642-427 sched!

tokhss

22nd @ 130..

My goal is pass, but if i fail, at least i can see the damn questions and study the sections i missed lol..

Im not confident about this test.. my materials have been my home lab, the old cbt's .. the old v6 book, the v8 SRND's , the quick guide v8 and CIP1/2 study guides.. specially for SAF info, registering ..


Report back then..

sieff

You'll ace it, man. tokhss, CCNP Voice. before taking 642-427 all I kept thinking about was my new signature block with CCNP Voice on it for work. That vision got me through it the last week for the exam. The Cisco Learning Network is also a great tool in preparing for TVOICE.

tokhss

HA... im just tired of being passed up bc i dont have the cert.. and my job just implemented a new rule that requires ccvp for our tier 3 positions. so, yeah.. its all i think about too.

i just hate the way cisco words their tests.. some questions are like a WTF after reading them. lol

pitviper

Best of luck man!!!

tokhss

Hey Pit, thanks!

BTW.. how was the SWITCH exam.. its Next for me.

pitviper

tokhss wrote: »

Hey Pit, thanks!

BTW.. how was the SWITCH exam.. its Next for me.

I thought that it was a little tough...but definitely fair. I posted a little blurb on my thoughts here (seems like it was years ago!):

http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccnp/64869-switch-pass-thoughts.html

tokhss

Nice, just read it.. should be a good guide for me when I start up next week.

SO. FINALLY CCVP as of today!

but damn that test.. i didnt do well, 818... and i was near end of time. Some questions were just plan wack! .. i mean they laid out the debugs, the config and everything and it still didnt add up to the answers provided. I had to just guess what i thought the best answer was..

for example, 2 out of 4 options i believed were correct, i mean.. the diagram had the sip provided with a different IP address and the call was failing. but the config file also was not correct, besides the incorrect IP address.. it was one of those WTF scenarios where 2 answers were correct..but you can only choose one.. grrr.. just poorly written exam overall i think.

either way.. a pass is a pass..

on to switch!

pitviper

Congrats!!!!!!!

tokhss

Thank you!

sieff

@tokhss CONGRATS!!1. What made you decide to go the CCNP RS route next as opposed to the CCIE-V Written? Just curious as I'm debating doing CCIE V or CCIE R&S next.

tokhss

it was simple for me.. until i get the tier 3 voice job at my current location or get hired somewhere else doing some serious voice work, their is no point to go all out ..many reasons to get CCIE-V, 1. pay 2. prestige 3. attract employers ..but all if means squat if you are not knee deep in it at work.. also, i need to get really solid on my R/S side. Honestly, i dont think CCNA is enough to know about RS.

for me, CNNP RS + Voice is where i end it until i land a much more in depth role.


Thank you btw. its been a long road to NP VOICE .. my other cert paths will be CCNA Wireless, CCNA Security, MCITP and Redhat. But to keep things consistent, i will open up SWITCH sunday and start reading a bit. Hell, i might even do the CCNAs first before starting NP RS depending on how long i need and what type of equipment i may need to add to my LAB.

shodown

What is Tier 3 at your current job consist of and what do you do now? WHen I worked at a telco on a huge hosted system some years ago Tier 2 was you really knew your ish, so I'm kinda curious what does Tier 3 do at your job and what type of platform(s) do you work on.

Bl8ckr0uter

Congrats on the pass

tokhss

Shodown,

I effen hate the TIER system our job has, well, most of these large ISP's have.

But basically, tier 2 handles the MGMNT of all call processors, from alarms, to upgrades and all the circuit troubleshooting (transport). If something cant be fixed or they dont know how to fix it, then pass it on up to Tier 3.

Tier3 will design, implement and provision new and existing customers. They also are the last line of contact if tier 2 cant figure out it out. Tier 3 also delegates some work to tier 2 to do .. small things such as ephone testing , pre deployment tests.


Now, i wont say which ISP i work for, but they are global and very well known with a workforce near 100k but FML, when our NOC opened up, they just placed everyone randomly without any qualifications. keep in mind, just about everyone here came from other ISP's.. so we all have telecome backgrounds but I feel as if I am working with some of the rejects of other companies. Anyhow.. lol We have several platforms, Voice, Core Transport (peering transport systems and dedicated services 10mbit to oc48 ), Wireless, DSL, etc.

Rant On/// sorry . but i gotta vent.. Shodown you question has now become a gateway to my thoughts.haha


Nobody in our voice department is properly qualified. Not a single CCVP nor did they do the job previously. I know, I asked and my answer was, "we got trained on the job to do this.. we dont have cisco voice background". this was a couple years ago when I came over from Verizon. Till this day, nobody has a cert nor do they care, but the company has now decided that the CCVP is required to apply for this job. Now i understand the world has a lot of voice techs are who great and dont have any certs... well, thats not the case here.. its really disappointing from my perspective.

I was hired to manage the core atm transport between carriers and large customers and during that time, i was doing my own thing.. learning the cisco voice side.. as the months passed by, the company kept filling open spaces in our voice department .. random heads from other departments b/c they needed the help as the voice platform kept growing.. i dont know how many times i requested to be a part of the voice team as i continued to get my certs out the way.. unfortunately, i was needed exactly where i was.

Now you may ask, why am i still working here? well, a couple reasons.. 1. pay is good. 2. nobody will hire me for voice anywhere when the find out i have little voice experience. All i am right now is a paper head.. yeah i have my lab at home but i cant show for any real accomplishments regarding voice work in the real world. The market wants SR level techs with 3-5 yrs min. The crazy thing is, I land interviews and I feel i do very well on them too.. but at the end of the day, I dont have the experience required.

So, my goal is to continue to break into that department, and kick ass bc i know i am a step above these guys .hell, the tier 3 voice guys even want me to come directly over but there is 0 seat availability ..and no im not being cocky, im just that confident. there is a difference between thinking and knowing.. I know my potential and im dieing for someone to give me a chance.


Ok rant off lol.. sorry guys.. but im ready and im just sitting around waiting. The only thing keeping me going right now is my manager. she's been great and has told me in the next couple months I should be slated to go there, but tier 2, which is fine for me right now.. anything voice is good lol

sieff

i see what you mean. i worked for an ISP before and there was no emphasis on getting certs. performance was weighed by the amount of trouble tickets you worked, how many you closed and the least amount of retreads. i was Tier II, which was logical troubleshooting and strictly layer 2 frame relay, ATM, lots of physical layer troubleshooting (T1,T3, OC3,OC12,OC4, etc and some circuit provisioning. tier III was considered remediation of chronic issues, some backbone networking on the Juniper and Cisco MPLS Core equipment. in this environment having certs had no value. there was no incentive.

once i started working for a Cisco Partner that all changed and now CCIE is just about everyone's ultimate goal.

tokhss

Sieff,

exactly.. while i dont speak to customers or have an emphasis on how fast or how many tickets i close.. certs here have no meaning like they really should.

Im just waiting for my opp to get the hell out or go to the voice team, gain some time then get the hell out lol.