Re: Long Journeys

Congratulations!

What an inspiring story. I started my journey pretty much about the
time you started yours. I like you passed the R&S written a number of
times over the years, but couldn't quite get over the lab hurdle. Like
you, job, family and basic life wane or increase one's motivation to
get over the lab hurdle.

Like you, over the past year or so, my motivation came back, I passed
the written (again) and my lab date is set.

Hopefully like you, I too finally get my number after so many years of
coming close to getting it.

Thanks again for your inspiring story.

Congratulations once more.

On Mar 11, 2010, at 1:24 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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Received on Thu Mar 11 2010 - 09:22:41 ART