I explain the new Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) Routing and Switching certification. This tutorial relates to CBT Nuggets’ CCNP Routing and Switching certification playlist. Watch this certification playlist free for 7 days with this free trial!
I tried to find the best place to ask about this. I was wondering if you or anyone else could offer some advice on obtaining the CCIE on your own. I set a goal for myself to at least get the CCNP in R&S. I already have the CCNA, and am lucky enough to be a network admin at a Datacenter. So I’m also getting plenty of real world experience. So I like many of my fellow networking guys would love to get the CCIE, but it seems like such a far away goal. I have a family so time can be an issue. The money investment seems to be the hardest to overcome. If I even get to the point of taking the test, all expenses would fall on me. Wondering if anyone was successful in over coming some of these obstacles, and how they did it.
I was – I did have to put some of the expenses on a credit card – but was able to clear that within a year when it was all said and done.
The BIGGEST challenge is time. After an in-depth CCNP – you can plan on about 700 hours at the command line! Maybe less, and often times, more!
I apologize, I thought I had posted this in the CCIE section. Well on these 36 years on earth, I’ve learned sometimes you have to take risks to succeed. Putting that on your credit card certainly was a risk. I’m sure it has paid off many times over. I’ll spare you the life story, but to accomplish the goals I’ve set for myself in my IT career over all I had to take alot of risks. You know first hand, but I’ve heard the CCIE R&S is a beast, and I feel you’re almost setup to fail.
You are NOT setup to fail. It is just that it is not only difficult from a technical perspective, it is also a beast from a test taking strategy perspective. Everything needs to be worked out and practiced – and you might need to take a few swings at it before success.