So what’s this CCIE certification that so many desire but so few manage to achieve? For many years since its introduction in 1993 it has been considered the pinnacle of networking certifications and notoriously difficult to pass. Over the years it has seen many different formats, originally being a 2 day exam, but no matter which version you attempt, each version is equally challenging within its own right.  I was lucky enough to pass V4 routing and switching  on my second attempt, although V5 is now the current R&S exam, i would like to share my experience of my journey to that magic number.

Since originally starting out on the Cisco certification path with the CCNA, I knew that one day I wanted to achieve CCIE status, although at that time it was just a wish with no real understanding of what was involved to earn your number.  The decision to work towards the CCIE was a little strange, at the time i was a CCNP, with the intention of working towards CCNP in other tracks such as security and wireless, and then onto the CCIE. As most people are aware the prerequisite for any CCNP is the CCNA of that track or any CCIE, so after doing a couple CCNA’s, I thought i know i’m going to do the CCIE at some point, so why not not do it now and alleviate the need to keep taking CCNA’s.  Which is exactly what i did, in April 2013 i sat my CCIE RS written exam, which was a fairly typical Cisco exam although a little longer than most. Its following this the real fun begins,  upon passing you get access to the CCIE portal where you can schedule lab exams, and hand over lots of money.

After passing the written I had a target lab date of around November 2013, this was based upon one of the aggressive timelines provided by INE. So i set myself up a 4x switch, 6x router lab with kit i was lucky enough to have lying around and commenced working through the INE workbooks.  This is when the magnitude of the task you have taken on sinks in, the extent of the blueprint is vast, with a huge amount of topics you would never dream of seeing in your day to day work.  I’d only been studying for a couple of months and then i changed jobs, and just as expected brought about an abrupt halt to my studies, it just wasn’t practical to adapt to a new company and role, so i accepted I would have to delay my lab.

It was somewhere around November 2013, news started to circulate that the CCIE was due for a version change, at that time it was pure speculation to when this would take effect and would Cisco give 6 months notice, INE at the time were quite confident that the new exam would be released in March 2014.  So with this news i booked my 1st attempt for 28th Feb 2014, now it suddenly felt very real!

From the day i booked my lab, I committed to a strict study plan, studying every night after work, and every weekend, holidays were out the question, and I even put in a few hours on Christmas day. At the time i thought this is horrendous, how can i keep this up, but every topic i studied I uncovered more things i didn’t know, so had to stick with it, if i was to be anywhere near prepared for the lab. It was a relentless routine of labbing, video on demand, and reading. Sometime in the New Year Cisco gave the official announcement that V5 would become effective from July 2014, this came as a slight relief, with my thinking that should i fail the first attempt, i’d still got chance to wait the required 30 days and still have another attempt, this turned out to be far from as simple as i’d originally thought.

With the 28th approaching, I had the week off work prior to the exam to totally commit to last minute preparations, I was relentlessly doing configuration and troubleshooting labs, on the whole felt fairly well prepared, i knew my strengths and weaknesses, but always accepted with the aggressive timeline i had to sacrifice some topics to ensure the core topics were absolutely nailed. This is like any other exam, in that i feel there is always an element of luck, that you get a paper that fits well with your knowledge, because despite what some people would like to think, nobody can no everything.

Thursday morning came, and i flew out with my partner to Brussels, my stomach was in bits and i was a nervous wreck, upon arriving at the NH hotel i suddenly became calm for some reason, even tho when looking at out the bedroom window i was overlooking the Cisco offices where i’d spend 8 hours the following day. That evening we had a walk up to Cisco, to make sure i knew where the entrance was, it was literally a 5 minute walk. There is literally nothing else around the hotel except for office buildings, although the train station is directly opposite with Brussels city center only 15mins away. We then had a meal and relaxed for the rest of the evening, i’d had ideas of doing some last minute study, but the reality is, there is no benefit to be gained from trying to cram anything else in, so i just relaxed and watched the TV.

Friday morning i set off from the hotel at about 7:30am, upon arriving the doors were still closed with several guys already waiting outside, most the guys were from various European countries, and just one other from the UK.  I found chatting beforehand really took my mind off what i was about to attempt. I made a good friend in the guy from the UK, Bello who was on his second attempt, but first attempt at Service Provider, he had a great attitude and really put my mind at rest.  So the doors finally open at around 8:00am and we all sign in at reception ready to await the arrival of our proctor.  The proctor lead us up to the top floor and gives a briefing of dos and donts, where the toilets and coffee machine are etc. Upon entering the exam room, each person signs in and is assigned a rack number and associated desk, the desks are arranged such that there is a mix of the various tracks, so nothing is to be gained by looking at another persons screen.  I sat at my desk, read my lab guidelines sheets and clicked start.  Oh my god, just like that the troubleshooting topology was there in front of me with the clock ticking, this huge topology of some 40+ devices with what looked like every technology imaginable thrown at it.  The TS lab is virtual and presented by a web page, with drop downs for the questions and various diagrams, clicking on a device would open up a Putty session, it wasn’t the easiest layout to adapt to, that an a different layout keyboard, i found i was a little cumbersome to begin. The points system is fairly well known, so my strategy was to begin with a few 2 pointers, once i’d settled in try a 3 pointer, knowing i could afford to drop a single 3 pointer.  After completing three 2 point questions, i attempted my first 3 pointer, to my relief i completed it without issue, and the second 3 pointer, followed by all the remaining 2 pointers, 1.5 hours in I had completed all the TS tickets and was feeling really good, i took the remaining time to verify and save configs.  With a couple minutes remaining in the TS section, i went to get a much needed coffee.  Upon my return the configuration section was already on my screen and ready to start, this is where things started to go wrong for me, still to this day I don’t know what happened, whether it was i’d relaxed too much after the TS going well, I don’t know.  I read through all the lab, and could only see a couple of sections which caused me concern, again the strategy to nail the core sections, and do my best on the additional services sections etc. I started on configuring the layer 2 section, and for some reason i was getting through it very slowly, it was like my brain was shutting down, it was always my intention to write config into notepad and then copy paste into the devices, but i started configuring directly into the devices, but still i felt I was getting through it, although not as quickly as i would have liked.  Lunch time came and you all leave the room together and stay together throughout the lunch break, although i did take this opportunity to have a much needed cigarette break with Bello.  Following lunch I continued with Layer 3, and all the additional sections, and with an hour to go had finished all but one section, this one section was to be my downfall, I knew that i couldn’t complete it correctly but still I thought I’m going to try, I spent almost the whole hour attempting to complete this section, leaving me with insufficient time to go back and verify all the other sections.  The lab finished just after 5pm, me and Bello walked back to the hotel to reflect on the day and have a pint before his train home. Although i’d been defeated by that one section, I’d completed the lab and answered every other section, and was feeling like i may just have done enough, but it was over now, and all I could do was wait.

That night we relaxed in the Hotel, periodically checking for emails, I chatted to a couple other guys who had sat their lab that day, and they hadn’t got through all the TS tickets, so i was feeling quite good about myself.  Saturday morning i woke around 6am to see an email from Cisco, the email just tells you that your results on ready, and to log into the portal.  Upon logging in, it wasn’t the news i’d wanted, i’d passed TS, but just missed configuration, it was such a sinking feeling. Immediately I began analszing the results, trying to work out, where did I go wrong, are these results correct i asked myself.  I’d promised to take my partner San into Brussels for the day on the Saturday, even though I was being eaten up inside about failing, I had to try and put it out of my mind. We caught the train, and arrived shortly after at the Central station, and as we were walking around the city, mistakes I’d made kept popping into my head as clear as day, really silly stupid mistakes, that would have easily been picked up if I’d had verified instead of attempting that last section.  This both annoyed me that I could have passed, and indeed should have passed.  All I wanted to do was sit again immediately, but had to wait at least 30 days, so on getting back to the hotel i began looking for seats, to my horror there were none available at any of the Cisco locations throughout the world.

We returned home on the Sunday, I returned to searching for available seats, at this point I didn’t care where it was, I searched so much I exceeded the search limit, and couldn’t search again until the following day.  It was like Cisco had suddenly found an unlimited supply of seats, but only at the US locations, but these were booking fast, the V5 panic was setting in globally.  I watches the seats booking fast at San Jose, and made the decision, I would have to book now, so I booked and paid for San Jose on 16th April.  Out of curiosity I kept an eye on the available seats, and to my total disbelief Cisco released a bucket load of seats for Brussels just 24 hours after I’d booked San Jose.  I thought don’t worry Cisco will understand the situation with the limited seats, and re-allocate mine, a case was opened, and many many phone calls followed, they would happily reschedule but it would cost me $500, despite the fact they’d been artificially sandbagging the number of seats available, they were totally unmovable.  After weighing up the total cost of flights etc. it was clear that although I was paying $500 for nothing, it was still going to be more cost effective to put up and pay up. So the lab was rescheduled for the 18th April.

Once my second attempt was booked, although it was only about 6 weeks away, the first couple of weeks I took time to catch up with some family duties, and a few nights out. After thoroughly thinking through where I’d gone wrong, I knew the problem wasn’t with knowledge, but much more to do with approach and strategy.  So for the remaining weeks I concentrated on developing a strategy that I knew would work for me, and then did practice labs strictly following this strategy.

Attempt 2

Again i was to appear for my lab on a Friday, so i caught the Thursday morning flight, to allow me to get to the hotel and unwind, this time I was traveling alone, so thought I’d sit in my room and review my notes on my laptop. I’d had my laptop open about 5 minutes and thought what am I doing, promptly closed it and caught the train into Brussels to try and take my mind off the following day. I wondered aimlessly around Brussels, feeling much more nervous than the first attempt, this time I knew the reality of how fine a line it is between pass and fail.

Friday morning came, again set off about 7:30am to be greeted by several guys from all corners of the globe this time about to attempt their labs.  The same proctor met us as I had had on the first attempt, he took us through the same routine again, I signed in and took my place at my designated desk.  I took a few minutes to compose myself and then i began the TS section, to my surprise I was presented with the same topology as my first attempt, instantly thinking I managed without too much trouble last time, so I can do it again. I used the same strategy that had worked so well before in TS, and then my world turned upside down, I get to my first 3 pointer, and I couldn’t solve it, nothing I seemed to try would give me the required output, don’t panic I thought knowing I could drop one 3 pointer, moved onto the next one and completed successfully, great i though back on track now, just need to get the other 2 pointers and we’re clear.  Then I couldn’t believe it, I couldn’t solve the next 2 pointer, so calmly as possible moved on to what would be the last ticket, make heart sank has  it had a dependency on one of the earlier unsolved tickets. So with about 15 minutes to go I had 3 unsolved tickets and felt I was on for a definite fail, I frantically tried everything possible and with 6 minutes remaining all 3 miraculously sprang into life, the feeling was such an amazing relief, although you never know for sure if you have breached any rules to solve the ticket, the fact that they were working is enough to satisfy you going into the configuration part of the lab.  I started my configuration, this time with the totally different approach that I’d decided and was adamant not to deviate for any reason.  I configured all of layer 2 in notepad, with the question open next to it, checking word for word as I went, then when satisfied pasted into the relevant devices, taking note to check the parser output for any errors.  I followed this approach for the remaining sections, consolidating sections where possible. I was doing really well for time, and then I hit a section I couldn’t solve, flashbacks from my first attempt popped into my mind, anxious not to make the same mistake, I didn’t even attempt it, and proceeded to start verifying all the other sections, and thought I would attempt if I had any time left at the end. I verified every last detail of the questions word by word, checking I’d completed all the requirements and outputs were as expected, my approach from the beginning had been much more thorough than the first attempt, which was evident because I only found a couple typos. By the time I’d finished verifying that was it, the time was almost up, and my second attempt was over, time for that agonizing wait again.

My flight home was at about 9:00pm that same evening, I’d already checked out the hotel on the morning, so caught a taxi straight to the airport. This is when my stomach was in knots, I had a few hours to reflect on the day, and all I could think of, have I done it this time?, have I done enough? the hours dragged so much while I was waiting for that flight.  Upon landing, I turned my phone back on, and I heard an email come through, I couldn’t bare to look. Eventually I had to call my partner to pick me up form the airport, I could see then that it was an email from Cisco, still I couldn’t bring myself to login.  We got home shortly after and had a glass of wine or maybe it was a bottle, before I could bring myself to look at the results. I logged into the portal on my iPad and I could see my number, the feeling was amazing, I had tears in my eyes, I couldn’t believe I’d reached the goal, I was now a CCIE.

The next couple of days were just pure relief of not having to study all those hours every night, my life was back again! Then what I found odd was, it was like an addiction, I’d got so used to studying every spare minute, even though I hated it at times, I was now beginning to miss it.

In summary, would I do it again, definitely 100%. My feelings for the CCIE now are a little different from when I started this journey, you certainly learn a lot of different technologies in depth, many of which you’ll never use again in day to day life, but what I find the most valuable aspect of it, is that as part of the deep dive learning process its given me the ability to learn other topics with much greater ease.  Will I ever put myself through it again, who knows, but when the time comes to renew, I will do the written for another track, just in case.

Finally I would like to thank my partner San, my daughters Chelsie and Amber, and my parents for putting up with me and supporting me during this time, without their support it would not have been possible.