From: sheherezada@gmail.com
Date: Thu Feb 21 2008 - 09:18:37 ARST
Well, in a previous life, I tried to move away not only from Cisco,
but away from engineering. The drive was that no matter what I did,
the salaries in the SP domain were capped (and if you didn't liked
that, there was plenty of cheap talent to take your place). So I
moved to a Big Four, doing security audit. Know what? The job was
boring (even if money was twice as good). It was so boring that I
wished I go back to what I did previously, to the networking drug. I
switched again the battle filed, eventually. The fun thing that
happened was that after that, potential employers saw no longer a pure
techie - I felt like a noble businessman or something. Now, looking
behind, I am very pleased with that experience because I learned
simple things like talking to somebody that is not an IT person or
structuring my communication, all in one making me a better
consultant.
Bottom line, I think that the learning curve slows down in time - a
way to boost your learning is to forget what you know, get a fresh
perspective, and then return, but from a higher point.
Mihai
On Thu, Feb 21, 2008 at 1:28 AM, Alan Chng <ccieteam@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for all the overwhelming responses.
>
> FYI, I've had the pleasure to work for Cisco and a few large
> organizations(SP and enterprise), and absolutely had a ball of a time
> esp over whiteboard discussions...
> This also includes picking up other vendor skills such as F5, NetApp and
> Juniper and I certainly agree with Scott's statement that CCIE teaches
> you the interworkings of protocols rather than the IOS, which is more like
> what CCNA caters :)
>
> Reason I mention abt moving away from Cisco is a recent opportunity with
> another vendor advertising CCIE-level candidate but willing to be trained &
> involved in purely Layer 1-2, 2.5(MPLS) for migrating customers from legacy
> ATM, FR, TDM networks to the IP/MPLS core. L2VPN stuff basically no IP VPN
> or anything IP related except management perhaps.
>
> Obviously, financial benefits will be justified for the switchover and
> perhaps you become a Subject Matter Expert, so in that sense I mean you're
> not one of the many but become one of the 'few'. Yet the thought of not
> working with routing protocols, or IP does twiddle my mind a bit. The fun
> level just seems to dip a bit ;-)
>
> The fact I'm discounting Juniper is I see them as equivalent to Cisco since
> the 'protocols' are simply applied in a different manner as prev stated.
>
> Has anyone been in similar circumstances, made the leap and walked away
> smiling? The industry we're in is so fast-paced that stepping away for a
> couple years can mean a lot of lost time. just look at the CCIE
> numbers these days ~ :)
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 2/21/08, Scott Morris <smorris@ipexpert.com> wrote:
> >
> > I suppose the first question would be why you were discounting
> > Juniper. The
> > second would be why it had to be a rold of complete isolation?
> >
> > Either way, one of the nice things is that the basic technologies (for the
> > most part) are pretty much the same vendor to vendor. You'll have CLI
> > differences, you'll have different intracacies and proprietary things, but
> > most stuff won't vary that much.
> >
> > So (IMHO) it's a mistake to look at the CCIE as simply a familiarity with
> > IOS. That's a secondary feature. You've likely learned more about things
> > like OSPF, BGP and multicast operations than you normally would. The fact
> > that you can do it in IOS is nice, but doing it in JUNOS isn't all that
> > much
> > different. The theory is mostly the same.
> >
> > If you're looking for something ENTIRELY different (you note less
> > competition, so one has to wonder) then I suppose it would simply be a
> > matter of what happens to interest you at any point in time. In which
> > case,
> > the CCIE has become a lesson of process and/or troubleshooting. Both
> > skills
> > which should not be underestimated.
> >
> > From a consultant's viewpoint, I always look at things to ADD to my
> > skillset, but it would have to be one hell of an opportunity for me
> > (again,
> > just my opinion) to completely forego all the stuff I've learned.
> >
> > Good luck no matter what you end up doing though!
> >
> >
> > Scott Morris, CCIE4 (R&S/ISP-Dial/Security/Service Provider) #4713,
> > JNCIE-M
> > #153, JNCIS-ER, CISSP, et al.
> > CCSI/JNCI-M/JNCI-ER
> > VP - Technical Training - IPexpert, Inc.
> > IPexpert Sr. Technical Instructor
> >
> > A Cisco Learning Partner - We Accept Learning Credits!
> >
> > smorris@ipexpert.com
> >
> >
> >
> > Telephone: +1.810.326.1444
> > Fax: +1.810.454.0130
> > http://www.ipexpert.com
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: nobody@groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody@groupstudy.com] On Behalf Of
> > Alan
> > Chng
> > Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 7:23 AM
> > To: ccielab@groupstudy.com
> > Subject: Moving away from Cisco
> >
> > Fellow experts,
> >
> >
> > Considering the amount of time and 'sacrifice' made to achieve the
> > CCIE and make our mark in the networking field, would anyone here
> > contemplate on moving to a role supporting another vendor (e.g. Alcatel,
> > Tellabs, Ericsson) ??. I'm referring to a role which requires in-house
> > training to learn the intricacies, proprietary protocols and CLI of the
> > vendor and be completely "isolated" from the Cisco world. I'm discounting
> > Juniper since I tend to see them in the same market segment.
> >
> > Would anyone do it? And if so, what would be the factor? Better
> > opportunity?
> > Less competition? Another challenge?
> >
> > I find the switchover challenging as I believe a lot of us started the
> > CCIE
> > journey more as a hobby and through the course of the time and developed a
> > familiarity to the IOS, not to mention the resources, information,
> > forums/communities that are widely available today.
> >
> >
> > Any opinions will be much appreciated
> >
> > Regards,
> > Alan
> > CCNP/IP/SP, R&S due in May
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