It's my time: Mrock's CCIE thread

Mrock4

Still no offer..pretty concerned but what can you do. In the meantime I'm getting back to my labbing routine. I never really quit, but I had a college class I was finishing up finals for so that cut into my labbing a bit.

Hoping to get about 4 hours in tonight. Back to BGP!

jamesp1983

Don't freak out too much. You know how some employers can be when it comes to getting back to you.

Mrock4

Right as usual james. Got the official offer letter today, and also accepted today. I start in just over 2 weeks. Can't wait!

Tonight is a normal study night, but I think I'm going to cut the session down. Spend some family time and then get in about 2 hours of labbing later. I feel like relaxing a bit now that I know my fate with regards to my work situation.

spiderjericho

Congrats on the new job.

Mrock4

Thanks man!

Starting my study session today! Going to do an overall BGP review before proceeding since I've slacked for the last couple of weeks a bit.

jamesp1983

Mrock4 wrote: »

Right as usual james. Got the official offer letter today, and also accepted today. I start in just over 2 weeks. Can't wait!

Tonight is a normal study night, but I think I'm going to cut the session down. Spend some family time and then get in about 2 hours of labbing later. I feel like relaxing a bit now that I know my fate with regards to my work situation.

That's excellent! I'm happy to hear it. Good luck!

SteveO86

Mrock4 wrote: »

Right as usual james. Got the official offer letter today, and also accepted today. I start in just over 2 weeks. Can't wait!

Tonight is a normal study night, but I think I'm going to cut the session down. Spend some family time and then get in about 2 hours of labbing later. I feel like relaxing a bit now that I know my fate with regards to my work situation.

Congrats on the new job! Good luck!

MrBrian

They made you wait a few days before sending that official offer huh.. awesome that it came though. Congrats!!

Mrock4

Got some labbing in on Saturday but forgot to post here. Chugging away with BGP. My previous study timeline had me finishing BGP by the end of September, so I've got plenty of time. I'm thinking more than likely I'll be done with BGP by mid September. After that I'll probably skip to MPLS since I'm going to be working with MPLS a lot in my new role.

If I was just ballparking my progress, I'd say I should be 100% done with all Vol I by Christmas, then that gives me 3'ish months to do nothing but full labs.

One side note, with my new job I'll be doing a fair amount of traveling, so I'm banking on the idea that I'll have a lot more study time available on the road. Granted it'll be more segmented (ie: 2 hours on a flight in GNS3, 3 hours in the evening, etc), but overall I think I'll be in good shape.

Zartanasaurus

Congrats on the new job. I hope it doesn't muck up your study plans too much, although you probably have the type of job you'd want with a CCIE anyway. That's one of the reasons I'm hesitant to leave my job now. Yeah I'm leaving money on the table, but I have the uninterrupted time to study that I might not get in a new job. So I want to take advantage of that time now to get the CCIE since I'm used to this schedule.

Mrock4

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

I hope it doesn't muck up your study plans too much, although you probably have the type of job you'd want with a CCIE anyway. That's one of the reasons I'm hesitant to leave my job now. Yeah I'm leaving money on the table, but I have the uninterrupted time to study that I might not get in a new job.

Since my new job is really involved in the datacenter side of things (at least it seems that way so far..I'll find out soon!), I think it will be a lot more R&S (even if on a different platform) than I do now. Right now I spend a lot of time on the security side between ACS/NAC implementations, ASA's, etc- in addition to working with datacenter technologies. This position I'll be on a team as the senior R&S guy, so there'll be a dedicated security engineer, which is nice.

Ultimately I think it'll allow for more time during the day to work with technologies which I may find on the exam, and it'll probably set me up pretty good for the CCIE DC down the road. It will be interesting to see how it affects my study.

The good thing is, my new boss seems really supportive of the CCIE, and I truly think with the travel I'll be putting in I will get more study time in. Again though..we will see!

I don't blame you with regards to your schedule though- that was one thing I kind of thought about in my current position. I'm in a GREAT place to not necessarily study during work- but I spend a *lot* of time working with technologies which are on the IE- from SNMPv3, to EEM, random security features in IOS, etc. I probably won't spend that much time in the details on the new job, but I think I'll get more exposure to other areas such as BGP/MPLS, which will certainly help me.

Mrock4

Got about 4 hours of labbing in today. Doing a lot better with BGP but there is a lot of crazy little features there. Hoping to continue at this rate and I should be in much better shape in a couple of weeks. I'm about halfway through BGP right now.

Mrock4

Starting tonight's session!

Mrock4

Got 3 hours in tonight. Was shooting for 4, but oh well. The time I did put in was really quality time, though. Learned a few new things, and am definitely becoming a lot more proficient with BGP.

Mrock4

Didn't get to study last night, but I did work on expanding my GNS3 topology. I use GNS3 to lab BGP scenarios out when I'm not technically studying, but want to study..if that makes sense. For example, if I've got an hour of free time and nothing else to do, I might just fire GNS3 up and play around with various routing protocols/features, etc on my laptop.

I'm going to be pretty busy this week interviewing candidates for my old job- my employer has asked me to find a suitable replacement before I go, which I think is fair.

Mrock4

Still been a busy week. Between interviewing candidates for my old job, getting spun up on projects I'll be handling once I start my new job, and working weird shifts- I think this week is a wash with regards to study. Should be able to pick it up next week though. I have gotten in some reading though, so at least I'm doing something.

Mrock4

Seems like it's been forever since I updated this thread! Been in 3 states in the last week for work. New job is definitely demanding. I DO have time to study, but it's been more sporadic than before. Tomorrow is a regularly scheduled study day, so I look forward to putting in some more hours! Still on track though..

OH! And it seems like there's a strong possibility the new employer will pay for a couple of lab attempts as well as a bootcamp, so that's pretty awesome. I don't know that as fact, just mostly rumor..once I verify I'll be happy.

Mrock4

verified the new employer will cover a bootcamp and a couple of attempts at the lab. Pretty awesome.

That being said, I restarted the BGP section today. It's been about 2 weeks since I really dug into it, and while I remember a lot, there's a few little things I've already forgot. With my employers support, I'm not too concerned about meeting my scheduled date- I can always push it back a little if necessary. Ultimately I want to sit the lab when I'm ready, so if I'm not ready by March, then oh well.

Off to labbing..

Mrock4

Got about 3 hours of labbing in today. I was surprised at how much of the stuff I didn't think I knew came back. Always a good thing!

sides14

Make sure you read the fine print on the lab attempts. Some employers make you pay back the cost if you leave within X amount of time of taking the training.

Mrock4

sides14 wrote: »

Make sure you read the fine print on the lab attempts. Some employers make you pay back the cost if you leave within X amount of time of taking the training.

Naturally. I expect employers to do that- I think it's fair. I don't plan on leaving anytime though, since I was just hired. Of course that can always change, but from my experience I've also seen firsthand some employers will NOT hold you to those agreements if you were a good employee and were around a reasonable amount of time after the training.

Mrock4

Starting more BGP labs today!

Mrock4

Got about 4 hours in yesterday. Starting today, looking to get another 4 hours in.

Mrock4

Made a lot of progress today. Got through 1/2 of the BGP material this time through, last time I went through it took probably two weeks because I wasn't very familiar with a lot of the features.

Ended up getting in about 4 hours today.

Mrock4

More BGP today! Hoping to get 4-5 hours in today.

Mrock4

4 more hours of BGP in today. At this rate I should finish my first pass through BGP in a week or so.

Mrock4

Technically labbed for about 4 hours today, but got a solid 3 hours in..started losing focus at the end. On the bright side, I am almost finished the BGP Vol I labs. I left enough labs so I *should* be able to finish BGP tomorrow, or at the latest thursday this week.

After there, based on my schedule, I'll circle around and review EIGRP for 2x days, do some OSPF review for about 3 days (totalling to a week of review roughly), then begin Multicast.

Mrock4

Getting ready to start more BGP labs today. I should be able to either finish the BGP labs today, or get very close. Let's do it!

jamesp1983

you're making great progress!

Mrock4

jamesp1983 wrote: »

you're making great progress!

Thanks! I know you have your hands full too- congrats on the new addition! I bailed out of my studies when we had our troublemakers, but looking back I think some dedicated study is absolutely possible in the first year of a child's life. After that it gets harder, but obviously not impossible..that's what I'm doing infact.

Just my $.02. Stick with as much of studying as you and your family can afford. Enjoy the little one!