Re: Lab rats make me mad

From: Tom Larus (tlarus@cox.net)
Date: Sat Feb 10 2007 - 13:05:42 ART


If you, Du Jianbo, really believe that the CCIE can ever be considered a
paper certification, then you:

1) do not know how hard the process of passing the CCIE Lab is (a lot of
us underestimated the difficulty for the first few months of preparation)
or
2) you think the CCIE is really not all that valuable, in which case it
probably is not worth the effort
or
3) you have heard of people who cheated to pass it, so it really was not
as hard for them as it ought to have been
or
4) you have CCIE and just don't want more competition,
or
5) you have the misconception, shared by many, that the CCIE is Cisco's
imprimatur or "seal of quality" bestowed on highly experienced network
engineers. Some people think that is what the CCIE is or should be, but
it is a test of your ability to master a large, but finite, body of
material, and execute a series of tasks fraught with many issues that
will be hidden from you if you do not understand the material well.

Sometimes I actually forget how valuable what I learned from preparing
for the CCIE Lab can be in the real world, and these "Lab Rat" threads
get me down, but then something happens to remind me that I gained
valuable knowledge and skills and understanding. Recently a friend of
mine (who has employed me in the past for some lucrative consulting
work) was talking to me about a problem a friend of his was having at
his job site. The symptoms reminded me right away of one of the first
things I learned when I was doing labs on a Cisco practice lab at NC
State University. I said, "It sounds like the old collapsing tunnel
problem," and explained what that meant. That was the clue that helped
get the problem resolved. So it was something I learned in a lab, but
it had real world value. It seemed obvious to me, but is not obvious to
everyone, including a few people with a lot more paid experience than me.

The point is that a Lab Rat should not be made Lead Engineer, but will
still add considerable value to a team. By this I mean the kind of
value that vastly exceeds what we normally associate with a "paper
certification."

Best regards,
Tom Larus, CCIE #10,014

Du, Jianbo wrote:

>Totally agree! Without working experience, CCIE cert is a paper only.
>
>
>Regards,
>Jerry
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of
>Gobind
>Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2007 4:08 AM
>To: Faryar Zabihi (fzabihi); Seemore Tops; ccielab@groupstudy.com
>Subject: RE: Lab rats make me mad
>
>I completely agree with Faryar,i.e. the Lab Rats really keep the value
>of CCIE.
>
>Gobind
>
>
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: fzabihi@cisco.com
>>Sent: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 14:03:07 -0500
>>To: topass_ccie12@hotmail.com, ccielab@groupstudy.com
>>Subject: RE: Lab rats make me mad
>>
>>Lol...how about something better since these lab rats actually know
>>
>>
>the
>
>
>>stuff.
>>How about the thousands of people who have a ccie but can't even
>>
>>
>properly
>
>
>>reverse telnet into a router or even spell dhcp. I say on ur 3rd
>>recert...u
>>take the lab again or something harder than the freakin written. I
>>personnaly
>>think the lab rats keep the value of the ccie and don't allow it to be
>>
>>
>a
>
>
>>political cert.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>>From: Seemore Tops [mailto:topass_ccie12@hotmail.com]
>>Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 01:50 PM Eastern Standard Time
>>To: ccielab@groupstudy.com
>>Subject: Lab rats make me mad
>>
>>I think Cisco needs to create a policy similar to the CISSP for work
>>experience for CCIE certification. I think this would stop the lab
>>
>>
>rats
>
>
>>from getting into the system.
>>
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