Re: Long Journeys

Hearty Cheers!
Congrats!

On 3/11/10, Piotr Kaluzny <piotrk_at_ipexpert.com> wrote:
> Contgratulations. Well deserved, to say the least :)
>
> --
> Piotr Kaluzny
> CCIE #25665 (Security), CCSP, CCNP
> Sr. Support Engineer - IPexpert, Inc.
> URL: http://www.IPexpert.com
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 7:24 AM, <laidlaw_at_consecro.com> wrote:
>
>> I am going to apologize up front for this long story and thank everybody
>> who makes it to the end.
>>
>> Like many other on this forum, I have read many letters like this one.
>> For me, it seemed that sometimes the goals you set seem just outside your
>> grasp. Slowly that goal becomes just a dream you had once. For me,
>> taking a CCNA level class from then to-be CCIE Dave Genton got me hooked
>> on Cisco and networking in general, and the goal was a CCIE. CCNA in
>> '99, CCNP in 2000 but soon family and life began to take hold and thing
>> didn't come so easily after that. Like many others, failing the first
>> time, in '02, was an eye opening experience and I learned first hand just
>> how high the bar was set. Later in '03, I half-heartedly tried to get
>> back into study mode but I failed to keep an eye on the calendar and
>> didn't drop my date before the old 30-day mandatory pay period. At the
>> time, my wife and I were expecting our second child and some
>> complications forced me to forfeit my seat. It was an expensive lesson
>> to say the least. I lost all motivation as my goal seem farther away
>> then when I started (in addition to $1250 more expensive). Paying for a
>> lab that I never got to take drained my motivation and I lost all desire
>> to continue.
>>
>> In '07 I got my first taste of MPLS and I was again hooked on new
>> technology. With a group of very motivated coworkers, we all set off
>> down the service provider track. I was fascinated by the technology and
>> I quickly re-found my motivation. I passed the metro-ethernet written
>> right before Cisco consolidated the written exams and took my first
>> attempt at the SP lab 3 months later. Although I thought I was ready,
>> the lab proved otherwise. My only consolation was a 100% on the MPLS
>> section, which at the time didn't seem like much. Work quickly took all
>> my available time and once again, policy got the best of me. I knew you
>> had 18 months from the date you passed the written to attempt the lab,
>> but I didn't pay any attention to the fact that you must attempt the lab
>> again within 12 months. Having only been 15 months since I passed the
>> written, my mind was somewhere else when it expired. Again upset at
>> policy, I shelved my dream and went back to work.
>>
>> A 1200 mile move, 2 jobs and 2 years later, I found myself back in the
>> hunt. Armed with addition preparation materials, courtesy of the
>> extremely generous Antonio Soares, I was back on my way. After retaking
>> the written, 4 months of hard study, I was back in RTP taking the lab.
>> Things were going so smooth through the first couple of sections. That
>> is when I should have known better. I did my usual prep and read ahead
>> to identify land minds. 45 minutes into the test and getting to the
>> PPPoE section, I noticed that the client-side config was already there.
>> Up to that point I was just configuring things so I hadn't noticed but I
>> knew there was no way any of the PPPoE stuff would be preconfigured and I
>> notified the proctor. Looking back it was certainly worth a laugh, but
>> Howard informed me that the grader failed to reset my lab and I had
>> someone else configs on my rack. The rack wasn't even setup for the
>> topology I had been given. Howard, being the cool guy he is, kept a
>> smile on his face, started the reset procedure and let me sit and read
>> the lab while things restarted. Now this by itself is highly unusual and
>> hopefully not something that most people get to experience, but it takes
>> close to 45 minutes for the rack to fully reload. If you thought it was
>> tense doing the lab, imaging sitting in there with nothing to do but look
>> at your test booklet and listen to the clock tick by. So Howard comes by
>> letting me know I can restart the test but all my work to that point was
>> gone because the restart obviously clears everything, so I have to
>> restart from the beginning.
>>
>> I gave it a good go. Howard let me work through lunch (not sure I would
>> have eaten anyway) and I skipped time consuming sections for the low
>> hanging fruit in a crazy race against time. I came close to finishing
>> but knew it wasn't good enough. A 3am score report email confirmed what
>> I already knew, another swing and a miss.
>>
>> Now my wife and kids have been really good sports to this point but 9
>> years and 3 attempts seemed like long enough and I was ready to give it
>> up for good. After telling the crazy lab story to my wife and a few
>> coworkers, I finally had enough prodding to open a support case with
>> Cisco. Several days later, unexpectedly, I received a voucher to retake
>> the test. 2 very big projects took up most of the next 8 months and in
>> December I finally started looking for lab dates. I was very surprised
>> that there was nothing for almost 6 months in any location and I began to
>> get very nervous. My last lab was March 24th, my voucher would expire in
>> early April and with the 90 day window, I had only 8 days to find a lab
>> seat before I would be almost totally SOL. On December 21st, with only 3
>> days left, a seat opened in RTP for March 9th. Now looking back and
>> knowing what I know now, it must have been a scheduling glitch but that's
>> OK, I like glitches in my favor.
>>
>> Despite bad weather and delayed flights, I made it to RTP in one piece.
>> The morning started early because I suck at finding my way around RTP
>> despite the fact that I had almost spent enough time there to qualify as
>> a NC resident. I arrived on-site at 7am and met the new RTP proctor,
>> Kelly (I am sorry if I got your name wrong, I was too focused on the lab
>> and I suck with names). Due to the proctor change and the lab seats
>> being locked out (really glad the system glitched and let me schedule),
>> there was me and one other guy taking the lab that day and it was a
>> little different being almost by yourself. I still started out by double
>> checking that there was nobody else's configs loaded and after a clean
>> bill of health, away I went. I walked out knowing I gave it my best and
>> thankful nothing weird happened. This was it though, win lose or draw,
>> the final attempt.
>>
>> I think the worst part of the test is between roughly 3:30 and when you
>> get your score. I had flown all the way home and had been driving for
>> about 10 minutes when the email came in. I couldn't decide if it was
>> good or bad to get a score that soon. I thought, "Did so bad it didn't
>> take long to fail, huh?". I called my wife and had her deliver the bad
>> new. CCIE #25959.
>>
>>
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>>
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-- 
Best Regards,
Tolulope.
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