From: Greg Ferro (gferro@spiderweb.com.au)
Date: Sun Mar 09 2003 - 20:28:12 GMT-3
You know, I experienced this same feeling a couple of years ago about two
months after I passed. So I wrote this piece about what a CCIE is and it
got published. I hope you get a laugh from it, I still do.
http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid7_gci778382,00.html
On a more serious note, as a self employed and contracting Network Engineer
(with CCIE) I find that I have a few of great strengths.
First is self belief, if I can pass the CCIE lab then I have the basic
skills to achieve almost any thing in the real networking world. I still
have to learn new things all the time. For the last 6 months its been IPsec
aka VPNs, firewalls, intrusion detection. For the next 6 months I would
guess I am going to learn more IP Telephony, Linux and Network Management
using OSS. But most of the time, I can make Cisco IOS stand up and march
like a soldier, in one quarter the time of normal mortal (joke intended)
which means better outcomes for the customer.
The second is what I call "The Force". Sometimes (just sometimes) I know
what I am doing. Across the table is someone that I know is not strong in
this area. In these situations, I use the power of CCIE to impress on that
person that I might know something that they don't. This has great real
life benefit in situations where there is conflict in a project. I am
developing my "CCIE Glare" but I haven't worked out my "CCIE Vulcan Grip"
as yet.
The third is that because you are perceived as elite, you will often get to
work on the best, toughest, newest, most difficult and most fun projects.
After a couple of those, you will have learned more, experienced more and
be ready for more challenges. I call this "making my own luck" because
after completing my CCIE, its not lucky at all, just the result of hard work.
Regards
Greg Ferro
CCIE #6920
PS: And, yes, it is a derivative piece of work, I am a engineer after all
not an author.
At 12:02 AM 8/03/2003 -0600, you wrote:
>Dear members,
>
>Excuse the overhead - Please reply off-line.
>
>The day I stepped in to the IT arena, I worked with an individual who was
>working for his CCIE (today he is # 5761). I remember him enthusiastically
>talking about a box with 2 Ethernet ports and amazing things it could do.
>(how boring -- I thought!).
>
>Today, I am also working on my CCIE certification. Trapped in the world of
>Microsoft and the never-ending support of our typical (average) users with
>challenges on printing problems among may others, I am faced with one of
>the toughest dilemmas: how can one, who is motivated and gives up precious
>time with family and friends studying internetworking and potentially
>benchmark, can find themselves working among professionals such as yourself,
>with literally non-existent experience with production internetworking/Cisco
>gear. I have been watching this list for several months, and while
>overwhelming, topics are very interesting...
>
>Truth of the matter is, if an individuals can potentially pass and attain
>their CCIE, while continuously practicing on routers as a "hobby", how could
>they ever find themselves in the job market as internetworking professionals
>in a production environment?
>
>In my opinion, passing a CCIE examination hardly measures up to veterans who
>have worked long hours and solved an array of vast, tough, challenging,
>problems on internetworking, for numerous, counting years... I am simply
>looking for feedback what some of you have done to move from the bottom, to
>the prestigious network engineers you are, today!
>
>Again, my apologies for the off-topic question.
>-- Richard Danu
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