From: Jennifer Joy (jjoy@xxxxxxxxxxx)
Date: Tue Jan 30 2001 - 19:42:28 GMT-3
For me, the CCIE has been a journey which has taught me a lot, and
filled some those "holes" in the swiss cheese of my knowledge. The
darned thing is, it's just a tiny piece of the networking world,
there is much more for me to learn. But I am happy to see that
green light glowing -- the green light of happiness, what I always
call it when you get that "good to go status" on a piece of gear.
It's not the end, but it's a good beginning. And I'm glad I'm finally
at that place.
A short synopsis of my journey
The beginning
When I started out 8 months ago, I really didn't have a grip on
frame relay. I didn't know DLCIs from a hole in the ground. I'd
been in the IT industry a good while, and ran a medium-sized enterprise
network as well being a senior unix admin. My enterprise network
was a lot of Catalysts, ACLs and some OSPF.
So, if you're like I was then, I'd recommend the All-in-One Study
Guide by Hutnik and Satterlee. It will get you caught up on the
basics, but it's just the beginning.
The spare brain
Keep a notebook where you take notes on each topic, and write
down the gotchas as you learn them. At least for me, my memory
couldn't keep all of this in my head. It is so handy to have
a condensed experience where you can review it. I had my notes
in a 3-ring binder so I could rearrange easily and each page treated
a single topic (although I had a separate folder for DLSw because
it really ate my lunch).
After doing all the labs in that book and reading Caslow from cover
to cover, I bought the ccbootcamp labs. Do these slowly at first,
making sure you really understand why the answers are the way they
are. You need a rack. I had a good one, and I don't even want to
count the numbers of hours I spent on those routers.
ECP-1
After about 3 months of lab study, I took ECP-1. This was just a
month before my lab. My instructor was Val Pavlichenko and he was
very good. He knows a ton, but doesn't spoonfeed you. I also
read Halabi and a ton of pages off of CCO.
SJ
At the end of Oct. I took my first lab. I should have gone to day 2
but I was just stupid about something to do with the rack. My only
tip here is to really read the labels on the rack. My particular
issue no longer exists. I had done a bunch of the hard problems so
I was somewhat happy, but I had really wanted to see Day 2.
RTP
Thanks to a fluke with my phone call I got into the lab just over
a month later. I then wandered through the whole lab in RTP, and
ended up about three points short. AIIII! A draining experience.
About in here, the groupstudy posts really started to seem old hat.
I knew the answers. This is a good sign. You know you are close
to being ready.
SJ again
I finally got a shot off a SJ wait list and got to take the lab a
third time. Unlike RTP where I knew where I stood, I had no idea
how many points I had lost, or even which sections I got wrong at
any point in the whole thing. But in SJ they did tell me about
how many broken things I needed to find on troubleshooting, while
RTP was just a mystery. I preferred the SJ way for troubleshooting
but I was nervous the whole time about how many points I missed.
I don't think this is easy, not if you've got any emotion in your
body. The waits are hard, especially day 2 lunch. Day 2 is hard,
there isn't a lot of time if you get the least bit bogged down. The
topics individually aren't too bad, but mixed together with time
pressure and nerves, it's a challenge. At the very end after I had
turned in my troublesheet I freaked the most. My proctor was
frowning and staring at her screen. I was thinking, "oh man, did I
blow troubleshooting again?" After an eternity I saw the orange paper
being picked up. My pulse quickened. She was bringing it to me!! I
passed!!! She said, "I was having trouble with the database..." and the
wait made sense. I was so delirious I almost walked out with my
drawing accidentally. I didn't know what to do. I stumbled out (with
some navigational difficulty) into the bright San Jose sunshine just
floating with happiness. You might think it was stupid, but
it was extra special for me to get my number from Kathe, who has been a
CCIE a long time, and yes, a woman even longer. :-)
Random thoughts:
-I used the CD a lot, I don't have a great memory, so I knew where
to go to double-check a few things
-I open up lots of browser windows, so in case I want to go back to
something while reviewing I don't have to find that page in the CD again
-be sure to review your work at the end of each day ... you will
put some hysterically funny stuff in there and forget about it,
and you need to remove it (otherwise it doesn't seem so funny)
-groupstudy is great, although I will people would quit posting stuff
off the exams
And all I can say is thanks to all my email buddies, however briefly
we chatted, you kept me going. To Tony, Earl, Steve, Sal, Julie Ann
and Michelle ... you guys are awesome. Thanks for talking to a stranger
and keeping me sane.
Jen
CCIE #6759
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