I think we're taking the author's illustration way too personally, myself.
Other comments in-line
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chuck Larrieu"
To:
Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2001 7:07 PM
Subject: RE: One Journalist's Opinion of CCIE [7:18843]
> like everything else in this business, the answer is "it depends".
>
> sorry folks, but CCIE's are not gods who walk among us.
>
> I personally know several CCIE's who are top notch and deserving of every
> dollar they get and every contract they land.
>
Agree with both of those points
> I also personally know a couple who couldn't tell you how a packet gets
from
> one interface to another in a router.
>
Haven't met one of those yet
> all the CCIE certification proves is that you have passed Cisco's lab
test.
> It does not prove one way or another whether you know jack about
networking.
> I suggest that there is a percentage of the 2000 or so who have attained
the
> cert since last year who did so only because they successfully memorized
> enough scenario configurations that they were able to luck their way
through
> when their lab closely resembled one of those scenarios they memorized.
>
> I personally know several folks who passed over the last 18 months whose
> only hands on experience was in their practice labs. Of these, all were
> pretty sharp dudes, by the way.
>
It wouldn't surprise me, with the wealth of study information that's
available today. It sure didn't happen like that (very often) 5 years ago.
Getting ANY CCIE to tell you even what to study was like asking them to
commit professional suicide, because the NDA was so strongly supported by
the CCIE's.
> From personal experience I can tell you that I saw absolutely nothing in
my
> lab that made me wish I'd spent more time reading RFC's, or Comer, or any
of
> the other great books of the networking world. I saw plenty that made me
> wish I'd spent more time on certain practice materials readily available
I
> refer to the commercially available products. please do not contact me for
> names and sources )
>
...and the practice material is really no match for being in the heat of
battle when a route-flapping issue has you hopping from router to router to
router shutting down the redundant interfaces, or when that production net
routing loop bites you in the fanny and you can't figure out which route(s)
to filter or disable but you know you have to do SOMETHING quickly. Or when
your boss comes to you with "I heard in version 10.3 you can do frame relay
traffic shaping, and I want you to upgrade, and enable traffic shaping on
your 15 remotes and 3 hub routers, and I want it done in a week so I don't
have to upgrade those circuits"
> whenever this topic comes up, I see the same kinds of thought processes as
I
> used to see in the days when people asked what good an English degree did
> you in the job market. It isn't the degree. it's the intelligence behind
it.
>
And the author of the article felt that the CCIE has fundamental knowledge.
(This sentiment, by the way, is supported by one of the proctors that spoke
in the Networkers 2000 tapes). The "Expert" part of the certification name
unfortunately is held too highly - WHEN I pass my certification, I'm just
smart enough to know that even though I am a CCIE, I'm no expert in
internetworking.
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