Note: This article was originally posted in 2016. Since that time, the CCIE program has changed the process for earning a CCIE, and the separate written exam is no longer used. This means that the problem of people claiming to be a “CCIE” when they have only passed the written exam is no longer the […]
Recertification Pain
Note: This article was written in 2016 and has not been modified. A number of changes have been made to the CCIE program which have dramatically improved the re-certification process. Continuing education is now an option, as I suggest in this article. The re-certification frequency has been reduced. I may modify this article in the […]
TAC Tales #6: The best organization tool ever
I’ve come back to Cisco recently, and I think I can say that I haven’t worked this hard since the last time I was at Cisco. I remember my first manager at TAC telling me in an interview that “Cisco loves workaholics.” In an attempt to get more organized, I’ve been taking a second crack […]
Multiple CCIE’s, multiple attempts
In this article in my “Ten Years a CCIE” series, I look at passing the Security exam in 2008. I get to experience the agony of failure for the first time, and have to re-tool my strategy. Goodbye to Cisco I worked two long years at Cisco. Two very long years. I learned so much […]
A CCIE Goes Home to Cisco
In this article in my “Ten Years a CCIE” series, I describe my experience going to work at Cisco as a CCIE. Unlike many Cisco-employed CCIE’s, I earned my certification outside of Cisco. A CCIE leads to a job at Cisco I returned to my old job at the Chronicle and had my business cards […]
Room of horrors: Inside the CCIE lab
In this article in my “10 Years a CCIE” series, I take you inside the infamous CCIE lab, where countless candidates have sweated out the devious challenges concocted by the CCIE exam authors. Planning travel I was fortunate at the time I took the lab exam in that I lived in San Francisco, very close […]
How to pass the CCIE lab exam in one attempt
In this post in the Ten Years a CCIE series, I go over my preparations for the CCIE Routing and Switching exam, and what I did to pass in one attempt. The first months… I passed my CCIE Routing and Switching Lab in one attempt, so I think my approach can be considered effective. At least, […]
In those days, you had to build a lab…
In this article in my series, Ten Years a CCIE, I discuss the challenge of building and maintaining a lab, and the question of building versus not building a physical lab. Acquiring Gear As I mentioned in a previous post, GNS3 was not available at the time I took the CCIE exam. This meant that […]
Routing and Switching: An exam in flux
In the second article in the “Ten Years a CCIE” series, I discuss the Routing and Switching written exam, and the changes to the CCIE exam in the early 2000s. Passing the written As was most common in the early 2000’s I attempted my Routing and Switching exam first. Having passed the CCNP exams, my […]
The CCIE Mystique
In my first article in the “Ten Years a CCIE” series, I discuss the mystique of the CCIE certification which made me want to attempt the test. Learning about the CCIE My first vague awareness of the CCIE certification came in 1999 while I was a Master’s student in Telecommunications Management at Golden Gate University […]