From: Tom Larus (tlarus@cox.net)
Date: Tue Sep 03 2002 - 11:49:28 GMT-3
I cannot believe the positive response I have received. I pursued the CCIE
partly so that I could write a book about the experience, with helpful
advice. Later, I thought that in this down market for networking and
network training, such a book might not be successful, but responses like
your suggest that I should perhaps write that book, after all.
I have been thinking about possible titles for over a year, and have not
come up with one that I really like. The one I keep coming back to is
"Cisco for Lawyers: An Analytical Approach to Cisco Certification." The
first part could sound strange, and suggest that this is a book only for
career changers who were lawyers. The second part sounds a bit dry and
academic. Yet this title reflects the two main points of the book. First,
Cisco material, going all the way up to CCIE level, does not require higher
math at all, but involves more language and analytical skills, along with
facility with binary and hex and basic arithmetic. Second, an analytical
approach to the material can save time and improve absorption and retention,
as opposed to an approach that amounts to, "let's just work on the routers
for a long time and do lots of reading, and then we will be ready to take
the lab exam." The second approach can work well, and if you are being paid
for the time spent might work well career-wise, but might take a bit longer.
Thanks,
Tom Larus
----- Original Message -----
From: "Abraham, Ajith" <Ajith.Abraham@FLHOSP.ORG>
To: "'Tom Larus'" <tlarus@cox.net>; <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2002 7:46 AM
Subject: RE: Tom Larus passed last Friday at RTP. CCIE # 10014.
> Dear Tom:
>
> That is outstanding. I often think and wished folks would write up a few
> notes about what the CCIE journey was like, instead of just saying thank
you
> and I have the numbers..... It is messages like this that keep us on
track,
> and tell us to "shake it off, stomp it down, and to rise up to the next
> level". Thank you and God bless as you continue this journey.
>
> Sincerely
>
> Ajith Abraham
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tom Larus [mailto:tlarus@cox.net]
> Sent: Friday, August 30, 2002 2:46 PM
> To: ccielab@groupstudy.com
> 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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