CCNP TSHOOT to go!

oli356

Well after not doing a Cisco exam in over a year (January 2013 I passed SWITCH, I've spent the past week hardcore studying for ROUTE and passed it 1st attempt yesterday
I'm booked in for TSHOOT tomorrow morning. I've had a look at the topology and it seems simple enough. Apart from this, nothing else. Hopefully I pass...or I will regret it massively.

<watch this space >

SharkDiver

Congratulations on the ROUTE.
Good luck on the TSHOOT. It usually doesn't give anyone a hard time.
I will be looking for your "Pass" post.

oli356

Thanks
I hope so, colleagues at work suggest the same. Troubleshooting is something I do daily with VLANs and trunks and routing etc. I work in an environment with a lot of static routes and now OSPF etc but after just doing ROUTE I'm going in confident.

oli356

Well that exam is easy. 790 was required and I got 931. Easiest exam I've done so far, I wanted 950+ but oh well

xnx

How did you get a networking job at 19..? Do you live in a city and also did you do A Levels??

EDIT: My Bad..

I know T-Shoot looks easy, it looks easy to me and i've barely studied CCNP yet!

oli356

xnx wrote: »

How did you get a networking job at 19..? Do you live in a city and also did you do A Levels??

BTW, haven't you jumped the gun a bit by listing in your profile certifications? :P

I know T-Shoot looks easy, it looks easy to me and i've barely studied CCNP yet!

Luck! Got an apprenticeship with a networking company been there nearly 2 years now. I live in what is still classified as a town but is basically a city. Also did a BTEC so equivalent to A levels (I discovered networking and Cisco from doing this at college ) .

Didn't jump the gun because post 4 is me saying that I passed T-SHOOT .
It really is easy in my opinion. Some of the issues can be solved once you are CCNA certified (especially new CCNA as its more advanced right). I think having experiencing troubleshooting issues helps for the exam, just the method of thinking about what to check you... don't forget the small things! But even without experience the exam is long enough to take your time, it took me an hour so had plenty of time left.

I think the exam is a bit of a strange one, it's the longest CCNP exam at I think 2.5 hours, but that isn't a long time at all when you are troubleshooting complex problems (even very simple problems at times)... so they have to keep it basic really. If anything I found it fun, wasn't stressful at all - liked the style, going through the tickets etc.
Good luck with your studies anyway!

xnx

I've took the 'hard way' and got nowhere, i'm currently sat studying for my final year university exams, I did get into a top 10 university but that means very little in my situation.

I did A level Computing and Electronics and am now doing A Computer Science split degree, I'm struggling with job offers atm due to lack of experience and the offers I do get are in Manchester which is 60 miles away from.

I've always wanted to go as far as possible in Computer Networking, I just took the wrong approach to it and should have done a straight up networking degree with a year in industry..

I'm thinking about 'brute-forcing' my way into the industry by getting a CCNP and MCSA, I know I could do well in a technical interview for sure but it's just a matter of getting the right company to give me a chance. I'm even willing to earn 15k or so to start off with.

oli356

Basically the story of many students really, even when they finish - got no job to go into.

Yeah I guess you do have to start somewhere, my salary for the 1st year was £11.5k, 2nd year (now) is £15.5k and 3rd year is £19.5k then the apprenticeship is over, so in a good situation. Don't regret not going to uni but do miss a big chapter of experience and enjoyment in life.

Are you applying for small companies or large ish? Like my role is just purely networking (tiny bit of VMware to create Windows/Linux servers on - but never configuring them with anything fancy at all)
Personally I don't think MCSA would help on my CV as its not a "System management" type role I'm in.
However, a company I did work experience for were an international company and I was in the small internal IT support team (around 5 people). Having the MCSA there would be a lot more useful and only 1 of the guys knew about networks, but as far as I remember only to a CCNA level. Once the network works, that was it... so really depends where you're looking. But its tough out there so good luck!

xnx

Thanks, there's very few pure networking jobs around that don't require a CCNP and lots of experience, I've only applied for a few like that. The rest were Desktop support type roles etc.

That's a lot of money you're on now in terms of your age, I'm personally not a 'going out' sort of person and most of the spare time is / was spent in the gym at university or making / breaking something, so I've not missed much... I don't even play on game consoles anymore, complete waste of time...

Having a cheap to go to gym on campus was the best thing ever last year, I got ridiculously 'lean' until the stress of doing a dissertation hit me!

I'm definitely going down the networking path, even if I have to do MS admin first. I'll do whatever it takes..

oli356

Experience makes all the difference so can see why. Get your CCNP and see what you can do

Yeah not bad at all really. Well always good to stay fit! I'm similar though, stopped playing games really - due to lack of time and just kinda lost my interest.

One step at a time, do it even if you have to do some sort of desktop support thing for a bit, might open some doors and at least get your foot in to the industry and start knowing people.