Re: Long Journeys

Again, congratulations : )

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Regards,

Joe Astorino - CCIE #24347
Sr. Technical Instructor - IPexpert
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-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Morris <smorris_at_ine.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:16:19
To: <laidlaw_at_consecro.com>
Cc: <ccielab_at_groupstudy.com>
Subject: Re: Long Journeys

 Congratulations! Great story! And I'm sure your wife is quite happy
as well! :)

Scott Morris, CCIEx4 (R&S/ISP-Dial/Security/Service Provider) #4713,

CCDE #2009::D, JNCIE-M #153, JNCIS-ER, CISSP, et al.

JNCI-M, JNCI-ER

evil_at_ine.com

Internetwork Expert, Inc.

http://www.InternetworkExpert.com

Toll Free: 877-224-8987

Outside US: 775-826-4344

Knowledge is power.

Power corrupts.

Study hard and be Eeeeviiiil......

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 - 19:39:20 ART