CCIE question
ok guys i am 16 nearly 17 how long do you think it will take me to get a CCNA certification because i have a 2 stage goal, 1 get my CCNA 2 get my CCIE. i want to be the youngest CCIE holder in the world if not the U.S. reason behind the CCNA is because then i will know that i have a pretty basic understanding of it all and thanks to my dad being certified in whatever he can get me all the videos and practice tests and all that good stuff that i need to build up to the CCIE...please help and a pre-thanks to those whome post i will be reading all the stuff tomorrow so plz help me out and give me a basic idea of time length
Comments
If you have the aptitude, a boatload of resources behind you and the time you can do CCNA - CCIE inside two years.
You will need experience. We have canned CCIE's at our shop who didn't cut the mustard. The CCIE process learned well teaches you many things but not the real business of design, implementing and supporting networks of all shapes and sizes with hundreds of customers hanging on the quality of a solution, a migration or just a simple change. The network techs are pretty grizzled out there these days and love noobs.
Everyone will be different but there's no rush, learn and understand the concepts and take your time.
To put it into perspective I got my CCNA at 20, now I'm almost 23 with a CCNP and I'm 1 test away from CCIP. Thats with a full time job not letting studying ruin my social life
Good luck!
Get a feel for what is out there. I started out as a programmer and moved into Networking and along the way here and there I've had to administer servers and work on VoIP stuff and lots of scripting (perl, unix, tcl, xslt, etc).
You might find out that you would much rather work on virtualization automation then networking, or something to that effect. Maybe networking will be your gateway into on-line gaming protocol design... That would be a bad ass thing to be an expert in.
CCIE #15672 (R&S, SP), JNCIE-M #721
Chasing: CCIE Sec, CCSA (Checkpoint)
Good luck, have fun. If that's truly your goal, then you're going to have to ask harder questions than these of yourself and your commitment level. No offense, but there are people who have been working in networking for as long as you've been alive that still can't pass that exam. I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from following their dream, only ask you to ask yourself if you really understand the level of knowledge required in order to pass this test. Start with the fundamentals and get those under your belt. Honestly, I'd be more worried about missing out on some of the funnest times I had in my life at your age. There's plenty of time to work, just make sure you won't regret not missing out on some of your teenage years.
We've deleted a few threads in the past about people either self-promoting themselves as the "youngest."
And then there are the people who either repost or report someone's CCIE accomplishment (without posting a name/number that works in the CCIE Verification System) and use that as justification to skip the CCNP (and even CCNA) and getting a job to get actual work experience. Those people either live in a different world then the rest of us and believe that the CCIE is a magic ticket to a job -- or they are shills for the ccie ****/**** camps.
Are you currently attending a University? If you are -- and you or your dad have some connections with a Cisco Business Partner -- then the CCIE could be useful during an internship where you do get some experience to back it up.