From: Scott Smith (hioctane@gmail.com)
Date: Thu Nov 01 2007 - 20:06:49 ART
I thought I'd take a moment and do a quick review of the past year...
my first year as an IE.
- Got a promotion. Same company, different department.
- Was completely confused, for like a month, by the fact I didn't have
to study anymore... man, that was weird
- First assigned task <drum roll>... team lead enterprise QoS
development. My least favorite topic of topics... joy, joy! Wish I
could have seen the look on my face.
- Number of times I've heard "We'll you're the IE" when presented with
some off the wall question: lost count back in the spring
- Number of times I've said "I don't know everything!" in response to
the line above: lost count
- Number of times I've been asked "How did you past the lab?": ~20
- Have received zero appreciation for my lab induced creative solutions :-)
- Have received praise for suggesting what I thought was an
off-the-wall feature Cisco made me learn... go figure.
- Number of times I've had to clarify the fact that I'm an R&S IE when
presented with VoIP, security and MPLS questions and of course the
always mentioned "We'll you're the IE" statement: way too many
- Found out my non-IE co-workers like to make a big deal out of my
mistakes... after all "I'm the IE"
- Number of times I've wished Cisco had not removed ATM from the lab
(to make me learn it) : several! 95% of the connectivity I deal with
is ATM... not sure what Cisco was thinking there.
- Surprised by the number of people who are inclined to regurgitate
their resume' when they find out I'm an IE
- Biggest screw-up: Fubar'd an ATM connection to a 400+ user call
center... who knew PCR/SCR was THAT important? :-)
- Coolest new (new to me anyway) technology I've been working on... WAAS
- I've learned way more about QoS than I think I wanted to know
- Have enjoyed having access to the expertise of our Cisco AS team...
instant guru on any topic
- Number of times I've had to deal with BGP: 2
- Number of times I've had to configure multicast: 0
- Surprised by the amount of knowledge I've lost over the last year...
of course I've gained a lot of new stuff
All in all I'm having a blast and it was absolutely worth all the
blood, sweat and tears to become a CCIE:-)
Cheers!
-- Scott CCIE #17040 (R&S)
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