Ivan Peplnjak referenced a piece by Robert Graham called “Why cybersecurity certifications suck,” which I found amusing considering that I am doing some question writing right now. I’ve certainly been a member of the chorus of complainers in the past, in various venues, but I have to say that my experience on the writing end […]
Tag: ccie
Cheaters
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
10 years a CCIE
When I approached my tenth anniversary of first passing the CCIE routing/switching exam (November 2004-2014), I had the idea to post some short reflections on the exam, its value, and my personal experience being a CCIE. I hoped that, although the nature of the exam has changed quite a bit over the last 10 years, these […]