Re: Long Journeys

congratulations!!!!

On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 8:05 PM, Divin Mathew John <divinjohn_at_gmail.com>wrote:

> COngrats! Welcome to the Club :-)
>
> On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 7:52 PM, Abdul <rslab007_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > 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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> >>
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-- 
Nahskur Udniraht
expertinetwork.blogspot.com
Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net