From: Earl Aboytes (earl@xxxxxxxxxxxx)
Date: Sun Aug 13 2000 - 14:09:53 GMT-3
A lot of people are looking for inspiration. Here is my struggle-filled
story.
I'll never forget that summer day in 1996 when I was at the Mission Inn in
Riverside, CA installing a Gandalf ISDN bridge with my colleague Marc
Benzakein. Marc confided in me that he really wanted to learn more about
Cisco gear and to stop messing around with these tiny Gandalf ISDN bridges.
He wanted the company to send him to school but they wouldn't because it was
too expensive. I became curious about this company that I had never heard
of (Cisco) and wondered what it took to get their certification.
I got the number of the guy that installed the router for the VAR/ISP that I
worked for and gave him a call. He told me that working towards the CCIE
certification was a waste of my time. He told me that I would never make it
and I would just be wasting my money. I asked him to give me the name of
anyone that could give me training in the area anyway. I called this
contact and they repeated the same sentiments. I said to myself, "Come on!
No certification is that difficult!"
I learned of Ascolta Training in Southern California. I gave them a call
and signed up for ICRC. I used my own money and drove two hours through
traffic both ways every day. It was hell but worth it. The next week they
were teaching ACRC in my hometown of San Bernardino. I was out of money so
I asked my boss to pay the $1,700.00 for the class. He agreed and I was on
my way.
It would be another year before I would take another Cisco class. In the
meantime I earned my CNE and took several Microsoft and Solaris classes. I
would also change jobs. I left that VAR/ISP and went to work for GTE. I
supported a couple of router networks for some large universities in the ATM
group. I was having a hard time and GTE purchased an NSA contract to help
me out. They also sent me to the rest of the Cisco curriculum. Thank you
GTE!
Because of the NSA contract we had to have two CCIE's on staff. In late
1998 I started working fast and furious. Without a lab to work on or a
mentor to work with, things seemed impossible. It took me 4 attempts and
two months to pass the written test. I was reading the Giles book for the
first three. On the fourth, in January 1999, I studied from the Rossi's
CCIE Prep.com study guide.
My first attempt at the lab, in March 1999, was a disaster. I had trouble
with the commserver and I was way out of my league with the test. It was on
this attempt that I found out about the Caslow book from some fellow test
takers. I bought the book and studied every day for about 16 hours. I went
to the lab in Los Angeles and spent 8 hours there every Friday. I studied
from Doyle, Caslow and Mentor Labs. My second attempt was better, but the
ATM killed me. I did not make it to the second day.
My third attempt was plagued by an incorrect configuration of the Frame
switch. I was invited for a fourth attempt at no charge. On my fourth
attempt there was no proctor present in the lab and I was again invited back
for a fifth attempt at no charge. In this time frame I changed groups at
GTE. This group asked me to give them a list of equipment that I would like
to see in the lab. They purchased every stitch of equipment that I asked
for.
At this point I was trying to read everything I could get my hands on. I
was having problems reading and staying awake at the same time. I was
falling asleep in my classes and not waking up for hours. I was fighting a
bad case of narcolepsy, or so I thought. I was having trouble retaining
anything that I read and I couldn't remember things from one minute to the
next. I thought that I was experiencing what my father always warned me
would happen when I got older. Since I'm only 32 I thought it must be
something else. My wife is a nurse and she suspected that I had a condition
known as obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. I went to the UCLA sleep study
clinic and was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea. I was getting zero rem
sleep. I was prescribed to sleep with a CPAP which forces air into my nose
and keeps my airway open.
I was quickly feeling better and reading again. The morning of my fifth
attempt was in January of this year. It was raining and I had stayed with
some friends in Santa Cruz. Highway 17 was closed and I had no way of
getting to San Jose from where I was. The highway opened eventually, but I
was an hour late getting to the test. I was invited to reschedule for the
following Tuesday at no extra charge. I returned on Tuesday full of hope.
My dreams were quickly dashed by a failure to make it to the second day. At
this point things seemed hopeless.
I spoke with my boss and he suggested taking a break. He asked if I would
like to go to ECP1. He also suggested that we have our Senior Technical
Consultant from Texas study with me. I agreed. I then made two phone
calls. One call was to William Darkwah. He informed me of a list that he
subscribes to known as ccielab@groupstudy.com. I subscribed and quickly
learned the value of this list. I also called a fellow CCIE candidate that
I met at ECP1. He took me under his wing and has been mentoring me ever
since.
We purchased the bootcamp labs and William and I started practicing
together. I took the test a sixth time and was the victim of poor time
management. I spent too much time on my drawing and did not work quickly
enough. I hopped right back into it for a seventh attempt. Everything went
smoothly. No hardware problems. No mysterious outages or anything of the
sort. Just pure unadulterated success.
Don't let anyone tell you that something is so difficult that you could
never do it.
The difference between a successful person and a non-successful person is
not one of ability but of will to succeed.
-Vince Lombardi.
Recommended Books:
Caslow's Cisco Certification.
Doyle's Routing TCP/IP volume 1
Halabi's Internet Routing Architectures
Tan Nam Kee's Cisco Routers for Bridging, dlsw+ and desktop protocols
Recommended courses:
ECP1
CCIE Bootcamp Labs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Earl Aboytes CCIE #6097
Senior Technical Conultant
GTE Managed Solutions
805-381-8817
earl.aboytes@verizon.com
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