From: David Altoft (davidaltoft@googlemail.com)
Date: Tue Jan 15 2008 - 08:28:17 ARST
Hi Joe, I like the Tuesday-Thursday off idea but I think that would be
harder for me to justify to my manager. I'm in IT and we are in a small
team of 4 FTE's and a contractor so only working 2 days a week would be
harder, if I went for a 2 month stretch or a 2 x 1month stretches (which I
actually think is a better idea) it may be easier to justify as we would
potentially redistribute the work load and would be a shorter disruption ie
2 months off vs 4-6months of 2-3 day weeks.
I have a bit of a lab that I used for CCIP and the written and I was ok
until recently but work has become a lot heavier and will continue that way
for the foreseeable future. I have an August lab date booked in Brussels and
to have any hope of keeping that date, I have to learn a lot between now and
then and nights & weekends won't get me there.
The issue with taking the time off is that having a CCIE is not a pre-rec
for this job, we aren't doing the level of work. Whether I was to stay after
I passed the LAB would depend on what opportunities were created for me, if
I would be doing the same kind of work then I may start looking elsewhere.
The other option is to resign and then get a contract in 2months time after
my bulk study, though knowing that I have a job in 2 months to come back to
is comforting and would let me focus entirely on my study.
Thanks for the advice, I still need to talk to my manager but this gives me
a few different things discuss ie shorter week, 1 month at a time, 2 months
together. It shows that I am committed to my study but I am also considering
the organisation and not just my own interests.
- David
On 1/15/08, Joseph Brunner <joe@affirmedsystems.com> wrote:
>
> I recommend (and I followed) take Tuesday-Thursday off. So you have the 3
> middle days of the week to completely dive into your studies. This gives
> you
> the weekend to be less serious about your studies (as humans naturally are
> going to be). Its very hard to say "I'll just study after work, or on
> weekends". You'll probably never get anything done that way. One thing
> that
> worked wonderfully for me in the last week before the week of an attempt,
> was coming in to work at 4am and cracking full-steam until 12pm noon. It
> gave me my best biologically inclined focus hours to the task at hand (or
> the 30+ in each IE WB VOL 2 lab).
>
> I used the afternoon on those days to review the doc cd (and surrounding
> areas) for everything I faced in my lab that day. Also I recommend NOT
> doing
> a multicast/qos/security ONLY day. I think that softens your triathlon
> ability you'll need to call in the real lab. You need to equally as good
> with all facets of the CCIE coin.
>
> Be very serious about telling your employer that "this trains pulling out
> of
> the station" meaning its going to happen for me. The only question is
> whether I'm going to stick around after it happens. I'm sure you boss can
> put his ego in a tick-tack box long enough for you to grow up into a CCIE.
>
> -Joe
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of
> David Altoft
> Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2008 1:41 PM
> To: ccielab@groupstudy.com
> Subject: OT: Time off to Study
>
> Hi,
>
> Does anyone have any thoughts/experiences on taking time off work to
> study?
> I am contemplating taking 2 months off work to study, though I am yet to
> approach my employer. I'm not sure whether it would be an effective use of
> time or whether I would burn out after a few weeks of constant study. The
> other option is that I use the money that I would have lost by not working
> and spend it on a bootcamp, though realistically being at the beginning of
> my study rather than towards the end, I'm not sure how beneficial a
> bootcamp
> would be. I have the IE work book and CoD so I would rather spend the time
> working through those and doing some labs.
>
> I am aware of the financial impact that this will have but I am finding
> that
> there aren't enough hours in the day to make serious headway in the
> material
> that I need to cover for the lab. I can imagine that most people in this
> group are suffering the same time scheduling problems and wanted to hear
> from anyone that has taken time off to study and whether they found it
> useful or not.
>
> Thanks,
> David
>
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