Hey guys, I'm new to the forum. I had a rough road to where I am at right now unfortunately. I took the Cisco Academy back a year ago or so. Went through it just barely enough to pass. Was taking as part of a college program and really didn't pay much attention. It was super interesting to me but my mind has been in my motorcycle racing for quite some time so I never focused. I've been in the microsoft world as a server admin here in Anchorage for about a year when my job got riffed. I was picked up by the Wide Area Network group because they have some servers and needed someone who they could hire internally. And it helped that I was familiar with networks (my Net+ cert). Mostly I have been doing everything hands on during my 4 years of computer experience. Everything from simple networking to managing a VTP domain on a lan, PC repair and Microsoft Server administration. When I moved over to the WAN department I was urged to try for my CCNA... I studied for it for about a month and went in and got an 834 and was insanely pissed that I didnt pass it. I felt uneasy the entire test. What was even more frustrating was when I once again didn't take it very seriously and got an 829. Imagine that i felt even stupider that time around... Finally I made myself forget about friends/motorcycles/partying and sat my ass down at home and really hammered it for about 8hrs straight. Went in the next day and stomped it with a 961. Really all along I wish i hadn't tried to half-ass the thing and just done it the right way the first time around. This forum is awesome and I plan on using it when i take my CCDA in the coming months and my CCNP in the future.
