RE: Long Journeys

Congrats! Sounds like an adventure.

thanks,
Brad Ellis
CCIE#5796 (R&S / Security)
CCSI# 30482
CEO / President
CCBOOTCAMP - Cisco Learning Solutions Partner (CLSP)
Email: brad_at_ccbootcamp.com
Toll Free: 877-654-2243
International: +1-702-968-5100
Skype: skype:ccbootcamp?call
FAX: +1-702-446-8012
YES! We take Cisco Learning Credits!
Training And Remote Racks: http://www.ccbootcamp.com

-----Original Message-----
From: nobody_at_groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody_at_groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of
laidlaw_at_consecro.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 10:25 PM
To: ccielab_at_groupstudy.com
Subject: Long Journeys

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 - 13:02:33 ART