San Jose Here I Come!

This weekend I’m off to San Jose (not for a holiday!) for the IPExpert 5 Day Lab Preparation Instructor Led Boot Camp with Vik Malhi. I thought I’d note what I’m looking to get out of the course, and then I can check back afterwards with what I thought (and whether it was worth it!).

I get a lot of comments when I say I’m off to San Jose (the obvious one + others) for a training course – “That sounds like fun!”, “Couldn’t you go any further for the course ?”, "”Don’t they do that course in the UK ?” etc. Mostly when people think of IT-related courses they think of the 5-day low impact CCNx or Microsoft courses, so when I suggest that most of my time will not be spent in the pub, but in a classroom for 10-14 hours a day people are shocked and ask more about this mythical CCIE certification. They are then shocked again when I tell them how much the exam costs, what’s involved and that I’m doing mine in Sydney in April (“Can’t you do that in the UK ?” ) Come on Cisco, if I have to do a re-take, Brussels in not my first choice for a destination, and one of the reasons it’s taken me so long to get motivated since passing the written (in Barcelona – why do exams in dour places!) They also think that I should pass it “easy”, at which I nod politely and say “hopefully!”. If only they truly understood!

So what am I expecting ? Well – having done most of the volume 1 labs, I’m looking for filling in the gaps. There are many times, especially in the call routing sections where I’ll do it one way and the proctor guide describes another way – both get the same end result (as far as I can tell), so if Cisco awards points in a results oriented fashion, I’ll be fine! It is always advantageous to know multiple ways to do things however, in case Cisco says you can’t do it the way you know.

I hope to get some good tips on strategy, as I need to work on mine and refine it until it is second nature. I’m spending too much time thinking, and not enough time doing at the moment. It needs to flow better.
It will also be good to surround myself with a group of like-minded individuals who are all pulling in the same direction to achieve the same goal. Hopefully I’ll meet some new people I’ll come to call friends and we can go for a beer when we have our numbers (personally I quite fancy CCIE#30000 – which, looking at the latest digits being handed out, could be right about when I take my exam – any number will be fine by me though!)

It is also helping me to focus. Doing this with a 9-5 job (more like 6:30-7:30 if you include commute), it is hard to make the time to have long focused time – i.e. just the weekends – you wouldn’t run a marathon if you could only practice at a quarter to one-third distance! This is the point where the hard push towards the finishing line begins. My study program has another big push just before I fly out to Australia (where I’ll have no access to lab gear for the final 7 days leading into the lab), where I hope to get myself peaking at just the right time. We’ll see!

Right time to pack my bags!