Let me respond only to one specific point. At 7:54 PM -0400 4/19/02, Kevin Cullimore wrote: > > >I'm also led to believe that the early CCSI exams were designed to weed out >mere CCIEs (please, somebody, correct me if I'm wrong on that [or any other] >account). >
There were no CCSI exams until 1995 or so. I was certified in 1993, when there were also no training partners -- I delivered courses as a subcontractor to Cisco. Many, if not most, Cisco courses were delivered by Cisco employee CCSIs. Let me describe the process and see if you'd call it an exam. It's been a while, but the process started with my company proposing me and sending a resume and samples of my work. I was then phone interviewed by several Cisco people, then invited out to the training center (then in Mountain View). Once I got there, I again was interviewed by multiple instructors. I then took what was then the Router Software Configuration course as a student. I then spent a week or two going over my notes, practicing on equipment, etc., and then took the course again, this time focusing on how the instructor delivered it. In all of these cases, I was frequently called on to work with students on real-world designs. There were only two Cisco courses at the time, Router Software and Router Hardware, so you got people of all levels. Next, I moved to team teaching parts of the courses with a Cisco instructor, and often several proctors. I think it was my second teaching of the week-long course when my lead proctor stopped me at a break, chewed me out for being fogged, and told me he didn't want me to teach for the rest of the week -- just listen. It was with some perverse pleasure that I called him from the intensive care unit the next day -- apparently, my increasing fog was due to decreasing heart function. While I was in the hospital for an angioplasty only for a couple of days, I was forbidden to fly for several weeks, and, when I could walk comfortably, went daily to Cisco to work with the staff. As we got to know one another, they learned that while the typical Cisco instructor of the time had a background in field engineering, mine was much more in protocol development. When I first stood up before a class again, I actually revised the unit on OSI protocols, since some of the courseware was misleading or wrong -- I had spent six years working full-time on OSI protocol development and testing. I spent productive time with several course developers, going through courseware and giving detailed technical critiques. I was also asked into some customer meetings to advise on network design. Eventually, my health was back up to team teaching, and then I taught a full class with a proctor observing but not participating. At that point, I was given a provisional certification, which was not made permanent until Cisco had done detailed monitoring of my student reviews for 3 months, and I had had a number of Cisco field office employees attend my classes, critique them, and work with customers. This experience was also punctuated by little problems like having the teaching lab delivered to you after a forklift had speared through the shipping crate. I developed a great deal of respect for the ruggedness of 4000 series routers, especially after initial teaching on MGS and AGS routers (IOS 9.0, incidentally). In my second class, I had to open up a failing MGS and replace the processor, with only directions over the phone. It was fairly routine to have to open xGS routers and troubleshoot loose ribbon cables between the I/O boards and the actual interfaces -- they didn't use the modern adapter cables, which vastly improved reliability. Subsequently, I was involved in reviewing several courses in draft, attending the beta teach, and doing some course development for things like Cisco University. I was in the first group of non-Cisco people to teach CID, which had been a course for SEs only and considerably different from the present course. Trying to think of the author's name...Geoff something. Priscilla wrote the next version (OK, what was Geoff's last name)? The next version was subcontracted to my company, with Kip Peterson as the lead author but with several contributions from me. So was there an exam? You decide. Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=42045&t=42045 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
