From: Dave Gahm (gahm@xxxxxxx)
Date: Fri Apr 14 2000 - 02:25:13 GMT-3
On April 11th in San Jose I became CCIE # 5804. Of the group that
started on Monday, two of us made the grade, Sal Bachu from Chicago,
and myself. The proctor did not disclose our scores, but when asked if
it was close, she said we were both in the high 80's, which just added
a little more to the euphoria we already felt. Kathe is a very good
proctor, very conscientious....she clearly wants people to succeed.
For me, some of the most interesting posts on the study group have
been those from newly minted CCIE's telling their story. Those posts
provide a sense of perspective that you can't get from reading what
the acknowledged gurus have to say. Now it is my turn, and I hope that
my story might be useful.
I have made my living in the technology business for the last 25
years, starting in RF/microwave and transmission systems, added in
PBX's, a bit of NavAids, then moving into process control sytems,
including minicomputers. I started working with ethernet and basic
networking stuff 10 years ago, but didn't get serious about routing
and switching until about 5 years ago. Even then I just focused on the
technologies that my company (big oil) used, and gave no thought to
certifications. In our production network we run IP with EIGRP, and
ATM LANE campus backbones with Bay ATM switches. I got a chance to set
up VOIP and IPSEC VPN's.
Everything changed on April 1 1999 when it was announced that a bigger
oil company was buying us out, and that they would outsource all IT
jobs.
I bought a CCNA study guide, and passed that test after a couple days
of study. I then proceeded on to CCNP, which I achieved, on July 23,
1999. After a couple months of study I passed the CCIE written on my
first try in September, and immediately scheduled my lab for December
20. I took no classes, even though the company was paying for any
courses that might help in the job market. I am a self-paced learner
and do best on my own with a book and the equipment in front of me to
play with. We had enough spare 2500 series, AGS+, and 3620 routers to
put together a respectable lab. I bought Caslow's book, the CCIE Lab
Study Guide, and the CCIEbootcamp labs. I studied hard, and thought I
had a good chance of passing on my first try. That did not happen, in
fact I did not make it past day 1. A very humbling experience, to say
the least. I had a good start, but had not gone deep enough.
I got back home and scheduled my next try for April 10. I tried
unsuccessfully to sign up for ECP1, then settled for ANEW2
(worthwhile, but disappointing, bad instructor who did not fully
understand the labs, and was a BSer). I also bought the rest of the
books, Doyle's Routing for TCP/IP, Halabi's Internet Architectures,
OSPF Design Guide, and even got the full 11 volume set of 12.0 Config
Guides. I bought ISDN BRI modules and voice cards for the 3620 routers
in our lab. I continued to average 2-3 hours per day studying, either
reading or working labs. I worked through all the fatkid.com challenge
labs (excellent resource, hats off to Derek for a fine job), and tried
to introduce as many extra variables as possible. If I read a post on
the study group that I didn't understand, I researched it, or set it
up in the lab. I also read through everything pertinent on the CD, and
practiced finding things as quickly as possible. I discovered some
good stuff in the troubleshooting, design, and case studies section.
On the lab Monday and Tuesday I typed in about 90% of the
configuration without looking up commands. The stuff I had to search
for was mostly the 1-2 pointers that were not important to later
configuration. Time management is often mentioned as being a critical
skill, but if you get the basic stuff working it's a no-brainer....
spend 5-10 minutes on something you don't know, then move on and come
back if you have time. If you struggle with the essential connectivity
and routing you aren't going to make it anyway. I am a two-finger
typist and relied heavily on aliases (sr for show run, ct for conf t,
etc.).
To sum it up....if you have the aptitude, can function under pressure,
and are willing to become obsessed about being a CCIE, you will make
it.
It's funny how things work out, the merger that started my CCIE quest
will finally close next Tuesday. I will have a few months to work out
my job future, but there is no doubt that having a CCIE will make the
job choosing a lot more fun...and lucrative :-)
Good Luck to Everyone,
Dave
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