From: Gregory Gombas (ggombas@gmail.com)
Date: Tue Aug 21 2007 - 12:43:54 ART
Brian - thats absolutely true, I think the more you advance the less
you touch the actual equipment (especially in larger companies).
The company I work for now does not even allow engineers into the data
center much less rack and stack your own equipment. So I do pretty
much everything "virtually".
But more often than not I have to reach back into the knowledge bank
from my earlier NOC/Implementation days to troubleshoot a problem with
incorrect cabling, doing loopback testing with a carrier to fix a
circuit issue, or troubleshoot faulty hardware.
Yes, its true, none of the aforementioned skills are tested on the
CCIE lab, but I can't imagine surviving as an engineer without them. I
know of one guy who was hired because of his CCNP and he aced the
technical interview - he memorized the BGP path selection algorithm,
knew all the OSPF adjacency states (attempt, init, 2way etc) and had
memorized all the fields in every packet type imaginable.
But when it came to bringing up a DS3 to a new branch office the guy
was clueless. And one time during a network outage he wasted 20
minutes trying to locate the power switch on a catalyst 6509 to
rebooot it.
True, its the job of the hiring manager to test those
qualities....although I know quite a few hiring manager's who will
hire a CCIE on the spot with no technical interview whatsoever.
My $.02
Greg
On 8/21/07, Brian Dennis <bdennis@internetworkexpert.com> wrote:
> If someone does the majority of their preparation on Dynamips over using
> remote rack rentals what is the real difference? They are both just IOS
> based routers that you access via telnet. Remember that Dynamips runs the
> same IOS that you use on a real router so once you're telneted into it you
> won't know the difference.
>
> There are a lot of CCIEs that rarely if ever get to "touch" a router but I
> wouldn't call them virtual CCIEs. In fact I would rather have someone
> else rack mount all my devices and cable them up for me ;-)
>
> HTH,
>
> Brian Dennis, CCIE4 #2210 (R&S/ISP-Dial/Security/SP)
> bdennis@internetworkexpert.com
>
> Internetwork Expert, Inc.
> http://www.InternetworkExpert.com
> Toll Free: 877-224-8987
> Direct: 775-745-6404 (Outside the US and Canada)
>
>
> >----- Original Message -----
> Subject: Virtual CCIE's?
> Date: Mon, August 20, 2007 18:19
> From: "Gregory Gombas" <ggombas@gmail.com>
>
> > Guys,
> >
> > I was checking out Dynamips and its pretty cool and all, but it does
> > worry me a little bit....
> >
> > How will employers view the CCIE certification after they've been
> > burned by hiring a CCIE who has never touched a real router in their
> > life?
> >
> > Do you like the idea of a pilot flying your plane whose only training
> > was with a virtual flight simulator?
> >
> > I remember the days when the MCSE was a hot cert until an army of
> > paper CCIE's hit the job market.
> >
> > Maybe they won't call it a paper CCIE, maybe they'll coin a new term
> > like virtual CCIE.
> >
> > Just food for thought...
> >
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