In the last few weeks, there have been several posts about becoming an instructor. It's not always clear if CSSI is part of the picture.
Even with Cisco, the nature of, and need for, certification has changed over the years. When I was certified, about 10 years ago, there were no instructor exams. In fact, there were no exams at all -- CCIE came about two years later. There was a structure of attending courses, going through extensive interviews, and then teaching all or part of classes under the eyes of a Cisco employee. In addition to the test teaching, we'd go into the lab and try random things, or sit in front of several instructors and be grilled on general networking. My observed teaching took three weeks, which was longer than normal since I had a heart problem midway through and was in the hospital or recovering for a couple of weeks -- they wanted to be sure I was up to speed. Even after the in-person approval, we received provisional certification, which meant that our student reviews got individual reading for three months or so, and Cisco local people were often in our classes to give reviews. Now, with CSSI exams and a need to handle more instructors, the process has changed significantly. Let me make some general comments. First, there certainly are financially successful instructors that don't have CSSIs, and don't work for training partners. Such people, however, usually have some name recognition in the industry (e.g., books) or have extensive work experience. Second, you can only become a CSSI when sponsored by a Cisco Learning Partner, or, in some very specialized cases, by Cisco itself. In the case of learning partners, that involves, aside from any expense in preparing you, several thousand dollars in instructor license fees to Cisco. So, there needs to be a very strong business case for the partner to authorize the expense of a new instructor. The reality is that some partners have unilaterally done pay cuts for their existing instructors, and there are a fair number of experienced instructors that are out of work. Depending on the circumstances, a laid-off instructor may or may not need to be recertified, but the new sponsor will almost certainly need to pay fees to Cisco. Third, technical knowledge isn't the only thing expected of instructors. The ability to communicate with humans is critical. That means several things -- speaking ability, some level of charisma in the classroom, the ability to walk people through troubleshooting such that they learn from it, and, often, the ability to prepare handouts and even modifiy courses (e.g., for onsite private courses). Many of these expectations mean that the instructor must have superb oral and written communications skills. While some of the people asking the questions may not have English as a first language and would not be teaching in English, to have serious chances, your written communications must be impeccable. If you emailed a Learning Partner with a cover note containing "chat speech," it would be extremely likely your application would be rejected instantly. If you are considering teaching or courseware development, it's a good idea to practice excellent writing, even in informal posts to this list. Howard CSSI 93005 Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=64833&t=64833 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
