What is the CCIE Even Worth?

First, let’s put a disclaimer on this post…  I just got back from a HORRIBLE lab experience at RTP.  This post may be extremely jaded, but I need to get this off my chest and pass or fail; I still feel the same way.

I remember holding the CCIE on such a pedestal when I started networking.  I aspired to be one of the elite who has that number. I thought I knew what the CCIE was worth.  No one understood why I had such a fascination with this certification. It was to an extreme point where there was one point during my studying that I did not go out for a year, a WHOLE YEAR, because I wanted to be the best.   I had a goal to get those elusive numbers, but back to the title of this blog, what is it worth in the long run?  More money?  Peer respect? Being part of an elite group?  All of which is great to me, but let us look behind the scenes at what this can do to your personal life.

I am lucky enough to have a wife who completely understands what it means to get this certification; let us face it, she is studying to be an RN, so she knows all about sacrifice.  When I get into studying, I immerse myself in it.   I live and breathe it (this is my issue, I understand, but part of my journey); because of this, I missed the most critical years of my sons’ development.  My son was born on 10/25/11.

I passed the R&S written test on 4/26/12, so I missed six months while studying for the written test.  In my mind, he was six months old; what could he possibly know about who I am?  Then the lab studying started; maybe I saw him 2 hours per day.  What struck a chord with me was when I watched him while my wife went out with some friends.  He didn’t know who I was.  I was like a stranger to him.

Like any father, this hurt me, so I dialed back my studying, which seemed to help me better. Now, on to my actual vent, and I will get a lot of flack about this, but this is how I feel now after being through the process 4x.  The CCIE is just a test; it does not prove you are an expert in any aspect of Cisco technologies.  I always hear CCIE’s saying, “Oh, a router can do that?  I didn’t know that,” or “Oh, you can do that to OSPF, I didn’t know that.”

By definition, shouldn’t an “expert” know that?  Would you go to a doctor and be comfortable with them saying, oh, I think if we take your kidneys out, you should live and be fine.  I have the same outlook on the CCIE as any other Cisco test.  Anyone can pass it; it is not about skill but luck, like every other test.  I am an extremely talented engineer who works for a Fortune 200 company.

I can design and implement the most complex networks imaginable.  Yet, I didn’t pass the IE lab because it is not real.  If you implement most of what is on the IE lab in a production network, you would be talked about if you hit your head on the way into the office. Will that change with v5? Maybe, but I won’t find out.  The next thing that pisses me off is people who have the CCIE who don’t deserve it, whether because of luck or cheating; this gets to me in ways that I can’t relay into words.

I know plenty of CCIE’s who I can talk circles around who can’t say why you would use a route-map to redistribute specific routes to BGP basics, so it makes me think, am I really that good? Do I deserve to be where I am?  The answer is yes. The CCIE is just a test and nothing more than that. You can’t substitute the real world for some lab exam that isn’t even based on anything you would remotely configure in the real world.

So, where do I go from here? I don’t know. I have devoted the last 2.5 years of my life to this journey, which is in limbo.  My other NPs need to be recertified so they don’t expire.  Do I hang my hat on the IE? But I don’t know if this jaded experience will sway me in any direction; only time will tell. I do know that this blog is going to be used a lot more.  I don’t know what way I am going to use it yet.