CCIE in 12 months?

HI all,

First of all, please forgive me if this has already been asked, ive looked a little and couldnt see anything
similar...

I want to know if it is possible to get a ccie in 12 months written and lab? I turned my back on
tech qualifications a few years back but seeing as im going down the security line i thought hmm
maybe i should finish what i started? so came up with the idea of completing
ccna sec
ccnp sec
and ccie sec

all within 12 months, previously i had done the ccna and half the ccnp but took a change into
security management and solutions architecture, however ive got this thought that i should finish what i started.
so do this after i demolish the cissp.

on average i can give 4 hours an evening to study mon - fri and then 8 - 12 hours on sat and sunday each day
roughly a total of 36 hours per week fitting it around my gym and football (Soccer) commitments
lab wise i have lots of equipment firewalls routers switches etc etc and im lucky to have unfettered access to
the work labs which are pretty well loaded 6509's 3750s even junipers and checkpoint stuff and voip

is it worth me going to get the ccie or would it be time better spent getting cism togaf and other non tech
exams?

your opinions and advice greatly appreciated

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Comments

Iristheangel

Anything is possible. If you have lots and lots and lots of practical hands-on experience and labs, then it might be doable. Most of my friends that passed the CCIE lab failed the first time though and you might want to focus more on learning the material and passing lab/written milestones than feeling like you have to have everything completed by X date.

spiderjericho

CCIE Security in 12 months is possible. But you're also looking at the time for CCNA Security, CCNP Security, the prep for the written and the prep for the lab. Except for Dr Ahrk's thread, I haven't heard too much about the prep for the Security lab. It's not like the R&S where there are multiple boot camps, work books, video series, threads, blogs, etc.

But if you apply 4 hours a day, 8 per day during the weekend and have effective study habits while ensuring you're hitting the exam objectives, you could do it.

Eildor

Although I do believe it's possible, I'm not sure it's such a good idea to set yourself a goal of 12 months. Yes, in theory if you put in those kind of hours it could be done, however will you be able to keep it up over a 12 month period? I've learnt that it's better to just get on with it rather than worrying about whether I can get such and such certification done within such and such time frame... just put in the hours and make an effort and you'll get the CCIE done, whether it's going to take 12 months or 24 months it doesn't really matter. The problem is that some people set themselves goals before even knowing what is required of them from the exam, and once they see how much work there is they then start rushing through the material... in which case they either fail and quit, or go back and relearn everything.

WiseWun

Did your CCNA expire? I was thinking of starting from scratch (CCNA) and work my way up but was advised to go directly to CCIE. My friends at school were able to obtain their CCIE within 4 months (full time) after graduating so yes, I think its possible. I'm currently reading Cisco's CCIE R&S Certification Guide and I might sign up with INE or local training.

My school has a CCIE lab and they recently purchased the new Nexus 7000 Series switches which I'll have a chance to work with. Our company had a major upgrade so there's a bunch of 3750s and 60's laying around and I was told we can play with the equipment as long as its not connected to production!

To answer your question, I think its doable to obtain all 3 certifications, majority of your time will go towards the IE. Are you going to purchase a workbook or attend a boot camp? My advice, don't rush. Give yourself ample time to learn the basics rather than being a lab rat. Do share with us your reading materials.

JeanM

WiseWun wrote: »

My friends at school were able to obtain their CCIE within 4 months (full time) after graduating so yes, I think its possible.

Well, there you go in 12 months you should be able to get your CCIE x 3 ..... /sarcasm.

I would love to know how they did that in 4 months....

vinbuck

WiseWun wrote: »

Did your CCNA expire? I was thinking of starting from scratch (CCNA) and work my way up but was advised to go directly to CCIE. My friends at school were able to obtain their CCIE within 4 months (full time) after graduating so yes, I think its possible. I'm currently reading Cisco's CCIE R&S Certification Guide and I might sign up with INE or local training.

4 months is pretty fast to tackle something like the CCIE and knock it out on the first try especially fresh out of school. What kind of curriculum are they teaching?

1 to 3+ years seems to be the norm around here and most of the people who attempt it are either CCNPs or have equivalent experience.

NetworkVeteran

I was thinking of starting from scratch (CCNA) and work my way up but was advised to go directly to CCIE.

I think this is poor advice if you're seeking work in America. This is okay if you're in a country where no-experience CCIEs are a normal occurence. I don't believe that describes Canada.

A strong CCNA with a degree will typically have an easier time finding a desireable job than a weak CCIE with a degree. And you will be weak, relative to others, if you do not have the years of experience to back it up. I say this, having just rejected a 1-year-experience CCNP in favor of a 1-year-experience CCNA. I was not alone in that choice! I also beat out more than one CCIE to earn the job that I currently have. Certify at the level you're at or a hair beyond works best.

1 to 3+ years seems to be the norm around here

1-3 years is of course the norm because most of us have full-time jobs, leaving limited hours/week to focus on the CCIE. It's been done in 90 days. There are many ambitious plans about spending 20+ hours/week on it. The CCIE blogs seem to tell the real story!

networker050184

You have to keep in mind that 1-3 years is for professionals working full time and studying part time. If the majority of us professionals could take four months straight off work to study we could probably knock out a CCIE in that time frame. The studying hours probably even out or are even in favor of the four months full time.

vinbuck

I agree with you guys on the full time student vs. full time engineer hourly trade off, but it doesn't seem there are very many people out there who could digest and retain the content needed to take someone from a CCNA level to CCIE in a year and be able to contribute in a job at a CCIE level after that.

I'm sure there are the rare few who chew through it all and pass, but having some who understands the "why and when" to do something as well as the how within a year would be extremely rare.

mapletune

networker050184 wrote: »

You have to keep in mind that 1-3 years is for professionals working full time and studying part time. If the majority of us professionals could take four months straight off work to study we could probably knock out a CCIE in that time frame.

I agree with this.

When you have professional experience. AND, you can afford an extended leave at no cost to your lifestyle, then that's quite powerful. Assuming you have the motivation to study all day, lab all day, and go at the goal with everything, it's not "just possible" but almost guaranteed. That's just in my opinion however. =p

WiseWun

It's Masters of Engineering in Computer Networking. The program emphasizes both theoretical and practical aspects of data communications. They have an on-site advanced lab which was setup by Cisco. Majority of the CCIE topics are covered, I'm currently one class away from graduating and that is Network Architectures which will cover BGP, MPLS VPN, and traffic engineering.

Once the student graduates, they sign up for a training institution and they would lab everyday fulltime. Some have fail and others have passed after a year or two. Majority of them do have experience and where able to secure high paying jobs. It all depends on the person. Even without a CCIE, getting a telco job would not be difficult, a lot of them work for service providers.

Some of the teachers are CCIEs and have PhD. They know how the protocols work inside out and are senior IEEE members/contributers. The LAN & WAN switching course was very tough. Have you guys ever heard of S-VLAN or B-VLAN? Surprisingly, not a lof CCIE's know this stuff. Lots of RFC's to read!

http://www.ieee802.org/1/files/public/docs2004/Frame%20Format%20Issu%20.pdf

Eildor

WiseWun wrote: »

Majority of the CCIE topics are covered

I guess that's how the students were able to pass CCIE with 4 months additional study, then. It sounds like a great course, wish I was on it! Are Masters 1 year in Canada?

networker050184

vinbuck wrote: »

I agree with you guys on the full time student vs. full time engineer hourly trade off, but it doesn't seem there are very many people out there who could digest and retain the content needed to take someone from a CCNA level to CCIE in a year and be able to contribute in a job at a CCIE level after that.

I'm sure there are the rare few who chew through it all and pass, but having some who understands the "why and when" to do something as well as the how within a year would be extremely rare.

You have to understand that the view on certifications here on TE is basically the minority in the industry. Unfortunately the vast majority of candidates could care less about retaining the info and being able to contribute. All they care about is the dollar signs. Its the main reason that certifications aren't held as highly as they could be. I think if more high level certifications put experience prerequisites then we wouldn't have to worry about stuff like this type of thing. A lot of us here agree that someone with no experience has no business going for an expert level certification, but in the end there is nothing put forth from the vendors that states this besides a suggestion for the CCIE.

MickQ

@Shogun Assassin (ogami_itto): you'll want to read Your CCIE Lab Success Strategy: The Non-Technical Guidebook. Good guide there for a 12 month CCIE lab exam turnaround. Doing the A-P-E within 12 months will be very tough going, unless you have a lot of experience.

@WiseWun: What is this course and where is it done? I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Zartanasaurus

Eildor wrote: »

I guess that's how the students were able to pass CCIE with 4 months additional study, then. It sounds like a great course, wish I was on it! Are Masters 1 year in Canada?

Right. So it's a 2 year MS program focused on networking technologies followed by 4 months of rigorous study for the CCIE. That's not even in the same ballpark as CCIE in 4 months or even 1 year.

veritas_libertas

@WiseWun: What is the URL for this university program?

networker050184

Eildor wrote: »

I guess that's how the students were able to pass CCIE with 4 months additional study, then. It sounds like a great course, wish I was on it! Are Masters 1 year in Canada?

I think you are getting into some grey area here as far as study time is concerned. If you want to count all network learning as towards CCIE I've been studying for my CCIE for about ten years and running now!

Eildor

networker050184 wrote: »

I think you are getting into some grey area here as far as study time is concerned. If you want to count all network learning as towards CCIE I've been studying for my CCIE for about ten years and running now!

I'm not. WiseWun said that the Masters his friends were doing covered the majority of CCIE topics. I myself have seen degree courses which follow the CCNA and CCNP syllabus.

Eildor

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

Right. So it's a 2 year MS program focused on networking technologies followed by 4 months of rigorous study for the CCIE. That's not even in the same ballpark as CCIE in 4 months or even 1 year.

Yes I know, and that was what I was trying to point out.

vinbuck

WiseWun wrote: »

Have you guys ever heard of S-VLAN or B-VLAN? Surprisingly, not a lof CCIE's know this stuff. Lots of RFC's to read!

http://www.ieee802.org/1/files/public/docs2004/Frame%20Format%20Issu%20.pdf

These may be foreign to some of the enterprise guys but are pretty commonplace in the Service Provider world. Do some digging on the Standards for the Metro Ethernet Forum if you really want to make you head swim with respect to provider/customer VLANs and q in q.

WiseWun

@Eildor. Most Masters program in Canada are the same in the US. This particular program is 1 year full time or 2 years part time.

@networker050184. I agree and you have made some valid points. CISSP and PMP are some of the certifications that require you to have experience but there are those who ****.

@MickQ. These are graduate courses offered at in Canada. I'm not sure what you mean by newslettter, please clarify.

@Zartanasaurus. Correct, 2 years part time.

@Veritas_libertas. The URL is here. From there, you can view the courses, lab topology which can be reserved online, and even list of CCIE candidates. The best part about this program is that you have lifetime access to the lab, you can view the list of equipment here. They recently put in place new Nexus fabrics.

@vinbuck, I will when I get the chance, let me get through the Certification Guide first!

I should have clarified when I said 4 months. Most of the graduates have many years of experience. Those with little experience obtained their CCIE within 16 months of studying full time. To the OP, I assume your working so getting all 3 certs is more than doable. Stay dedicated.

Me personally, I'm going to attempt the written and lab once I'm ready. If I fail the lab, at least I learned something which will help me down the road, especailly during interviews! I read it somewhere on the forum that some folks got a salary increase after passing the written portion. Has anyone experienced this as well?

Eildor

WiseWun wrote: »

I read it somewhere on the forum that some folks got a salary increase after passing the written portion. Has anyone experienced this as well?

I have seen jobs listed which ask specifically for the CCIE as a minimum. I would think it depends on where you're working; some employers encourage their engineers to go for certs like CCIE and give them support (especially Cisco Gold Partners), whereas some have no need for a CCIE.

Either way you'll learn a lot studying and labbing for the CCIE, so in my opinion it's worth studying for it ...even if you don't take the exams, or get a salary increase straight away.

sacredboy

Hi guys.
I have the same question as TS but in contrast to TS my way to CCIE certification does not start from the very beginning.
So currently I have already earned CCNA and passed CCNP ROUTE and in my situation I have 1-1,5 years.
Is it possible to prepare for CCIE without real experience but using real equipment in home lab?

Eildor

Yes it is possible to pass the CCIE without real-world experience by reading books and a lot of labbing... also look into INE. If that's what you want to do.

sacredboy

And what about blueprint version? Will the knowledge base of 4.0 be useful for 5.0?

ConstantlyLearning

sacredboy wrote: »

And what about blueprint version? Will the knowledge base of 4.0 be useful for 5.0?

Yes, it will.