Re: Long Journeys

congrats.........may hollywood shud make movie on this story :)

On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 3:38 PM, Roger Pfaeffli <rpf23543_at_gmail.com> wrote:

> Congrats! This is a very great story which shows that one should never give
> up and study hard which ultimately leads to the desired result.
>
> regards
>
> Roger #23543
>
> -----Urspr|ngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: nobody_at_groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody_at_groupstudy.com] Im Auftrag von
> Piotr Kaluzny
> Gesendet: Donnerstag, 11. Mdrz 2010 11:15
> An: laidlaw_at_consecro.com
> Cc: ccielab_at_groupstudy.com
> Betreff: Re: Long Journeys
>
> 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.
> >
> >
> > Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
> >
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-- 
Best Regards
Mohammed Abdul Razzaq
Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net