CCNP Bootcamp recommendations?

Hey everyone,

I've been banging away at BCMSN for about 6 weeks now, and I'm feeling pretty good. Well, my boss walks by my cube the other day and sees me studying the ink off of my Press book. So he mentions to me that he appreciates that I am pursuing certification study and asked if I would like to attend a bootcamp. I, of course, said I'd gladly attend one but I don't have the money for it. So he says if I can find a bootcamp with a "reasonable price" then he'd be willing to push a proposal forward to our HR department. So I've been looking around for bootcamps and have seena WIDE array of camps out there. Anyhow, does anyone have any recommendations for any good bootcamps? Preferably along the West Coast. Also, is there such a thing as a bootcamp that teaches material and doesn't teach ****? I have a good supply of CCNP study material (CCNP Press books, lab guides for BCMSN and BSCI, Train Signal videos, along with 1x2950 and 2x2610's from my CCNA studies joining my 2 newly acquired 3550's) so I'm not looking for a shortcut. I'm just really not wanting to pass up the opportunity to gain another company funded educational source!

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Comments

stephens316

Recommend that you save your money and self study get some equipment and work from home or if your lucky ask your boss to build a test environment then practice in the test environment. Bootcamps may teach and get you a pass on the exam, but you won't be any good to an employer with out practice in doing repetitive tasks.

I have very strong opinion about boot camps and just read the title if your employer is paying for it then I would take the opportunity, but explain to your boss that you will still need practice.

Bl8ckr0uter

stephens316 wrote: »

Recommend that you save your money and self study get some equipment and work from home or if your lucky ask your boss to build a test environment then practice in the test environment. Bootcamps may teach and get you a pass on the exam, but you won't be any good to an employer with out practice in doing repetitive tasks.

I agree. Instead of a boot camp, would it be possible to get you exams, materials, and the like paid for? That might be a better (and cheaper) investment.

thomas130

I would probably start self learning about the routing and switching concepts but wait a while since cisco are changing the ccnp line up.

Turgon

SrAtechie wrote: »

Hey everyone,

I've been banging away at BCMSN for about 6 weeks now, and I'm feeling pretty good. Well, my boss walks by my cube the other day and sees me studying the ink off of my Press book. So he mentions to me that he appreciates that I am pursuing certification study and asked if I would like to attend a bootcamp. I, of course, said I'd gladly attend one but I don't have the money for it. So he says if I can find a bootcamp with a "reasonable price" then he'd be willing to push a proposal forward to our HR department. So I've been looking around for bootcamps and have seena WIDE array of camps out there. Anyhow, does anyone have any recommendations for any good bootcamps? Preferably along the West Coast. Also, is there such a thing as a bootcamp that teaches material and doesn't teach ****? I have a good supply of CCNP study material (CCNP Press books, lab guides for BCMSN and BSCI, Train Signal videos, along with 1x2950 and 2x2610's from my CCNA studies joining my 2 newly acquired 3550's) so I'm not looking for a shortcut. I'm just really not wanting to pass up the opportunity to gain another company funded educational source!

Bootcamps can be useful. A lot depends on the quality of the instructor and the size of the class. A week of really good instruction by a qualified trainer can teach you things you wouldn't appreciate through self study where you are pretty much on your own interpreting sometimes poorly written material. I say go for it providing the company spring for it. A word of caution though. You must study before and after the bootcamp to feel the full benefit. Also some employers really don't have a clue and after sending you on some training at cost for a few days they will assume you should have learned everything known to man so far as switching is concerned. If this is the case expect a bad day at the office sometime after the camp when promises are made and work is thrown at you that will cause you to choke on the CLI. Some education of your employer may be necessary here!

Regarding ****, yes LOTS of training providers hand out **** to students so they sail through the tests and can boast a high pass rate for attendees. I heard one CCIE vendor did this for their written boot camp. It sucks but that's life.

tpatt100

It depends on the boot camp. I went to some that were great and some where the instructor had only learned the material right before class and had no real world experience.

I think they are great if you study before hand and use it to get that last week of uninterrupted study and can immerse yourself in the material. Much better than trying to study and get constantly interrupted.

Firemarshalbill.com

I have to agree with everyone that I am not a big fan of boot camps - HOWEVER if your employer is willing to pay for it - it is free training go for it, my previous employer sent a bunch of us to a boot camp at the Cisco offices in Boxboro MA. It was not a **** (obviously if it was at cisco). It was conducted by Skyline. It was very good and useful if you are already familier witht he material. Alot of people in the class thought they would go from almost no knowledge to being aboe to pass the CCNA in 1 week - wrong. Here is skylines link - GOOD LUCK

Cisco Authorized Training

SrAtechie

stephens316: Thanks for the advice. I'm already there, have the materials (all self purchased) and a BCMSN lab. Just wanted to find a bootcamp that would teach vs. cram since it will be paid by my company.

knwminus: I tried. My boss said that the HR folks make it hard to pay for anything other than formal classes. He agrees it's kind of retarded (He's a CCNP himself, self studied) but as he said it's free training so he left it to me to find one that'll teach me something.

Firemarshalbill.com: Thanks! That's exactly what I was hoping to hear. I'm looking at the site right now. Just noticed as well that one of their instructors is none other than Mr. Wendell Odom himself! I hope I can get him to teach!

Everyone else: Thanks for your input. I'm definitely not going to let my foot off the pedal with my self study. I hope that this can serve as another study aid/tool in my assault on the CCNP compound.

Claymoore

I attended CCPrep for my CCNA bootcamp. Their sister company was our Cisco vendor and we used learning credits for that course and others attended by several people at my previous job. I know their instructors and owners and would definitely recommend them for Cisco training. Their bootcamp packages include meals and accomodations, and there are certainly worse places to attend a bootcamp than Tampa in the winter.

Cisco Bootcamps, CCNA Bootcamp, CCNP Bootcamp, Training

SephStorm

I am a fan of boot camps, though it depends on the person, and the camp. In a boot camp you can learn a lot of information. You also have the advantage of being able to take the exam right away. For a good camp, I like Training Camp.

Accelerated IT Training :: Training Camp

For example. I self studied A+ for about a year. Took a class at a Community College with a buddy. Life interfered, and we had to put off our plans. Could not remember nessasary information, to much emphasis on extraneous information(IRQs, ect.) Took the training camp BC, I not only felt prepared for the exam, but I still retain much of the knowledge gained.

Same for network plus. I had no experience with networking, wasn't even interested in it. I added it onto my A+, and bam, started an itch for networking. When I started looking at CCENT, I realized that it didn't look so intmidating as it did when I looked at the information previously. I came to the realization that I like Cisco. I like networking.

CSCOnoob

We have some kind of contract with Global Knowledge. One instructor that I had actually used to work for us! Hah! I've been to three training classes, BSCI, BCMSN, and CVOICE and all of the instructors were pretty knowledgeable. However, two instructors aren't doing anything but training. One lady only does training as a part time gig so she's still doing some real world stuff.

I like boot camps. However, every time I take these classes, I am always not ready to take the exam that's why I think it was kind of wasted to some extent. For example, I took my BSCI boot camp in 2007 but I still haven't taken the exam or studied for it (will start next year after DESGN exam - assuming I pass it). I took my BCMSN in 2008 but I only took the exam two months ago. I took CVOICE training two months ago but I have no plans on taking the exam anytime soon. We just went to this training because we are now supporting Cisco IP Telephony and we figured that this is going to help us with our job.

Anyway, good luck on your exam and enjoy your boot camp! Collect all those business cards just in case you might need them!

Silentsoul

I am always leery to turn down training when an employer offers it, if you turn something down this time they may not offer it in the future. If you can get a decent book camp that would be great. Like most of the guys above said, just make sure you get a good one. You can always try to get them to pay for something else you are interested if you have already invested a lot into this endeavour.