of Saturday and Sunday each weekend. Even if you have the time and the backing be honest about what your best study habits are. Some people are good at doing lots of hours on racks each day for very long periods of elapsed time. Others (myself included) find this harder to stick at. So your *bandwidth* for study will vary dependent on things going on at work and at home and best personal study habits. Don't be afraid of taking your time over the track. Many CCIEs have taken years to be forged because of some of the constraints I have mentioned. Quite frankly, if Im very busy on migration projects or what have you then forcing another three hours on QoS practice each night after work sometimes isn't the best thing to do. Better off to relax as I have another difficult day ahead of me. That's me. You will see all kinds of testimonies from people who passed the lab. Be careful of comparisons. Sometimes candidates get disheartened because it's taking so long and there are others that seemingly sailed through inside 12 months. You don't know the dynamics at play there in terms of available studytime, workrate and what have you. Some jobs do afford a lot of slack time to do a practice lab. Others offer practically none. Some people cancel entire weekends to do labs and during the week slog away until 2am regularly. I don't know how they do that and function at work next day but more power to them if they can pull it off over 6 months and everyone is happy at home about it. A few people can do this but a lot of others who try end up worn out and frustrated with the whole process. If that happens, back off a bit before it effects your life and pocket too much.

Everyone is different so try and reflect on what will work for you and do that. I might add that the more you put into this the more you realise you don't know. Just something to think about before you go sleep deprived doing labs for three months straight and smash your brains out as many people do. They usually fail their lab and wind up too knackered to execute their jobs properly which is afterall what pays the bills. Be realistic, be determined, be flexible, be regular with your studies and most of all be patient and it will come. Listen to the feedback from family and colleagues as you go along, they are often a good barometer of how well you are fairing 'outside of lab'. They are important as you will need them during the process.

If you are looking at training materials choose a Vendor and stick with them end to end. Nothing wrong with some variety later on, but stick a workbook out start to finish. A lot of candidates try this 'n' that and never stick with anything. There is no easy way. Finish the workbook you have.

Regardless of whether your study regime is intense or more relaxed you will have to spend hundreds of hours configuring Cisco devices and the same for reading. That doesn't just happen over a few weekends.

Good luck!

shodown

Turgon I like your bandwith for study comment. I myself have a problem staying focused and I can only go for 20-30 min max at one time. I have found that when I disengage and comeback later I"m able to retain more information.

Turgon

Managing your time is important. In the 2.5 years I have been here just 6 regulars have passed the lab exam. Many are called but few are chosen.

Find what works for you and run with it.

apd123

Read then test to solidify what you read. Rinse repeat a lot.

apd123

Also join the mailing lists and all that jazz. One thing you might not realize that the mailing lists are great for is clearing up the scope of the exam. If a topic is not discussed on the mailing list there is a good chance it is not covered by the exam. If a topic is regularly picked a part it is likely an area you should focus more time on as well.

Turgon

apd123 wrote: »

Read then test to solidify what you read. Rinse repeat a lot.

Couldn't agree more there. Rinse and repeat on topics is really helping.