Any CCIE's in the house?

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Boscoh

Originally posted by: narzy
[...]the only way for anyone to know that is for you to get the cert. so if your a CCNA but you think you've got what it takes to be a CCNP, at the end of the day, you don't have the paper behind it and your still a CCNA. kinda a put up or shut up situation.

I dont buy into that at all. Anyone can get a CCNP by reading books or going to a boot camp, not everyone can be a competent network engineer.

IMHO, a competent network engineer is one who makes good design decisions. They generally will make these "good decisions" based on the fact that they've mucked things up before or made poor design decisions. And hence they don't want the pain of a poorly designed network that doesn't scale.

Practicies like not truly planning out IP address space taking into consideration all business objective (for example just pulling IP networks willy-nilly out of thin air with no 5-10 year plan), using features and making unneccesarily complicated networks "because we can", etc. These are things that I've learned...

Keep it simple stupid (KISS)

Because I've made those mistakes and won't ever do that again.

 

[trmas]

Hopefully in about 6 months. I've passed the written and working towards the lab.

 

[d3n]

Originally posted by: narzy
the CCNA has been scared by the "crash Course" and "boot camp" classes that basicly teach the test, nothing more, nothing less. yes you have to have experiance but you can't get a CCNP without a CCNA so its a stepping stone, and my bet is that you probably won't get your CCNP for some time after you get your CCNA. as for it being a hinderence if you can't back up your knowlage in an interview yes, if you can it can only reinforce your position. as for what level you think your at on a certification scale the only way for anyone to know that is for you to get the cert. so if your a CCNA but you think you've got what it takes to be a CCNP, at the end of the day, you don't have the paper behind it and your still a CCNA. kinda a put up or shut up situation.

that being said cisco certs arn't the middle of the universe when it comes to certs. however it is an accepted benchmark.

I totally agree about the devaluation of the CCNA and other certifications. I also agree that it still holds some weight since it provides a benchmark against my dealings with other networking types. Now that I know what is on the exam I can judge the scope of my knowledge and that of other people to topics on the exam and topics that are not covered but that I , personally, consider to be of value.

I don't consider myself a CCNP or even a 'partial CCNP' despite having completed the switching exam. The fact is, I dare not even mentioned it on my resume. A valid security clearance is however mentioned. To be frank it is far more valuable, whether I know what I am doing or not.

be afraid...

 

[Boscoh]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Boscoh

Originally posted by: narzy
[...]the only way for anyone to know that is for you to get the cert. so if your a CCNA but you think you've got what it takes to be a CCNP, at the end of the day, you don't have the paper behind it and your still a CCNA. kinda a put up or shut up situation.

I dont buy into that at all. Anyone can get a CCNP by reading books or going to a boot camp, not everyone can be a competent network engineer.

IMHO, a competent network engineer is one who makes good design decisions. They generally will make these "good decisions" based on the fact that they've mucked things up before or made poor design decisions. And hence they don't want the pain of a poorly designed network that doesn't scale.

Practicies like not truly planning out IP address space taking into consideration all business objective (for example just pulling IP networks willy-nilly out of thin air with no 5-10 year plan), using features and making unneccesarily complicated networks "because we can", etc. These are things that I've learned...

Keep it simple stupid (KISS)

Because I've made those mistakes and won't ever do that again.

Oh man, I hear that. I remember the first time I ever used Hyper Terminal was to configure my 677 DSL router about 4 years ago. I logged into the router and started configuring away, but my connection kept dropping. When I showed the config on the router and scrolled up to look at it, it was all screwed up (HTerm's buffer had gotten corrupted like it tends to do) and I thought someone else was in my 677 changing things! I called up my ISP (who were VERY helpful folks, they taught me a LOT) and told them someone was in my 677. They told me that Hyper Terminal's buffer can get corrupted after you've been typing commands in it for a while. Man, I must have laughed for 20 minutes.

Moral of the story: Hyper Terminal sucks. Oh...and any good engineer has made their share of really dumb mistakes, and they learn from it and will never do it again. An engineer by nature is a very curious person, and to really learn the in's and out's of something, the best thing to do is to break it and fix it again. Of course, sometimes you break stuff you hadn't inteded to, and at very bad times.

 

[trmas]

I've heard that the CCIE Security is 1/2 routing, so I'm pursuing the normal one first. Then I will turn right around and get the security one. I don't have as much as some but I do have my CCNP, CCDP, and CCSP, and I'm about six months out on my first try at the CCIE lab. I have several friends who are CCIE's and they explained it best this way.

Setting up connectivity isn't hard, and it isn't what the CCIE is about. It's about knowing multiple ways to accomplish the same result, and KNOWING how to read the scenario and extrapolate how the answer is derived. It's tough if you aren't flexible when going about solving network issues. Knowing the tricks is everything when you walk into the lab.