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So I woke up a CCNP this morning :) Post your certs!

alkemyst

alkemyst

No Lifer
I am a CCNP now, got my official email this morning...still I admit taking this test down in only 5 months doesn't make me a 'Pro'. I am going to go deep into building labs and playing with the gear now and taking down more and more certifications. My company is great, I am on-board to take Cisco's Beta CUWSS and IUWME classes for a week each along with the full-boat version of the UC boot camp for two weeks.

I am also having to pass IUWNE (CCNA Wireless) in the next 30 days. It's going to be worth it even though the last 5 months have had be doing nothing else with my free time but study (yeah I post here, but that's usually still working out details in my head or having a simulator up in another window at the same time). I have turned down so many invitations I feel ackward, my friends are great though and I think they will get over it once I pick up a few tabs in my not so distant future 🙂.

Anyway, post up your Networking certs...I'd say any certs but then we'd be bombared with MS and CompTIA low hanging fruit.

My brother is a 4-digit dual CCIE, I work directly with over a half dozen. My dad even did CCNP-Voice.

My brother insists I can conquer CCIE in 12-18 months, I agree. However, I don't think I can dedicate that kind of time. He is a monster, did CCNA->CCIE in 11 months like 10 years ago before it was so canned. He had the two day test when you had to wait to know if you passed or not. Since then he has pulled down EMC/VMWare/MS/CISSP top level certs...heck in the last 6 months while traveling every week he crushed 8 Pro level certs.

I am targeting CCIE in 2-3 years and then another in 1 year. I want to take down all the CCNP levels first. IMHO that will make me a Swiss Army Knife. Being that I have great retention I will be able to speak to what I have in my toolbelt.

If you braindump or cheated, please skip this thread...personally that subject really rubs me the wrong way especially when talking this to other engineers and they brag about braindumping it. 🙁
 
I've got a ccnp and an expired jncia, took about 4 months to do the jncia, and about 2 years to do the ccnp.

I'm not that great of a test taker, so I did fail the routing and switching test once.

There was a guy that I work with that test dumped all of his tests and even bragged about it, I remember after failing the routing test and being in there a week later for the retest this guy was in there taking his switching test and passed it. Anyways, he is pretty much not taken seriously at all and I've heard that management doesn't like him.

I used to do voip support, and would like to do a ccvp, but since I don't support that anymore, I'll probably go for a ccip. I don't really know if I ever really plan on going higher than that, since my company is Juniper heavy.
 
Congratulations.

alkemyst said:
My brother is a 4-digit dual CCIE, I work directly with over a half dozen. My dad even did CCNP-Voice.
Click to expand...

That kinda implies that the CCIE numbers are now over 10k ? They started at 1000. Just curious, what number are they at now ?

I did my CCIE exam once (and passed). Never did a followup. So I am sure it got invalidated a few years later. I believe my number was 1194.
 
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Gryz said:
Congratulations.



That kinda implies that the CCIE numbers are now over 10k ? They started at 1000. Just curious, what number are they at now ?

I did my CCIE exam once (and passed). Never did a followup. So I am sure it got invalidated a few years later. I believe my number was 1194.
Click to expand...

Well being the first was 1024, you were very very early on.

Why'd you let it expire? That was a big deal especially then. Most of the early guys went on to dictate what salary they wanted.

Current totals are hard to come by since CISCO stopped publishing.

Brad Reese is keeping the count though.

For the last couple years it's between 21 and 22k. Not necessarily everyone that's certified is doing 'it'.

April 2010 shows:

R&S CCIE: 17699
Security CCIE: 2445 (one sits next to me at the office)
SP CCIE: 1788
Storage CCIE: 153
Voice CCIE: 1214
Wireless CCIE: 26
Total: 20860

Those with Dual CCIE's (assuming R&S is one of them)

Total with multiple: 2378
Security CCIE: 755
SP CCIE: 702
Storage CCIE: 34 (my brother is one, along with all EMC's certs, and many others)
Voice CCIE: 302
Wireless CCIE: --
Total with 3 or more: 427

About 250 or so people take down CCIE each year, there has been some debate with the large numbers coming from China recently.
 
Good job on the CCNP. Those tests are not as easy as they used to be.
Myself, I have CCNA Sec, CCNP, CCVP, a host of Cisco Partner Specializations, and am taking my CCIE R&S Written next Monday, Lab within a year (I hope)

I am not sure I would truly recommend trying to do all the professional level tests first. You will get a good amount of crossover going towards your CCIE R&S anyways, and after that it will be easier to focus on getting your "Swiss Army Knife" certs. I used to think it would be good to have them all, but I learned over time the truth of the phrase "jack of all trades, master of none." - But that is all just my opinion.
 
Qrilock said:
Good job on the CCNP. Those tests are not as easy as they used to be.
Myself, I have CCNA Sec, CCNP, CCVP, a host of Cisco Partner Specializations, and am taking my CCIE R&S Written next Monday, Lab within a year (I hope)

I am not sure I would truly recommend trying to do all the professional level tests first. You will get a good amount of crossover going towards your CCIE R&S anyways, and after that it will be easier to focus on getting your "Swiss Army Knife" certs. I used to think it would be good to have them all, but I learned over time the truth of the phrase "jack of all trades, master of none." - But that is all just my opinion.
Click to expand...

I would master them though.
 
keep in mind CCDP is no longer just one test outside of CCNA, you have to start over in that tract.

I wanted to just take down ARCH for it.
 
alkemyst said:
Well being the first was 1024, you were very very early on.
Click to expand...
I joined cisco in early 1994 (TAC). I did my CCIE early 1995. At the time, hardly anybody outside cisco really knew what CCIE meant. CCIE was something for partners (and large customers). Inside cisco, people didn't value CCIE very much. They thought it was too broad, and useless for the specialized work many people inside cisco did. That changed a few years later, I guess.
Why'd you let it expire? That was a big deal especially then. Most of the early guys went on to dictate what salary they wanted.
Click to expand...
In 1996 I got invited to spend 3 months at cisco Development Engineering in San Jose. Soon after that I actually joined engineering. I was the first cisco DE who telecommuted from Europe. By that time I was too busy to care about CCIE anymore. If I ever have to write a C.V. again, I hope other things I've done back then will still be more impressive than the fact that I did the CCIE exam. 🙂

But I do think the CCIE certifications are good and meaningful. Especially since they split them into different subject. Before that, the amount of different technologies you had to cover was just too big. I didn't mind having to know AppleTalk and Novell. (I'm a layer3 guy, I like routing). But things like IBM's SNA and RSRB still disgust me today. And I never liked to be hands-on. So assembling your own AGS+ was also something I didn't enjoy.
 
Congrats, the CCNP tests are definitely harder than they were once upon a time.

<--- Taking R/S lab for second time in late October.
 
Kalpana CEE - Certified Etherswitch Engineer (I still have my pin!)
3Com Wizard
Novell CNE
Certified IBM Structured Cabling (Type 1-6)
Certified IBM PC Repair
...

I have some more recent ones, but they're not important ...
 
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Don't forget you have to recert before 3 years is up. And they're not great about letting you know it's about to expire.
 
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