From: Scott M Vermillion (scott_ccie_list@it-ag.com)
Date: Thu Oct 09 2008 - 15:53:26 ART
Hey Nate,
This discussion is timely from my perspective, so I thought I'd add a
perspective or two...
Certainly CCIEs who have let their technical prowess completely dissipate
reflect poorly on this most prestigious credential. It's kind of like
seeing a tribute to an old band or artist and they themselves come out on
stage towards the end, only to find they can't string all the lyrics
together anymore. You get angry at them because *you* can remember them all
by heart! And let us not forget that very regrettable Led Zeppelin reunion
thing back in the late eighties. But I digress...
If we are truly honest with ourselves, we will likely reach the conclusion
that the lab tests us on some rather tricky little things that require an
investment of our time to master but that are not something we are entirely
likely to encounter in the real world; they are a test of our reasoning
ability, our knowledge of the documentation as it exists at that moment, our
time and stress management abilities, our sheer determination, etc. As an
example, this time last year I could sit down and bang out a menu that would
allow hypothetical CCNAs to display a route table with the press of a key or
two, ping a particular IP, and successfully exit the menu so that another
login could later be accomplished. Ditto for silly little lock-and-key type
of tasks. Today I have a pretty good idea of where that's all laid out in
the documentation, but I'm quite certain it's not knowledge I'll ever put to
any good use. I certainly haven't bothered to maintain it.
What's more, some technologies being tested in the lab might be retained
past their half-life simply because of their sheer torture value. We all
know that some tricky little tasks can be cobbled together when FR is thrown
in the mix - especially where OSPF and multicast are concerned. Now we've
had this discussion around here before and I know that some people still
encounter FR on a regular basis and expect to into the foreseeable future,
but I sure as hell do not. I earned my CCNA back in 2001 and the months
leading up to that were my introduction to this oft-tested technology that
none of my clients ever gave a damn about.
The other big issue is that many of us do not work in a NOC of any sort -
never have, never will. I do mostly architecture and systems integration.
Yet my clients were demanding the CCIE for some of the more interesting
projects and so I responded in the affirmative. There was no CCDE at the
time and that cert is likely to take time to gain any traction anyway (not
that I'd be likely to pass it anyway), so this is the barometer by which
most of us are and for the foreseeable future will be judged - do we have a
number or not? The good news here being that knowing a preponderance of the
configuration options for the various core technologies makes you a better
architecture/integration guy; you get your butt kicked much less often
during your own pilot testing of a design or a concept. So it still has
great value and thank goodness NOC jobs aren't the only opportunities out
there for CCIEs!
Having said all of that, we have the two-year recertification requirement,
which certainly helps to keep non-NOC guys honest over the long-haul. And
most of us will stop to brush back up on our own when we realize it's time.
I personally am making a second pass through R&S material before moving on
to trying to get really serious about SP again (sigh)...
Scott V
(2002 numbers behind you)
-----Original Message-----
From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of Nate
Cielieska
Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2008 7:19 AM
To: ccielab@groupstudy.com
Subject: Remember: Maintain
All,
I just wanted to send a quick email to give some perspective a month or two
after i passed the exam. I will be honest, after your CCIE the last thing
you want to do is study.. i took about a month off but i take once a week to
do a IE core lab or once every two weeks go through one of Narbik's
workbooks (I will be doing SP or Security after Jan.1) . In my travels i
have been able to interview some pretty strong IE's and regretably.. some
weak ones. The real differentiator that i have been able to find is
maintenance. I think this is one of the reasons why guys with 1xCCIE (ie
Bruce Caslow) have such great reputations in the network community and some
people with multiple IE's are not trusted because the IE became a focus on
what i'm doing now, and everything else slip (including a non solidified
understanding of content in an earlier IE). The CCIE is not a destination,
it is an affirmation of your skills @ a snapshot in time. Since i have
passed the CCIE i feel that i have a responsibility to the network community
(and my employer) to maintain the skills that are to do with Routing and
Switching, if i feel strong enough that i am @ a CCIE level verbatim with
those technologies, i will consider another one. I think that mindset after
the exam maintains the integrity of the certification to which we have all
worked so hard.
Just wanted to throw some perspective from someone a little bit after they
passed.
Regards,
Nate
CCIE #21955
Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
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