From: Howard C. Berkowitz (hcb@gettcomm.com)
Date: Fri Aug 20 2004 - 21:53:57 GMT-3
>Folks,
>
>While I was studying for my CCIE I used to post real life events on oddities
>and such. So did Chuck and Howard, however over the last year I cant really
>be bothered answering at least 90% of the questions that are posted. This is
>because
>
>a) They obviously cant be bothered searching the archives.
>b) They obviously cant be bothered searching www.cisco.com
>
>I might just becoming to the end of my shelf life on this study group but I
>would like to know the thoughts of others. I used to see this list as one
>of the greatest lists for not just the CCIE program but real life oddities
>as well. Now all I seem to be on is the Cisco netpro (especially on the
>service provider questions).
>
>P.S. Am I now one of the dinosaurs with a < 5 number CCIE?
>
>Robert McCallum
>CCIE #8757 R&S
I'm not sure how to judge it. There are still people that ask
relevant questions, and there occasionally are discussions that go
beyond merely passing tests. Whether there is less a sense of
community,as with the number of self-appointed moderators (who are
not) that complain when good contributors mention personal events,
I'm not sure.
It's really hard to tell where this industry is going. I am of the
opinion that certs are less important except for contracting where
low-level HR droids are searching for buzzwords. Cisco drove the
value of certs with requirements for VARs, and is backing off them.
There's still value in depth. Someone pointed out that reading the
general functions of QoS would have more long-term benefit than
cramming commands. I'd go farther than that, and say one really needs
to look at some of the RFCs to get real understanding. People also
have to understand one can go only so far in QoS without measurements
and quantitative methods.
There is also value in knowing an application area and/or general
business justifications.
The questions, I suppose, that puzzle me the most -- even if there
were no archives -- are the ones of "how many questions are on xxx
exam?" "what is the passing score?" WTF difference does it make? Do
people study differently for 50 or 100 questions? Does it matter what
the numerical passing score is, or simply that you know enough to
pass? Abraham Lincoln once posed the question "how long should a
man's legs be?" and answered himself "long enough to reach from his
hips to the ground." The passing score is knowing enough to pass.
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