For the People Who Have CCIE - How Did You Pay For It?

CodeBlox

I am going to be obtaining this certification at some point before I'm 30 (Personal goal). I am curious - Who has paid out of pocket to obtain the cert and who has had an employer cover these costs.

kohr-ah

All the CCIEs I have ever worked with their work paid for it. In return they made an agreement to stay 18 months after that OR they would be billed for the remainder of the time owed.

AKA if they found a new job after 6 months they had to pay for the remaining 12 months (2/3) of the CCIE cost.

CSCOnoob

I know a guy who paid for everything out of pocket.

So far, my out of pocket expenses are the following: INE workbooks and videos and home lab. Fortunately, my written and lab exam attempts will be paid by my employer. Though, there's nothing in writing that it'll be paid. No agreement or anything. They're pretty generous so I guess it'll be paid.

gbdavidx

How much does it cost?

networker050184

It's $1,500 just for the lab exam. Not to mention the written, study materials, lab etc.

shodown

lab 1500
Written 350
Material I've spent 2K
Lab 5k (I also use this for my consulting practice)
Bootcamp will be close to 10K

all of these out of pocket for me. I won't even get a raise unless I give it to myself:) Which I can't afford right now. The journey for me has been the reward. I feel more confident when I'm with customers, or troubleshooting high profile problems.

pitviper

Also be careful if you are working with a Cisco partner – If you pass the exam while registered, you’re stuck there for a year regardless if they helped fund the journey or not…

gbdavidx

shodown wrote: »

lab 1500
Written 350
Material I've spent 2K
Lab 5k (I also use this for my consulting practice)
Bootcamp will be close to 10K

all of these out of pocket for me. I won't even get a raise unless I give it to myself:) Which I can't afford right now. The journey for me has been the reward. I feel more confident when I'm with customers, or troubleshooting high profile problems.

man but you must be bringing in over 6 figures, if you can afford that anyone will want to hire you

RouteMyPacket

gbdavidx wrote: »

man but you must be bringing in over 6 figures, if you can afford that anyone will want to hire you

Six figures is overrated and not as much as it used to be. He has over $18,850 in expenses out of pocket which is a lot of liquid cash regardless six figures or not.

gbdavidx

I agree that 18k is a lot, but 100k a year is a lot of money for 1 income

pitviper

gbdavidx wrote: »

100k a year is a lot of money for 1 income

All depends on where you live.

zxbane

Exactly, the cost of living depending on your area is a big factor as far as income goes. I know for a fact that in the VA/DC/MD area I am in now, 100k really not as much as one would think after living costs.

networker050184

$100k isn't as much as people not making it seem to think. I hear it all the time from friends and family (the close ones that know what I make anyway). "You make over $100k you can afford that." "You should pay for dinner you make the big bucks!" Stuff like that.

shodown

Yes everyone thinks I'm rolling in the dough. The reality is I have a wife, baby and mortgage.

I pay all benefits(obamacare has been great for us so far), and we have to plan for times when work is lean. I wouldn't trade my life however, I don't work on the massive projects I use to, but I do enough interesting work to keep me happy. I don't have a big house in an upper middle class neighborhood, don't drive a range rover, and my baby will not be going to a 20-30K a year private school. We get a lot of things through thrifting, and we make a lot of our own products at home. I don't worry about money as much as most americans and I don't have credit card debt, but I could show my lifestyle to someone who makes half of what I make and they would still be living pretty good. We plan out our meals, We plan on entertainment and look for deals, and we try to buy whatever we need with cash. You can't get all the flashy things you see on TV( we don't have one), but we are much happier.

chmod

kohr-ah wrote: »

All the CCIEs I have ever worked with their work paid for it. In return they made an agreement to stay 18 months after that OR they would be billed for the remainder of the time owed.

AKA if they found a new job after 6 months they had to pay for the remaining 12 months (2/3) of the CCIE cost.

A friend of mine that used to work for cisco tac had to pay on installment for 3 months in order to re-pay what they spent on his CCIE.
If he wouldn't have paid he wouldn't have been able to work for cisco again. It was part of the contract.

neo9006

Exactly depending on where you live. That is the key, if I was making 100k I would consider myself rich big time. I probably still have the same house, better car maybe and that would probably be about it. Like shodown, my wife keeps us in line. Before her I was barely making things happen and being pretty dumb about money. Not anymore. I always hear my friend saying I need more money, but when he has the money, he spends it all the time. I know kids are expensive, but you just have to plan things. One thing the wife and I do is plan things which helps out big time. Don't get me on started on obamacare. That is like the plague itself, deadly. As long as your happy with what you do and you can make a decent living, I think you should count your blessings, be happy about it.

spiderjericho

I have a buddy who just got his CCIE. Ex military officer. He paid for 2 lab attempts, the written, an INE boot camp package out of his own pocket.

mokaiba

zxbane wrote: »

Exactly, the cost of living depending on your area is a big factor as far as income goes. I know for a fact that in the VA/DC/MD area I am in now, 100k really not as much as one would think after living costs.

100K is a lot to me. I can easily live on 20k/year in expenses, still have money left over, and I live in Arizona, land of retired millionaires and billionaires ( Wealthiest People in Arizona - Arizona's Billionaires ). 100K to me would be 60K saved and 40K to live comfortably, which would allow me to basically retire after 15 years.

zxbane

You have to keep in mind taxes for one. You make no mention of taxes, social security, medical, retirement etc and speak as if you just get to keep the 100k flat out. Also, as I mentioned it honestly depends on the area you live in. Here in northern VA, especially if you are renting you better be prepared to pay a significant amount. I'm not saying 100k is poor by any means, but it certainly isn't rich as you made it out to be.

filkenjitsu

You have to understand, Arizona is not Chicago or DC. I am pretty sure you are not paying 1500 a month for 600 to 800 square feet for a condo rental in Arizona.

Large income tax? Municipal taxes? High County tax?

mokaiba

zxbane wrote: »

You have to keep in mind taxes for one. You make no mention of taxes, social security, medical, retirement etc and speak as if you just get to keep the 100k flat out. Also, as I mentioned it honestly depends on the area you live in. Here in northern VA, especially if you are renting you better be prepared to pay a significant amount. I'm not saying 100k is poor by any means, but it certainly isn't rich as you made it out to be.

This will probably be off topic but is here to show taxes dont matter and you could still retire after 15 years.

• • Net Pay
    $2,742.93
  • Bi-weekly Gross Pay
    $3,846.15
  • Federal Withholding
    $705.14
  • Social Security
    $238.46
  • Medicare
    $55.77
  • Arizona
    $103.85
  Note: the net pay is more than I make in a month.
  
  2742.93 * 26 = $71316.18 est year
  
  I could easily live off of 30k/year. That would still leave me with $41,316.18 saved. 15 years of saving: $619,742.70.
  tax rate is 25% tax bracket with 18.5% taxable, which works out to around 15k being taken and paying 18k out, so you would get roughly 3k back a year in a tax refund.
  3k*15=$45,000
  619742 + 45000 = Roughly $664,742 saved.
  664742/30k = at least 22 years not counting interest.
  
  With interest:
  Your monthly deposit of $0.00 for 40 years with an interest rate of 6.50% compounded Monthly
  with an initial starting balance of $664,742.00
  
  Year 1:
  

  • $709,261.0
  • 709261-664742 = $44,519 yearly interest. I could live off the interest for the rest of my life
  
  
  
  

Flyingput

pitviper wrote: »

Also be careful if you are working with a Cisco partner – If you pass the exam while registered, you’re stuck there for a year regardless if they helped fund the journey or not…

It might be different. Engineers jump ships all the time. But CCIE number will stay with old company for a year, unless the old company writes a letter to release it. Usually the new companies care about skill sets/experience/potentials... more that that certificate.

Flyingput

chmod wrote: »

A friend of mine that used to work for cisco tac had to pay on installment for 3 months in order to re-pay what they spent on his CCIE.
If he wouldn't have paid he wouldn't have been able to work for cisco again. It was part of the contract.

From my TAC friends: they have 3 chances to pass any CCIE track. $1 for each attempt. Thus both times at my real lab, I met Cisco employees. Obviously they were not nervous at all.

Personally I have a friend who paid all 5 or 6 attempts out of his pocket. After his dual CCIE done, I grabbed him to our company that doubled his pay, LOL.

I paid around $3500 for study materials and home lab upgrades. 2 attempts cost about $4500. These are costs on the paper. What really bothered me was time (spent in lab, missed with children, wife, family) and exhaustion (both mentally and physically). I didn't want to do anything after I got the number: work, family, social.....etc. Guess what, I am not alone with our colleagues!