Who is pursuing the CCIE in 2010?

GT-Rob

haha reminds me of when I worked in a NOC studying for the CCIE. It actually worked well, as it looked like I was really busy doing a huge change or something, but really I was running through a lab lol

Turgon

GT-Rob wrote: »

haha reminds me of when I worked in a NOC studying for the CCIE. It actually worked well, as it looked like I was really busy doing a huge change or something, but really I was running through a lab lol

Thats the way to do it. Far better studying on the company dollar when you are wide awake and fresh instead of the evenings with a kid hanging off you!

Turgon

GT-Rob wrote: »

haha reminds me of when I worked in a NOC studying for the CCIE. It actually worked well, as it looked like I was really busy doing a huge change or something, but really I was running through a lab lol

Im sure you had things covered there but just a bit of advice to anyone else about this, be sure to check with your boss first as connections are often monitored these days and if you were rumbled it's not a great leap of the imagination that you would be asked 'and just how long has this been going on?'

chrisone

I am thinking about dropping CWNA and just obtaining CCDA, CCDP, CCNA Wireless as my goals (see signature). I should be able to get through the following by august 2010, Then i was thinking about using the last few months of the year to study and maybe obtain my CCIE R&S written. Then perhaps CCIE Lab late 2011.

I figured after CCNP , i am only two tests away from a CCDP. I think a CCDP is valuable in the market and employers always enjoy seeing more certs/stripes/banners to our resume. Plus if it will earn me another 10k in salary, heck why not? Plus 2010 i also want to focus on utilities studies, SNMP, Netflow, Wireshark, Network monitoring and inspection. I also bought a couple books on ASAs that should help me solidify my configuration/troubleshooting on ASA firewalls. I can implement/troubleshoot and perform daily tasks with an ASA, but i want to have a a better and solid understanding of the ASA devices.

However my main goal stands as is and i will try to fit in the CCIE R&S written late 2010. If not 2011 will be dedicated to CCIE Writen/Lab. Goodluck to everyone.

liquid6

With a big project that took up most of this year I had to delay studying/taking my written. I was hoping for a first attempt at the lab at the end of 2010, but it will probably be 2011 before I get a shot.

Going to knock out QoS, and get my CCIP in Jan...then maybe do some checkpoint exams...or I might just head straight for the written.

liquid

Sepiraph

Plan for written latter half of 2010, lab in 2011.

ccie15672

If Cisco introduces the "Data Center" track then I may go for the written on that...

Ahriakin

I'm going to aim for the R&S written this year, the Lab itself would probably be (very) wishful thinking but I'll have to see how it goes.

Sirsamon

Well provided work dont get in the way to much i will throw my hat in.

I will goo through the study see how i fair, i don't work in the field so it is just because i love networking and i think just because i dont work in it, i should not be limited.

ATM, just trying to see what in my lab i can use.
just upgraded
5 2651XMs to 48/256 they will ok
3 3745 they will be ok
1 3560
13550.

so it looks like i need at least 2 1841s and at least 1 more 3560.

gorebrush

/waves

Here I am.

Written attempt for the end of the year.

Between now and starting lab prep in 2011 I'll be picking up lab equipment etc

Ahriakin

Weeellll just talked to my Boss about training options, bootcamp time and what the company will reimburse if it all works out okay - and went and picked up Internetwork Expert's R&S Adv Tech COD and a voucher for a 6 day bootcamp since they're going cheap right now (aiming for the October class but I'll book the actual time when I have a better idea of where I'm at). Puts a nasty dent in the house-deposit savings but it's been a year now and I need to get back on the horse.
As part of the COD deal I got the CCNP stuff too so I'll do it along the way for some milestones.
So officially yes I'm in the running now......god help me

Forsaken_GA

Turgon wrote: »

Im sure you had things covered there but just a bit of advice to anyone else about this, be sure to check with your boss first as connections are often monitored these days and if you were rumbled it's not a great leap of the imagination that you would be asked 'and just how long has this been going on?'

I think this is one area where I'm very fortunate. My boss has said, and I quote "I don't really care what you do. If you want to masturbate into a cup, I'm fine with that, as long as the work gets done... and as long as you take care of the cup."

(I work for a company that caters almost exclusively to the adult industry, so political correctness does not exist in our NOC)

I used to spend quite a bit of time playing WoW, now my Big Bag O' Books (tm) and my whiteboard follow me into work more often than not.

As far as me and the CCIE in 2010? I may take a shot at the written, it's a little early to say. Have to knock CCIP out first. My scheduled goal is to pass the written by Jan, 31 2011 but if I can rock through the CCIP, I may modify that to take a shot at the written before this years holiday season. I haven't really set a date for the Lab, I'll just consider the 18 month clock to have started once I pass the Written, and will make the attempt sometime in that time frame, but I figure close to a year of good hard study will give me a decent shot

Turgon

Ahriakin wrote: »

Weeellll just talked to my Boss about training options, bootcamp time and what the company will reimburse if it all works out okay - and went and picked up Internetwork Expert's R&S Adv Tech COD and a voucher for a 6 day bootcamp since they're going cheap right now (aiming for the October class but I'll book the actual time when I have a better idea of where I'm at). Puts a nasty dent in the house-deposit savings but it's been a year now and I need to get back on the horse.
As part of the COD deal I got the CCNP stuff too so I'll do it along the way for some milestones.
So officially yes I'm in the running now......god help me

Might be time for a new CCIE R&S 1st attempt thread from your good self then. You will get your second before I get my first at this rate. Good luck with it all. Knock out the Vol 1 labs for starters.

Turgon

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

I think this is one area where I'm very fortunate. My boss has said, and I quote "I don't really care what you do. If you want to masturbate into a cup, I'm fine with that, as long as the work gets done... and as long as you take care of the cup."

(I work for a company that caters almost exclusively to the adult industry, so political correctness does not exist in our NOC)

I used to spend quite a bit of time playing WoW, now my Big Bag O' Books (tm) and my whiteboard follow me into work more often than not.

As far as me and the CCIE in 2010? I may take a shot at the written, it's a little early to say. Have to knock CCIP out first. My scheduled goal is to pass the written by Jan, 31 2011 but if I can rock through the CCIP, I may modify that to take a shot at the written before this years holiday season. I haven't really set a date for the Lab, I'll just consider the 18 month clock to have started once I pass the Written, and will make the attempt sometime in that time frame, but I figure close to a year of good hard study will give me a decent shot

I think you are a strong candidate for this sort of thing. I mean the CCIE not the money shot. You have a background you can leverage and plenty of flexibility there at work to get some hours in. That's been my biggest problem and some evenings Im just too tired to get much done. If I was in your shoes I would take full advantage and try and get the written clattered out before the summer. At the same time get through the INE Vol 1 workbook. Im doing that now. We will all have a better feel for lab attack come the summer when the new lab version has shaken down properly. I think some of the CCIP stuff will help you on the written and doing Vol 1 labs.

Forsaken_GA

Turgon wrote: »

I think you are a strong candidate for this sort of thing. I mean the CCIE not the money shot. You have a background you can leverage and plenty of flexibility there at work to get some hours in. That's been my biggest problem and some evenings Im just too tired to get much done. If I was in your shoes I would take full advantage and try and get the written clattered out before the summer. At the same time get through the INE Vol 1 workbook. Im doing that now. We will all have a better feel for lab attack come the summer when the new lab version has shaken down properly. I think some of the CCIP stuff will help you on the written and doing Vol 1 labs.

Well, the CCIP I don't expect to be too terrible. The QoS exam looks to be easy, I'm aiming to pass it next week, though I may get a hair up my rear and go take it Friday if the rest of today and tomorrow's studying goes well (my exam center has gotten used to me just showing up one day and asking 'got a slot free for today?'). And between our service providers and our peers, I have lots of exposure to BGP, so I don't expect that exam to take me too long. The MPLS exam is the one that's going to put me back a bit, because I have only a passing familiarity with it from the CCNP, and I don't currently have lab gear capable of doing MPLS.

All in all, just have to see. I made my plans for this year as conservative as possible just to account for any weirdness that may pop up. I beat last years plans by a full 2 months, so setting aside half the year for CCIP may have been a little too conservative, but I think it's better to set conservative goals and then exceed them, then to set unrealistic ones and fail at them hehe

Turgon

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

Well, the CCIP I don't expect to be too terrible. The QoS exam looks to be easy, I'm aiming to pass it next week, though I may get a hair up my rear and go take it Friday if the rest of today and tomorrow's studying goes well (my exam center has gotten used to me just showing up one day and asking 'got a slot free for today?'). And between our service providers and our peers, I have lots of exposure to BGP, so I don't expect that exam to take me too long. The MPLS exam is the one that's going to put me back a bit, because I have only a passing familiarity with it from the CCNP, and I don't currently have lab gear capable of doing MPLS.

All in all, just have to see. I made my plans for this year as conservative as possible just to account for any weirdness that may pop up. I beat last years plans by a full 2 months, so setting aside half the year for CCIP may have been a little too conservative, but I think it's better to set conservative goals and then exceed them, then to set unrealistic ones and fail at them hehe

Very true and I know what you mean about MPLS. I had some exposure to it in the field on a contract last year but thankfully some help from someone more clued up on the VRF stuff. In my latest assignment, MPLS a plenty but mainly as a customer needing a transit network so nothing hairy really. Just need the IGP to the PE router and to tell the provider what networks to announce in the VRF. I imagine they will take care of the VRF, RD, RT stuff. The core isn't my problem. I found the Vol 1 labs on MPLS useful, and Odom covers it well enough for the written but its mainly very theoretical what he covers. Not enough hands on examples and configs. But with the Vol 1 labs, some reading and the MPLS Command Memoriser Im feeling comfortable with it all.

Ahriakin

Turgon wrote: »

Might be time for a new CCIE R&S 1st attempt thread from your good self then. You will get your second before I get my first at this rate. Good luck with it all. Knock out the Vol 1 labs for starters.

Nah you'll be done way before me. I'm not going to rush this one as I did the Security track.

Turgon

Ahriakin wrote: »

Nah you'll be done way before me. I'm not going to rush this one as I did the Security track.

hehehe..I sometimes wish I could have rushed like you! It would be nice to have evenings free devoid of R&S concerns quite frankly and the nagging pain of not having put enough rack hours in for a few days. But there never was enough regular time to achieve more than I did in the allotted timeframe. I think if you really have the time to put in those very regular long sessions each day for several months you are better off, at least on the study front.

jonfc3s

More like 2012 for me,... Good luck to everyone in 2010 though!

john-cisco

Ill be trying my luck at the R&S ver 4 later this year.
Hopefully by then more people have passed

Mrock4

No more delaying it..R&S written by June/July (the due date for our babies ), then lab in early to mid 2011.

qplayed

I'll be doing written this year aswell . Looking to finish original ccnp before deadline. I'll be takine CCIP along the way to IE written/Lab. Good luck to all of us!

pakidevil

Just started working on CCIE R & S .. will try to get it by end of 2010 ..

networker050184

pakidevil wrote: »

Just started working on CCIE R & S .. will try to get it by end of 2010 ..

Good luck and welcome to the forum!

CCIEWANNABE

don't know how i missed this thread, i think i've been in the ccie trenches too long. count me in here, going to take a stab at the lab in June/July time frame.

avlad

I'm hoping to schedule another lab attempt this summer.

Turgon

Im on for it end of the year I reckon, although one problem is the next job I have coming up is going to keep me soooo busy

yuriz43

I've been thinking really hard about this. I was thinking of doing the CCIP first, since I work with BGP and MPLS a lot, but I want the real deal My biggest fear is to get half way through and then have something in my life which takes me away from my studies. If I do decide to move forward with this, I must go all the way. In the meantime, I am reading lots of none Cisco books, ( finishing up Radia Pearman's book ), and then will hit Internetworking with TCP/IP. I feel this will give me time to think about what I want to do, but still keep me productive. Once I am done with these, I can easily jump into the Cisco Press books and prepare for the Written.


Ultimately I think CCIE is a title best earned with YEARS of experience doing REAL design and implementation. No problem of course with the younger folk like myself who opt to get the CCIE early. But I do think there is a big difference between a 25 year old CCIE with 4 years of experience in the field, vs a 37 year old CCIE who has 15+ years of experience. With that said, I am certainly in no rush.

Turgon

yuriz43 wrote: »

I've been thinking really hard about this. I was thinking of doing the CCIP first, since I work with BGP and MPLS a lot, but I want the real deal My biggest fear is to get half way through and then have something in my life which takes me away from my studies. If I do decide to move forward with this, I must go all the way. In the meantime, I am reading lots of none Cisco books, ( finishing up Radia Pearman's book ), and then will hit Internetworking with TCP/IP. I feel this will give me time to think about what I want to do, but still keep me productive. Once I am done with these, I can easily jump into the Cisco Press books and prepare for the Written.


Ultimately I think CCIE is a title best earned with YEARS of experience doing REAL design and implementation. No problem of course with the younger folk like myself who opt to get the CCIE early. But I do think there is a big difference between a 25 year old CCIE with 4 years of experience in the field, vs a 37 year old CCIE who has 15+ years of experience. With that said, I am certainly in no rush.

It actually works both ways. Some companies like *bright young things*, CCIE's in their early twenties. An older CCIE may be preferred in technical lead or managerial roles as they have been around the block and know something about integration projects because of their experience with older things. I have the years of design and implementation you speak of but no CCIE. The difference with myself and someone much younger is it gilt edges my years of field and project experience as opposed to jumpstarting my career. But there is room for both types of candidate. Doing it younger before your work and family responsibilities fall off the chart makes a lot of practical sense. It's also an advantage to engage with the CCIE while you are holding down a job that gives you plenty of window to study on the works dollar. The less senior ops roles are good for this. This becomes much harder as you become more timeserved and your day gets eaten up with meetings you not only have to attend but prepare for in advance with actions required after the meeting. You just have too much on your plate at work to afford to disengage for a few hours and study some arcane aspect of a technology you have no application for in the office. Deadlines wont wait and can only be met if you spend time working towards meeting them.

My only advice is to work through it steadily instead of going into an incubator for 6 months to pass it. You are covering a lot of material and even if you tramp through it its likely a lot of the knowhow will disolve quickly over time with that approach. You come out a CCIE but there is a danger you are too hyperactive and technology focussed for the world of *real* work. Out there you do need good technical solutions but you also need to relate to people who haven't been slavishly giving up immense amounts of personal time and energy to accomplish this. They have a life outside work and for maybe a year you didn't. If you overdo it this comes across. There are meetings and resourcing issues to overcome. relationships to build with coworkers and customers. Impacts to assess and legacy networking constraints. Some lab rats experience a disconnect with non CCIE engineers and project managers that isn't always helpful to deliveries and deadlines. Work hard but dont burn out because that really doesn't help your career. If you are young you have years ahead of you. Channel more drive into your work so you get opportunities to do impressive things there to make your CV stand out. The CCIE will come in time.

No matter how hard you study, the brain likes elapsed time to make sense of it all, not to pass the test but to find a use for it in the field. So steady away is useful for that. With my non CCIE commitments Im three years into this program now. During that time my career has gone from strength to strength, we are happy at home and I have had the chance to reflect on what I have been trying to learn. Regardless of how the CCIE lab goes for me, the process has been worthwhile on many levels and not to the detriment of my more important obligations.

Nuul

I'll be at the tail end of '10 or the start of '11.