From: certstudy (certstudy@snet.net)
Date: Tue Sep 17 2002 - 23:01:26 GMT-3
As you did Rich, I am sharing my thoughts here. The comments are not meant
towards you personally but they are meant to
try and shine a light on the fact that way too many people are after this
gig for the $$ and not for the Joy of Internetworking.
> A couple of years ago, at the height of the dot com era, a CCIE in my area
> could easily pull in 150k. Did I start down this road for the money?
Hell
> yes. I already had field experience, a good job, seniority, respect, and
all
> that stuff that makes work fun. Besides, CCIE would be a challenge. But
a
> LOT has changed in the past couple of years. Bad economy. Fewer jobs.
> Lowered salaries. And apparently a butt load of CCIE's! I mean wow! And
to
> hear that many of them are just lab ccie's really brings the 8000+ CCIE's
into
> a different light. It brings my own efforts into the same light. It
reminds
> me of what happened to Novell certifications... I had just gotten my CNE
when
> I heard the term 'paper CNE' about a guy at the same company who carried
cue
> cards around to customers with commands written on them.
Interesting--so you dont think that the growth in the Internet and the fact
that companies' reliance on
their own networks and the growth of networking in general has had anything
to do with the increase
in the number of CCIE's. There are currently over 150000 networks in a full
Internet routing table. can you imagine
how many devices and networks are behind these?
I will acknowledge the fact that pay rates have come down to realistic
ranges again. this is due more to the economy than to the number of CCIE's
>
> I haven't gotten my ccie yet but I'm hoping to. My chances would probably
be
> greatly enhanced by going to a boot-camp, but I feel that would just add
to
> the problem.
How is going to a boot camp adding to the problem? The boot camps that are
at the top of the list include
instructors which Cisco itself calls on to 'Alpha" test new versions of the
tests. There is probably not one of us here who can say
that he or she uses ALL of the tested technologies daily. what is the
difference between locking yourself in a room for months or going to a week
long
intensive session where you can practice in a structured environment. For
me a good bootcamp means maximizing my study time and working on speed and
time management which i personally have trouble doing alone in my home lab.
>Maybe limiting the number of active CCIE's in a country would
> keep the certification from getting too bloated. Or maybe just stop the
> certification process now or at a fixed number. Or better yet, allow no
more
> than 1000 a year (total) to be certified. Candidate selection process
could
> be a weighted drawing (increased chances every year).
This makes huge sense. I can hear it now from the Cisco reps...."I am sorry
mr customer, we just cant sell any more routers this year.
All of the qualified individuals that we have for support are too busy and
we cant certify any more this year. We wouldnt want to water
down the value of the certification.....Hello....Hello....hmmm mr customer
must have hung up. I wonder why??"
CCIE and all of the certifications are Cisco certs and it is in Cisco's best
interest to have a well trained and certified support
infrastructure so they can sell more product.
I think if we move to Guadalupe, Puerto Rico, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia,
Yugoslavia, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Bahrain, Jordan, Quatar, Kazakhstan, Sri
Lanka or Vietnam you can be the second CCIE in any of those areas and
probably demand a very, very high salary.
>
> I'm not trying to criticize anyone's efforts, but rather express the
results
> of those efforts. It's kind of liking moving into a new, quiet, expensive
> neighborhood. It's great until everyone else moves in, and suddenly that
> expensive house isn't worth what you paid for it.
If all we are doing this for is to get into the fancy neighborhood, we are
doing it for the wrong reasons.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Mon Oct 07 2002 - 07:43:55 GMT-3