If you could put life on pause to get CCIE, would you?

[killabee]

Something often overlooked is that the more time you spend learning and cramming tech into your head, the less time you spend developing other areas of your life (e.g. social skills, bonding skills, people skills, manual labor, life skills, general knowledge, etc).  Of course, it all comes down to what your priorities are, what your work/life situation is like, what your life is like, and so on.

[deanwebb]

I personally do not think it holds the same merit as it used to hold.  It is great to have but if you are just starting I would point you in the direction to be a generalist not just networking.  Security has so many aspects to it other than firewalls. I am going to get flamed for this but stateful firewalls are becoming a thing of the past.

 

No flames, here, mate! Now that attacks have crowded into ports 80 and 443, being able to inspect that traffic is critical.

Also, in the security realm, being familiar with a wide range of vendor gear is very important. R&S guys may see Cisco from end to end in their workplace (or Juniper or HP or Arista, etc.), but security gets very exotic very quickly. There's a lot of gear that Cisco doesn't make: proxy servers, netflow analyzers, log analyzers, SEIM data aggregators, vulnerability scanners, and so forth. Moreover, there's a lot of gear that Cisco *does* make that has a heavy challenge from other vendors. Palo Alto, CheckPoint, ForeScout, Fortinet, HP TippingPoint, and others are big names in security that may very well pick up where the routers and switches leave off.

A CCIE-Security means you want to be serious about implementing Cisco solutions for a VAR or consultancy. I know of one CCIE-Security, however, who let his cert lapse so that he wouldn't have to implement Cisco gear anymore. He was much more fond of other vendors' solutions and retained his certs on those products. The consequence? He gets to implement solutions for the stuff he likes and doesn't get calls to implement the stuff that he doesn't like.

I totally get that, too. When I was teaching, I could take a test and if I passed it, get certified to teach that subject. There was no question of coursework: once certified with coursework to teach in a certain area, additional certifications were based solely upon passing the state exam. I had certs in Math and History, so I picked up general Social Studies, Language Arts, and as a what-the-hell-why-not, Drama. Got them all. I would have happily taught any of those subjects. I specifically avoided getting a Science certification because I did NOT want to teach Science. The result? I got asked to teach Science, but happily I would point out that I lacked that cert. So, I taught Math, general Social Studies, and Language Arts... and got a job offer because of the Drama cert that then became a History gig. Point is, I taught what I wanted to teach. If I had gotten A Science cert, I would have had a Science job and I'd have been miserable.

If you really enjoy Cisco Security solutions, then by all means get that CCIE-Security. Maybe not put your life on hold - I'd keep active with at least a few consulting jobs where maybe you just babysit a system or two all day, but definitely pursue it. If you're not married to Big Cyan in the security realm, though, you'd be well advised to look into other vendors' offerings to broaden your scope.

[AnthonyC]

5 years ago it may have made sense, in today's IT environment it is a solid no for me.  The whole industry (except possibly for slower moving entities like ISPs) is moving very fast and the trend is to look for IT folks who is well-versed in multiple areas of technology, just R/S or single vendor doesn't really cut it anymore IMO.

[that1guy15]

5 years ago it may have made sense, in today's IT environment it is a solid no for me.  The whole industry (except possibly for slower moving entities like ISPs) is moving very fast and the trend is to look for IT folks who is well-versed in multiple areas of technology, just R/S or single vendor doesn't really cut it anymore IMO.

Who said to be a CCIE you have to be 100% cisco? I agree with you that you are limiting yourself by keeping 100% focus on any one area of IT but you can easily work towards a high level certs and still gain experience in other areas. During my CCIE R&S studies I have built solid experience in Nexus, UCS and Vmware, along with picking up python at a basic level and stayed on top of my Linux skills. Was not a big deal to handle this load. Now during the last 6+ months (final prep) for the lab everything was set aside and R&S was in focus all the time.

I still do talk with a fair number of consultants or VAR engineers that spend 100% of their time within Cisco or even further Nexus, or Enterprise.

I am a firm believer that you should have one area you strive to master. I like to think this is the area of IT you are most passionate about. With that foundation you can start building on it with other areas of the field.

[burnyd]

I personally do not think it holds the same merit as it used to hold.  It is great to have but if you are just starting I would point you in the direction to be a generalist not just networking.  Security has so many aspects to it other than firewalls.  I am going to get flamed for this but stateful firewalls are becoming a thing of the past.

Funny you mention that.  Like I said before, I'm thinking of hanging up R&S and start picking up on VMware.  I'll be sure to harass you on here or LinkedIn for guidance since IIRC you've been all about NSX?

Yah no problem there.

[config t]

I am a firm believer that you should have one area you strive to master. I like to think this is the area of IT you are most passionate about. With that foundation you can start building on it with other areas of the field.

Couldn't agree with this more. I still haven't figured out which area I am passionate about, though. I was (wisely) advised by a few senior engineers on a project I once worked on that I should at least get CCNP R&S first to form a good foundational understanding of networking.

I am taking an instructor led Aruba wireless class at the moment as I will be part of the O&M team one it's rolled out.. so far it's pretty interesting.

[icecream-guy]

I am taking an instructor led HP wireless class at the moment as I will be part of the O&M team one it's rolled out.. so far it's pretty interesting.

There, fixed that for you...


ref:
http://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/hp-buys-aruba-whats-next/a/d-id/1319294

[Fred]

I am a firm believer that you should have one area you strive to master.

I wish I'd come to this realization sooner. Specialization rocks for career advancement. Being very good at lots of things is nice, but it's a lot easier to find a job if you are exceptional at something.

Remember the whole saying, "Jack of all trades, master of none." It's more true than I realized in my youth.

(That said, being well rounded has also helped me out quite a bit.)

[config t]

I am taking an instructor led HP wireless class at the moment as I will be part of the O&M team one it's rolled out.. so far it's pretty interesting.

There, fixed that for you...


ref:
http://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/hp-buys-aruba-whats-next/a/d-id/1319294

Ha! Indeed.. serious typo. Who knew the keys to spell Aruba and HP were so close together.. I need to re-evaluate my typing skills.

A CCIE-Security means you want to be serious about implementing Cisco solutions for a VAR or consultancy. I know of one CCIE-Security, however, who let his cert lapse so that he wouldn't have to implement Cisco gear anymore. He was much more fond of other vendors' solutions and retained his certs on those products. The consequence? He gets to implement solutions for the stuff he likes and doesn't get calls to implement the stuff that he doesn't like.

Ya know.. I hadn't even thought about it that way.. I was so caught up in wanting to get a CCIE and cash big a$$ paychecks that I didn't fully consider what it would mean for how I would be spending my time. Thanks for that gem of advice.

Perhaps it would be wiser to cool my jets with this grand scheme. I'm not a green horn but still new enough to the game that I haven't figured out exactly what it is I want to focus on. I just know I need to focus on something.. and that I want to cash big a$$ paychecks!

[icecream-guy]

. and that I want to cash big a$$ paychecks!

another gem of wisdom,  money ain't everything. it will only solve one problem, and that problem is lack of money.

now after that,  as you income grows, so do your expenses. so you may make 250K, but that big a$$ house you bought comes with a 7K monthly mortgage. and the car payment on that Ferrari, sheesh,  don't even get me started on the insurance to drive that thing.

One of the keys to life is happiness,  people make 20K a year and they are happy doing what they do for that paycheck. They wouldn't do anything else.  Other people make 200K a year and hate work, hate the commute, hate life, and have $hitloads of cash that they can't enjoy because they are working 70-80 hours a week.