Re: Core Knowledge - Don't mis-interpret this

I've posted a few times about this already (not RFC's, but answer
formats), but we'll take a slightly different perspective here...

An answer can take on entirely different meaning depending on HOW you
answer it. As a quick example, since I have a dissenting opinion
here... Had I simply responded to the message with "You are wrong." and
that was it, what would your reaction have been? Quite colorful I'm sure.

Instead, to lay out a scenario about WHY I believe you are wrong and
here are some potential examples can be much better where you don't
simply write me off as being clueless. The Core Technology questions
aren't much different. You have a half-hour to answer four questions.

They shouldn't be viewed as one-word answers. View them as 2-3 sentence
answers.

Your customer asks "What's up with private addresses?". You could
answer "RFC1918" and walk away. What's their reaction? Elaborate.
Don't write a book about it, but elaborate.

If you come up with an RFC number and just some summarization about why
it's the answer, or some quip about the latest revision, or part of a
long string of RFCs or something more useful than just a number, it may
signify that you know something about it as opposed to simply being a
potentially memorized trivia nugget.

If someone asks about the IP address of Google, even if I DID know it
(which I do not in case you cared), I would elaborate about how to look
it up, and probably say something about a company the size of Google
will most likely have multiple web servers eithe hiding behind a load
balancer with a single IP, or more likely having a group of IPs in a
round-robin DNS in order to distribute the obviously massive load of web
requests throughout the day and not stress out any particular router,
switch or server along the way.

Trivia vs. clueful.

HTH,

Scott

George Roman wrote:
> Paul do not want to be rude but to learn RFC numbers does not define you as
> an expert (unless you are out of your mind or have to much free time)
> knowing those numbers does not meen that you know what is inside the
> document itself.
> To me it is like you learn ip numbers by hard just in case. BTW do you know
> the ip address of google ? i guess you are using it every day but you never
> wandered.
>
> Best regards,
> George
>
> On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 12:02 PM, Paul Cosgrove <paul.cosgrove_at_gmail.com>wrote:
>
>
>> Hi Salah,
>>
>> Asking a small number of simple questions about common RFCs does not strike
>> me as unfair.
>>
>> Will most customers be interested in them, no. Will they be interested in
>> interoperability, yes. RFCs are developed to provide a common understanding
>> of how protocols should operate. They are the authoritative source for what
>> behaviour should be, and vendor specs refer to them to explain what their
>> products can do. If you are familiar with common RFC numbers, and what they
>> represent, then you will understand product specs more quickly and can
>> understand their differences and limitations. If you want to check to see
>> if a feature is supported by multiple vendors, you can either check through
>> all the vendors product docs for every tiny detail, or you can check to see
>> if they support the RFC.
>>
>> There are obviously a huge number of RFC, and I would have thought most
>> people are (and should be) familiar with a small number; particularly those
>> related to ingress filtering, private addresses and some of the more common
>> routing protocols RFCs. Many text books were written based on old RFCs
>> which have since been updated. If your studies are based on only reading
>> old books you may achieve a good understanding of old protocol behaviour and
>> terminology, but little understanding of how it has changed and how it
>> currently operates. Familiarity with a few common RFCs, and their key
>> differences, may also suggest that someone has really studied the topic in
>> detail rather than focusing their studies on simply producing configs for
>> the lab, perhaps not gaining a good general understanding in the process.
>>
>> Quite apart from their use as a reference of what behaviour is like now,
>> RFCs also define new proposed protocols. They are a good indication of which
>> areas are the focus of current research, and the direction in which the
>> industry is moving. You wouldn't expect someone to know about cutting edge
>> technologies for the lab, but they can be interesting and good for your
>> general knowledge.
>>
>> Paul.
>>
>>
>>
>> Salah ElShekeil wrote:
>>
>>
>>> RFCs?!?i
>>>
>>> On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 10:56 AM, Paul Cosgrove <paul.cosgrove_at_gmail.com
>>>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hold times are very important. Customers often ask about failover. How
>>>> long will it take? Well it largely depends on your hold time, since that
>>>> often determines how long it takes to detect the failure.
>>>>
>>>> Paul.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Salah ElShekeil wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Agree with u Mohammed, or rfc#, what it will add to my knowledge!!!!!
>>>>> nothing,
>>>>>
>>>>> It s a networking lab exam not a history exam.
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 9:46 AM, Mohamed El Henawy <m.henawy_at_link.net
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> i don't think customers ask about hold time :)
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pavel Bykov" <slidersv_at_gmail.com>
>>>>>> To: "Joseph L. Brunner" <joe_at_affirmedsystems.com>
>>>>>> Cc: "Larry" <cc13lab_at_gmail.com>; <ccielab_at_groupstudy.com>
>>>>>> Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 7:20 AM
>>>>>> Subject: Re: Core Knowledge - Don't mis-interpret this
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I think Cisco may have wanted to simulate customer environment.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> When I visit a customer, they ask some questions and they do expect
>>>>>>> answers.
>>>>>>> If I give them the correct answer, they ask a few more and if it's all
>>>>>>> correct answers they want me to look at this and that is basically
>>>>>>> living
>>>>>>> up
>>>>>>> to the reputation of CCIE. The customer wants to do business because
>>>>>>> of
>>>>>>> supplier knowledge. They see what they pay for.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On the other hand, if you answer your customer, don't know and that
>>>>>>> you
>>>>>>> have
>>>>>>> to look it up, well... If the customer thinks it's just a simple
>>>>>>> question
>>>>>>> that you should have known, maybe that will be the missed opportunity
>>>>>>> for
>>>>>>> huge projects.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> That's why I think Cisco puts only a few questions in.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Pavel
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________________________________
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>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________________________________
>>>>>> Subscription information may be found at:
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>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________________________________
>>>>> Subscription information may be found at:
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>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>
>> _______________________________________________________________________
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>
>
> Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
>
> _______________________________________________________________________
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Received on Wed Apr 22 2009 - 10:14:25 ART