From: Tim Ross (ross2k@xxxxxxxx)
Date: Fri Aug 30 2002 - 22:21:32 GMT-3
Congratulations Tom!. There are some very good tips in your posting that I
will read and review carefully.
Tim
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Larus" <tlarus@cox.net>
To: <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
Sent: Friday, August 30, 2002 11:46 AM
Subject: Tom Larus passed last Friday at RTP. CCIE # 10014.
> I passed last Friday at RTP, and have been on vacation since then. It was
my
> second attempt. I rented internet access for a half-hour last Saturday to
> find out whether I passed, but I did not want to announce to the group
when
> I was not in a position to reply to congratulatory emails.
>
> I would like to thank Paul Borghese for hosting this group. The
> collegiality of this group is one thing that makes this whole field so
> great. When the "field experience" versus "lab rat" debate is as bad as
it
> gets, you know it is a a pretty collegial group. And it is understandable
> that people would be a bit insecure in this bad job market. We "lab rats"
> worry about whether there is a place for us in this field, and some of the
> guys with lots of field experience feel like their field is being invaded
by
> folks who are driving down the salararies. All of these concerns are real
> and valid, and the the fact that we remain glad to help each other is
> beautiful.
>
> I have some thoughts on preparing for the CCIE that may be helpful to some
> people, but not to others. There is not one "best approach" to CCIE
> preparation. Each person needs to use the methods that work best for him
or
> her, but I will throw out a few ideas.
>
> We all know that you need to read several core texts very carefully, and
> probably repeatedly (Doyle I, Halabi, Caslow & Pavlichenko), but I would
> urge you to read as broadly as you can, and to read exactly what you are
> most
> interested in learning about at the moment. That means, picking up, say,
> Srinivas Vegesna's book on QOS, and reading a chapter at random, or
whatever
> chapter covers a topic that you want to nail down something about. When
> people set
> out to read a book cover to cover, they often find themselves in a
situation
> where they are covering a lot of pages, but they are not really absorbing
> everything they are reading as well as they would if they just read what
the
> wanted to read. Take the books everywhere and read them every chance you
> get. Obsession is helpful in achieving the CCIE.
>
> Read the IOS Docs for fun, and read them to answer specific questions.
Doing
> practice scenarios should generate all kinds of questions about details
you
> want to nail down. Read to answer these questions, and flip through and
> look for sections that look
> interesting and read them.
>
> I knew that buying the 12.1 IOS printed docs was one of the best decisions
I
> had made in this process right after I had bought them. To pick up the
docs
> and read them for fun the way you would read any other Cisco book gives
you
> a comfort and familiarity with the Docs that builds confidence and exposes
> you to lots of material that is not covered elsewhere. The IOS docs are
> pretty thin on IP Routing, so you cannot use them as a substitute for the
> great books on IGP routing and BGP.
>
> I recommend keeping a lab notebook, in which you write an estimate of the
> time you spent each day, and the most important lessons you learned that
> day. Just putting the lessons into a few coherent sentences will help you
> to
> remember what you learned. Two hours in which you learn "when configuring
> x, you need to remember to put y under the interface" can be better than
> doing four hours of router configuration without digesting what you
learned.
> I count reading separately from router configuration, and I generally do
not
> count reading groupstudy at all, even though it is an important activity.
> Reading groupstudy is like a break, so I end up learning even on my breaks
> from the more intense work of router configuration.
>
> Following are some books that stick out in my memory:
>
> Robert Caputo's Cisco Voice and Data Integration was very well written,
and
> was very practical in approach. (I am going from memory here, as I had to
> return this book to the college library). McQuerry. McGrew, and Foy's
Cisco
> Voice over Frame Relay, ATM, and IP (Cisco Press), was pretty good, too.
>
> Parkhurst's BGP book from Cisco Press book was actually fun. Yes, Halabi
is
> the master of the big picture, but this book allowed me to get a real
> feeling of comfort with Cisco's BGP syntax. (And no, I do NOT consider
> myself an expert on BGP.)
>
> I did not use Solie's Practical Studies all that much, partly because it
> weighs too much to be convenient to carry around and read, and partly
> because it has too many errors to be trustworthy. It is the product of
> enormous effort, and has outstanding coverage of certain topics, but
should
> have gone through more rigorous proofing. Doyle volume I weighed too
much,
> too,
> but the spine broke and around 200 pages came out, which made it a bit
more
> manageable. Also, Doyle volume I is practically perfect.
>
> I strongly recommend checking out "used" books on Amazon.com. I got the
> Vegesna QOS book for a great price, and it is not an old, outdated book.
I
> also got Terry Slattery's Advanced IP Routing in Cisco Networks the same
> way, and Chris Lewis's TCP/IP Reference, and Parkhurst's older McGraw Hill
> OSPF book (not his new OSPF Cisco Press book). Like many books on OSPF,
the
> older Parkhurst book covers too much that is not OSPF, leaving little
space
> for in-depth coverage of OSPF. Thomas Thomas' OSPF Design Solutions was
the
> same way, but is still worth examining closely. I would imagine that the
> new Parkhurst OSPF book is probably great, since I loved new BGP book so
> much. I think you should buy and read liberally from just about
everything
> you can get your hands on. Each book has its strong areas and you can
learn
> a lot from reading (even skimming) broadly.
>
> If you can somehow manage it, take the NMC-1 class from Caslow,
> Pavlichenko, and Ingham. From what I have seen on this list from and
about
> the brilliant Brian McGahan, I would imagine that CyscoExpert is also an
> excellent choice.
>
>
> Bruce Caslow insisted that I use a more efficient approach to switching
> between routers-- specifically, making the router number match the session
> number--and adopting his method (along with using aliases much more
> aggressively) saved me lots of typing time and mental energy, which
allowed
> me to
> learn much in the final two months of preparation. Of course, this CLI
> efficiency stuff is a minor thing. The real benefits of NMC-1 lie in the
> subtleties
> the instructors expose you to, and the fact that you can rely on virtually
> everything they say to be correct and authoritative. They expose you to a
> concept that I think of as "find the dead link." In various topologies,
you
> will have a link that, for one reason or another, simply cannot work, so
you
> need to figure out how to work around it.
>
> A theme of the NMC-1 course is "nail everything down." That pretty much
> sums up the later stages of CCIE Preparation. Nail everything down, of
> course, means not relying on things like inverse arp. I extended it to
mean
> nail down every detail about which you have doubts. Your study in the
> middle to late stages needs to be an active process of having questions
> raised through lab scenarios, and making sure you get precise and accurate
> answers to those questions.
>
> I do not have the ideal pedigree for obtaining the CCIE, as I do not have
> years of field work as a network engineer, nor do I have a B.S. degree in
> computer science or electrical engineering or the like. This means that I
> will not be a top pick for most positions in this down market, but it does
> not mean that the CCIE was unattainable, or that my skills will be useless
> once the number and variety of jobs increases.
>
> To those of you who are career changers like me, I would suggest that many
> of you have skills that may well help you in pursuing the CCIE, and that
may
> help you in the right job, too. As a lawyer, I have felt right at home
with
> Cisco material for 2 1/2 years since I bought my first two routers and
> started studying for the CCNA.
>
> - My experience with languages and linguistics helped me to learn the
> language of networking and the Cisco IOS "language."
>
> - Studying law at University of Virginia School of Law and passing two
State
> Bar exams (one easy Bar Exam, one hard Bar Exam) helped me to develop the
> "graduate school issue-spotting" skills that Caslow and Pavlichenko refer
to
> in their book. Law school also taught me to ask the important question
> "why?" and to understand that the most important part of any explanation
is
> the part following, "because." When studying Cisco networking, one must
> know why certain things are done the way they are, and why a network
> engineer would want a particular
> feature. Many of the folks with lots of field work experience have an
> advantage in
> this respect, in that they have had plenty of opportunity to learn "why"
> certain features are necessary.
>
> - Years of experience in legal research and writing have given me good
> skills in research and analysis. I would say that I developed good
writing
> skills, except that those don't help at all in preparing for the CCIE, and
> I feel downright tongue-tied as a write this email.
>
>
> You, too, may find that skills you developed during a misspent youth may
> help you in attaining the CCIE almost as much as someone else's years of
> networking experience helped them. For example, if you are an accountant,
> you may find that your eye for detail and problem-solving may come in
handy.
> The important thing is, once you have committed yourself to learning what
> you need to
> learn to pass the CCIE Lab (a commitment which I would not make lightly),
do
> not let yourself be deterred from achieving your goal by negative posts.
I
> simply invested too much time and money and effort, and pride, in
achieving
> this goal, to give up, so giving up simply was not an option for me.
>
> Best wishes,
> Tom Larus
> CCIE # 10,014
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