CCIE Journey

[wintermute000]

@winter

So what is YOUR reason for not getting a CCIE?

Er I got one. RS , 51037
I just don't advertise it on my signature or my number openly for privacy. You can dox someone really easily with that LOL.

[LynK]

@winter

So what is YOUR reason for not getting a CCIE?

Er I got one. RS , 51037
I just don't advertise it on my signature or my number openly for privacy. You can dox someone really easily with that LOL.

I think you forgot the **MIC DROP** Weren't you the dude that was getting complaints for having like 3-4 CCNPs and no CCIE? I could have sworn that was you.

haha.

[wintermute000]

Yes that was me, so I went out and got it done.

Like that1guy, I had been messing around for close to 3-4 years, but ended up doing the bulk of the 'work' in a ~6 month sprint. I had actually built out a physical replica of the classic INE v4 physical lab (6 routers, 4 switches, frame relay 'cloud', console access server, 18RU rack) then sat on it for so long it went to v5 LOL and physical HW became worthless with the maturation of GNS3, IOU, unetlab etc. So take it from me when I say that I know all the justifications all too well, but at the end of the day either you want to do it or you don't. Just don't kid yourself that its of no benefit, or that you read/lab on the side anyway, or that you're self taught and don't need no stinkin' syllabus, or that its not worth it etc. I thought I was pretty hot, and then I worked through the syllabus and the 'after' me would whip the 'before' me six ways to sunday, no question, and that's without anything to do with memorising obscure features or specific syntax.


You definitely get treated differently - colleague, vendors, customers, management, prospective employers. Once paired with a decent track record, its the closest thing to a guaranteed meal ticket in the enterprise networking game and you also get to play it on your terms.


As an aside, since you said you liked the DC space, the CCIE RS is probably a better tool for working in the DC space than a CCIE DC, assuming you're like most people and work on the network primarily, not UCS/FC (so there goes 50% of the material...), IP/ethernet and routing protocols are always applicable in any DC scenario, and the only thing you lose to a CCIE DC is in nexus specific features/syntax (whoopee doo).  This becomes even more true in the non-Cisco space (i.e. where all the momentum is), and doubly true if you knock over your linux and VMware basics.

[NetworkGroover]

Yes that was me, so I went out and got it done.

Like that1guy, I had been messing around for close to 3-4 years, but ended up doing the bulk of the 'work' in a ~6 month sprint. I had actually built out a physical replica of the classic INE v4 physical lab (6 routers, 4 switches, frame relay 'cloud', console access server, 18RU rack) then sat on it for so long it went to v5 LOL and physical HW became worthless with the maturation of GNS3, IOU, unetlab etc. So take it from me when I say that I know all the justifications all too well, but at the end of the day either you want to do it or you don't. Just don't kid yourself that its of no benefit, or that you read/lab on the side anyway, or that you're self taught and don't need no stinkin' syllabus, or that its not worth it etc. I thought I was pretty hot, and then I worked through the syllabus and the 'after' me would whip the 'before' me six ways to sunday, no question, and that's without anything to do with memorising obscure features or specific syntax.


You definitely get treated differently - colleague, vendors, customers, management, prospective employers. Once paired with a decent track record, its the closest thing to a guaranteed meal ticket in the enterprise networking game and you also get to play it on your terms.


As an aside, since you said you liked the DC space, the CCIE RS is probably a better tool for working in the DC space than a CCIE DC, assuming you're like most people and work on the network primarily, not UCS/FC (so there goes 50% of the material...), IP/ethernet and routing protocols are always applicable in any DC scenario, and the only thing you lose to a CCIE DC is in nexus specific features/syntax (whoopee doo).  This becomes even more true in the non-Cisco space (i.e. where all the momentum is), and doubly true if you knock over your linux and VMware basics.

This is a fair and great statement.  About sums up all you need to know from a mentality perspective.