mikej412 wrote: » Which track are you considering? How long are you planning on taking? And will you be working or going for your Masters Degree during that time? Are you going to go through the Associate Level Certifications and Professional Level Certifications as part of your CCIE Written/Lab preparation? Or are you going straight to the CCIE since there are no prerequisites and it's only strongly encouraged, not required, that you have 3 to 5 years of job experience? If you actually think that you'll like the CCIE preparation and CCIE Life Style, have you considered taking your B.A.Sc EE and applying to Cisco, Juniper, or HP now -- and then worry about certifications later? The CCIE R&S is still not a best practices lab -- so while you may have mastered the "CCIE Tasks" for the exam, applying some of them in real life will get you fired and laughed at by experienced CCNPs. With no networking experience and a CCIE your job options may be limited. There are consulting companies that would be happy to bill you out by the hour (if you look good wearing a suit), including all your mistakes and time spent trying fix your problems. If you're lucky and have some skills, you may be able to use that experience to move up to a better company or a large global enterprise (where you could make a difference or just hide in a heap of bureaucracy). Cisco Business Partners do have to have a number of CCIEs on staff, and they need one for every X amount of sales to qualify for an additional discount. A partner who already has enough CCIEs to service any day-to-day customer issues may opt for a "cheap ccie" to qualify for that discount (and maximize profit and the bonus pool) -- and if you are the real deal, this is where you'd want to be to get the maximum experience in the shortest time.
shodown wrote: » I have a story about this I'm gonna share one day.
CCIEfreshertobe wrote: » Greetings all, I have been seriously considering climbing the mountain to be CCIE. From reading numerous threads here and other places, I get the sense that while it is perhaps not as lucrative as in 2008 and earlier, and while many 'brain dumpers' have devalued this mark of distinction some, that it is still perhaps a good way to break into IT. I already have a B.A.Sc in EE, and did my MCSE back in 'the day', so I've had a little bit of lab experience. My question is this. Would a CCIE give me enough leverage on its own to break me into _A_ job in this field? So much of what I've seen on job postings demands job experience which I do not have. Still, this cert should be enough to give me an in, shouldn't it? Not necessarily a high paying one, but how likely is it that this cert will give me a start? Also, for what its worth I am interested in the security designation. Thanks much, Fresh
mikej412 wrote: » What kind of story? Big Consulting Company bills for 2 Consultants at $250 an hour each for 6 month to NOT quite accomplish 15 minutes of work? Or small town CCIE makes good at big city Business Partner? Fer sure you can't leave us hanging
shodown wrote: » A company from my past was pretty close to getting gold partner status. Just one IE away. Well They interviewed a few people. One of them obviously had cheated his whole way through the program. He was a avg CCNA, but nowhere near IE level. A deal was made and they asked him if he had "extra help". He did attened a bootcamp in a country overseas which will not be named and they got him through the lab. To make a long story short. They paid him a CCNA salary. Gave him CCNA level tasks, and obtained Gold Partner status at less cost.
CCIEWANNABE wrote: » Sounds like the situation I'm in now. Company is Silver trying to go Gold. So I need to pound out the CCIE lab for them, and to be honest with my small business exploding, I just don't see a big salary increase as a huge motivation factor where others may be all over this. Just to throw this in, why do you want the CCIE? Take a good day or two and just think this over. I have seen many CCIE's, some that know nothing and some very smart. What Kind of CCIE do you want to be? Arrogant, Helpful, Approachable, or an a@@hole. You need to know that to get the CCIE title legitimately is going to take ALOT of work and in all honesty, once you start learning you will be surprised at the opportunities that will open up for you WITHOUT being a CCIE. The big thing in our career field is that you need to be always learning, evolving and try to seperate yourself from others. If you can acheive this and still be a pretty cool person to be around, I say go for it!
jovan88 wrote: » people need to realize the CCIE isn't a golden ticket. On my personal experience I can tell you as a CCNP, when people know you're certified they kinda expect you to know everything. And if you don't know something, it looks pretty bad. You can't say "I don't know anything about an ASA, it wasn't on the CCNP track!". I can't even imagine what people would think of a CCIE who didn't know the real world art of network engineering. Go for the experience or a lower end cert before your EXPERT certification.
Turgon wrote: » In 2000 it was a golden ticket because it was a new thing. IT was a new thing back then with many companies borrowing heavily requiring people to install lots of things that not a whole lot of people inhouse really understood. People winged it for a couple of years, got certified and then became instructors in things they were actually not *that* experienced in! It's 2010 and a lot has changed. The technologies have matured and many people have come through. Today a CCIE is expected to *deliver* a great deal, but set against that is an expectation from both companies and peers that is timeserved *and* based on a backdrop of experience fighting with technology installations both good and bad over the last 10 years. In otherwords the *ask* of CCIE's is much harder today than it was 10 years ago when it was 'gee whizz, you're a CCIE, ok buddy whatever you say!'. The infrastructure is in, you have hundreds of customers and the packets are flowing. Screw that change up or make the wrong call on a technical migration and you pay millions in broken SLA penalties. No pressure. Study hard, get real experience and dont rush or your ass will get burned
TheSuperRuski wrote: » How is that,the respect and awe(if you will), affected over the different disciplines of the CCIE. Is any one harder than the other or more respected? I had a friend tell me he was going for his CCVP because "Everybody needs phones" I actually met a guy today that had his CCIE Voice. He had a heavy Indian accent, and told me he spent around 15K on his CCIE lab. I wish i could have stayed to pick his brain so more, but I've learned so much by just reading this thread.
jovan88 wrote: » people need to realize the CCIE isn't a golden ticket.
mikej412 wrote: » I think people are -- especially the mediocre ccnps and ccnas "with numbers." My guess as to why there is a drop in the number of active CCIEs is that the people who bought a ccie number in the past have found out first hand it's not a golden ticket -- and it isn't worth (or they can't afford) the cost of a **** and written exam to keep it active.
