Amp's CCIE Quest On a quest for the digits…

20Aug/100

“Scenarios From An Expert”

Well in today's episode of "Scenarios from an Expert" I am going to talk about what it's like to work around "Experts", CCIE Voice "Experts" to be exact.

As most of you know (well the 3 of you that actually read the blog), I have moved on from my former employer and I am now working for a different company. This company is a Cisco Gold Partner with a Master Unified Communications Partner designation as well from Cisco. Once again I am surrounded by those people; what people you ask? Those people! Yep you guessed it, CCIE's! 2 CCIE Voice guys and 1 CCIE R&S guy who is also studying for his CCIE Voice.

At my last gig, my cube was in "CCIE Alley". There were 4 cubes in my area and 3 of the 4 cubes were occupied by those people. Yep CCIE's.

Well I did something here on the new job that I am wondering if it was a bright idea. I asked one of the CCIE Voice guys to "HELP" me come up with scenarios to try and work through. Why am I rethinking that idea you ask? Well every day that I see these guys I am riddled with off the wall trick questions that are designed to make me believe that rookie hazing really does exist.

"Hey rook, u have two sites, SiteA and SiteB. They're region settings are configured for g.729. Which site needs the transcoder?"

Hmmm, what transcoder? There must be more to the question like, there's a conference bridge in the mix or something like that. So what does the rook say?

"Based upon the brevity of the question, you do not need a transcoder."

Yaayyy score one for the rookie.

Oops spoke too fast. After a "yep you're right" and a slick grin I get..."now during your lab session this weekend figure this out!"

This phone has this and that phone has that and they are registered to this but when this happens they need to keep doing this, oh and make sure that works too along with this, oh and before I forget, if this works with that this way, how does it work with this if that is not working?

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19Aug/103

Study Strategy

Well seeing that two of my friends have gone on to CCIE glory (one of them for the 2nd time in less than a year) has motivated me like never before. So I did what any self-respecting CCIE candidate would do when he/she is constantly surrounded by those CCIE dudes and dudettes...study, lab, and study and lab some more.

One of the things that I believe is important for anyone to have when pursuing their CCIE is a plan. Daniel's plan was to lab until he couldn't lab anymore, where as Matthew's plan was to know voice so well you would think that he created Cisco Unified Communications. Both of their plans were not only viable and valid plans but they were effective plans. They both passed.

So what's my plan? Nothing different from what I've been doing. Well almost nothing. I am stealing this idea from Matthew, plan my study week ahead of time and review that topic or those topics before my rack session. Being that I am going to be doing this 99% via rented rack time I HAVE to make the most of my rental time.

So for example, if I know that I want to practice High Availability features this week, what I am going to do is watch the IPX VoD, listen to Amy Ryan's mesmerizing voice on the AoD, read the System, Admin, and the Feature and Services guides, and take notes PRIOR to my lab session. Once in my lab session focus soley on the topic that I was preparing for. Will this work, I certainly hope so. I have a lab date coming up

Filed under: Lab Prep 3 Comments

19Aug/100

Congrats…

I wanted to send an official congratulations shout out to two of my buddies, Matthew Berry (he passed his CCIE Voice on 8-16-10 on his 1st attempt) and Daniel White for passing his 2nd CCIE in less than a year; he passed his CCIE Service Provider on 8-13-10.

I have to admit, both of these guys have been instrumental in helping me to stay motivated to get my 5 digits.

Congrats fellas, you guys earned it.