It's my time: Mrock's CCIE thread

spiderjericho

*Salutes*

It is a lot of sacrifice. Take the initial preparation for the written exam, at the least you should read the Cert Kit and possibly get the Boson practice questions. You might also dedicate time to reading the supplemental or other required readings (BGP, MPLS, IPv6, TCP/IP, Troubleshooting IP, etc).

I don't know how much time that is. And to really understand, I'd surmise you might be doing technology labs. You also might watch videos from INE, CBT Nuggets (they're a bit old) or IP Expert. That's a whole lot of time for just the written.

Then the lab...INE labs, Narbik labs, IP Expert labs, INE Advanced Concepts and Troubleshooting videos, more reading, etc.

I can't think of another exam that requires such an investment. One way to look at it is it's like a College Capstone. The finishing touch on your Cisco journey (or just the beginning).

Speaking of which, has anyone given any thought to the Brian Dennis CCIE reading list? Apparently, he doesn't like the Cisco Press books and recommends other books in order to prepare for the exam.

Mrock4

Taking the next couple of days off from labbing, got two major migrations I'll be handling the next couple of days, which is result in a couple of long days. Will be reading some more documents and stuff like that as time allows and labbing will resume Friday.

In other news, my work will be paying for me to attend the new INE CCIE Data center line online bootcamp this month. I'll just be attending the Nexus portion since I work a lot with Nexus. Not attending it for the purpose of taking the CCIE DC, but it's not out of the question after the R&S track.

Mrock4

Back to it tonight. Hoping to get about 5 hours in. Going to review layer 2/FR/RIP/EIGRP tonight. Tomorrow I'll finish OSPF.

Mrock4

Just added a couple of pictures on the office (a gift)...both muhammad ali inspiration posters! Wife bought them for me specifically to provide CCIE motivation. The one right next to my desk reads:

"I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'don't quit. suffer now and life the rest of your life as a champion'"

Might be a bit dramatic, but I like it.

Layer 2 review for tonight. Tomorrow I'll finish OSPF then review EIGRP. Monday will be day 1 of BGP. Going to start BGP slow for the first week, need to do a lot of reading/videos.

Mrock4

Did some layer 2 review, and began watching the CBT Nuggets CCIP BGP videos from Jeremy Ciora. Not going to dwell on theory too long, but I need a refresher. Going to use tomorrow as more review for Layer 2, EIGRP, and OSPF- should be able to get about 5-8 hours in of labbing. After that I'm going to revise my study plan as it seems to be more an evolving plan, not just static.

Anyway..got about 4 hours in tonight. Off to bed, tomorrow will be a long day.

Mrock4

Back to it today!

I have an excel spreadsheet I've been using to track my study (my metric is my estimated comfort level, expressed in %- anything under 85% I revisit the Vol I labs for that topic), and last night I updated it and felt it really reflected how I feel with some topics. For example, EIGRP I gave myself a 90% on implementation, but a 75% on theory. To fill the gap I'll be reading misc EIGRP docs in the next few days along with watching some CBT Nuggets/INE ATC. Still moving forward, but want to slow it down to make sure I'm comfortable with topics before moving on too far.

Mrock4

Got through a lot of CBT Nuggets CCIP BGP videos (the new ones) and really enjoyed them so far. I was going to just watch a couple to brush up, but now I'm thinking I'll spend the next week going through the series. In the meantime I'm going to use my lab time to put towards more time in OSPF. BGP will be pushed back a week, but this will give me ample time to read/watch videos prior to starting my labbing, which I think will make me a lot better off.

Mrock4

Watched 12/25 CCIP BGP videos from CBT Nuggets. Disappointed so far. Not so much of the quality- the videos are fantastic, but rather that I remembered a lot more than I thought I did, so the first 12 videos have been stuff I really didn't need to review (and thus a waste of time). Since I'm halfway, I'm going to finish the series this week, and I do think the rest of the videos should be really helpful.

The plan is to spen the rest of the week labbing OSPF advanced features, reading BGP theory, and finishing the CBT Nugget series on BGP. Once all of that is done I'll start labbing BGP..probably a week from now.

Mrock4

Getting an hour of CBT Nuggets BGP videos then beginning BGP labs tonight.

Mrock4

Labbed BGP for 4 hours tonight. So far it was pretty straightforward. Need to read up on advanced features though.

That being said...7 months as of today till my 1st attempt! It's funny, most non-networking people (family) hear that and think 7 months is PLENTY of time to study for ANY kind of test. If only they knew..

jamesp1983

Good luck!

Mrock4

Thanks James.

Back to BGP tonight! 9:30pm - 2:30am study session. Wake up and do it again all day tomorrow. I don't even know when I started this study schedule, but it's really working well. I think I've found a good balance between studying and family time.

Off to BGP..

Roguetadhg

When do you wake up?

Mrock4

Roguetadhg wrote: »

When do you wake up?

My wife lets me sleep in on Saturdays a bit. I'll probably be up at 9:30am. Then I study till 5 or so. Rest of my saturday evening is then free, and no studying on sundays. It's really not too bad.

Mrock4

Got about 4 1/2 hours of labbing in. Sat in front of the keyboard 5 hours, but realized about 30 minutes of that was fooling around (ie: distractions). Off to bed. Going to do a couple of labs on BGP confederations tomorrow. If I finish those early I'll probably work on finishing the CCIP BGP videos from CBT Nuggets. Only have a few left, and have found it really helps to watch one before labbing.

Mrock4

Up at 9:30 as promised. Didn't get to bed until about 3am (had to work on a school paper after labbing). Going to watch 2x CBT Nuggets videos on BGP then get back to labbing! Should be able to squeeze in about 6 hours today.

Mrock4

Got about 6 hours in today. I feel like I'm crawling with these BGP labs. I planned on spending the most time in IGP protocols as well as BGP, so it makes sense. At this rate I'm estimating I'll be working on BGP for another two weeks. I find the actual topics aren't that difficult, it's mostly just paying attention to details. One of the labs I just typed up 100% of the configs in notepad then checked them before even touching a router, and found two pretty major mistakes (2 neighbor statements applied to the wrong device..or would have been). Corrected those, applied them, and verified the solution.

Anyways, going to enjoy my weekend now! Back to it on Monday. Enjoy your weekends everyone.

Mrock4

Haven't posted in 4 days..seems like forever! Had to skip labbing monday..had a migration which got rescheduled so I ended up working late. Got a bit of theory review in yesterday. Back to labbing BGP today.

Mrock4

Called it quits early tonight. Lots on my mind. Phone interview in the morning, and an in-person interview in the afternoon. Weighing my options has got me finding it hard to concentrate. Got a couple of hours worth of BGP in though. Normally tomorrow is an off-day, but I'm going to get in 2 hours tomorrow night to make up for tonight's loss of 2 hours.

jamesp1983

Mrock4 wrote: »

Called it quits early tonight. Lots on my mind. Phone interview in the morning, and an in-person interview in the afternoon. Weighing my options has got me finding it hard to concentrate. Got a couple of hours worth of BGP in though. Normally tomorrow is an off-day, but I'm going to get in 2 hours tomorrow night to make up for tonight's loss of 2 hours.

Good luck man! Is this the job you were talking about before?

Mrock4

jamesp1983 wrote: »

Good luck man! Is this the job you were talking about before?

Thanks man. I mentioned one before. The in-person interview I went to was for an employer I turned down a month ago- this time it was a permanent position that they called me about. The phone interview was a cisco gold partner (a very well known one). I got offers from both today..taking the cisco gold partner because I think there's more opportunities for growth professionally.

I'll be doing a lot of R&S as well as datacenter design so it should be awesome. OH! And did I mention...I get to work from home!

Definitely thinking once I get past the initial learning curve of a new job, it should speed up my CCIE prep..I hope..we'll see.

NOC-Ninja

Congrats! everything paid off for you!

jamesp1983

You'd get to work from home? Do it! That sounds amazing.

Mrock4

Yup! And the culture of this particular partner really stresses training- I have worked with them in the past (as a customer), so working from home will really be dual purpose, I'll be able to work at my speed (which is generally pretty fast), then after my tasks are done, can dedicate time during the day to professional development. Best part is, the boss was the one who suggested that.

That being said, I literally haven't labbed this week with the exception of maybe 4 hours. This week was a total failure as far as studying goes. I tried- sat down and fired the rack up and labbed for 30 minutes a couple of times, then just couldn't get my head in it. I suppose with the new job stuff hanging over my head I've had a hard time focusing.

Giving myself a freebie this week- going to pick it back up monday evening with a vengeance on my usual schedule.

Mrock4

With the above post aside, heading into work (on a saturday) to troubleshoot some crazy spanning-tree issues they're having. Should be fun. I know it's not labbing technically, but it's gotta at least count towards the T/S section, right?

Zartanasaurus

Mrock4 wrote: »

With the above post aside, heading into work (on a saturday) to troubleshoot some crazy spanning-tree issues they're having. Should be fun. I know it's not labbing technically, but it's gotta at least count towards the T/S section, right?

Any time spent at the CLI is time well spent IMO.

Mrock4

Zartan- thanks...I do agree, but still feel like it was more "work" and not "study" time- even though it's good review.

Read a chapter of Halibi's BGP book, and going to squeeze in a couple of hours of BGP labs now.

Mrock4

Chugging along! Glad I got some labbing in last night- it was quality time spent. Today is my family day- so I'll be back to the CLI tomorrow....and hopefully I have a hard offer from this new company- so I might also be putting notice in tomorrow too. Scary and exciting!

spiderjericho

Hope you're not under water. Did you get the official offer?

Mrock4

Nope! Not exactly dry either, but all is well!

No offer letter yet. Studying has slowed because I find it very hard to concentrate wondering where I'll be working in three weeks. That being said I have been studying. I only got a couple of hours in last night unfortunately, but tomorrow I have a 5 hour session I'll be doing. Still in BGP. Since my BGP studies have been broken up I am going to end up spending a lot of time in BGP. On the bright side, I think that's my weakest area (aside from multicast), so that makes sense.