Looks like I have a decision to make by midnight:

Later today I’ll be attending an EMBA info session where I’m most likely to begin a new journey for the next 2 years.  My decision doesn’t come lightly and I’ve weighed the pros/cons of even enhancing my business knowledge over my technical knowledge.  I’m a techie at heart, but large corporations care more for businesses minded folks and can care less for technical engineers.  Am I willing to wait my turn to climb up the corporate ladder?  No, especially when I know I can make an investment in myself to jump up a few notches.  I’ll still continue to maintain my CCIE status by renewing with a written exam every 2 years until I hit the 10-year mark.

For those of you still striving for just 1 CCIE, continue onward.  You only need 1 in this world to make a difference.  Multiple achievements will definitely define you above the rest, but eventually you’ll come to the realization that having one was enough.

Those of you pursuing your SP and would like a date at San Jose in October, here’s your chance to grab my seat.

Swap passed his 2nd CCIE, SP, earlier this week.  He has already posted his recommendations for the OEQs and his overall lab experiences.  If you’ve already sat through the lab yourself then you’ll notice the subtle hints buried deep within his words; they could prove useful to you in the future so make a mental note of it all.  Anyways, send him your congrats.

I’m finally back from RTP and have a stable enough Internet connection to finally write a post.  After my SP lab last week, I decided to visit some relatives in Charleston, SC to relax over the weekend before coming home.  I tried to post something on Friday, but my hotel wireless connection was terrible.  Anyways, read on for a recap.

Since the Thanksgiving weekend, I’ve been scrambling to get enough practice time in for the configuration portion of the lab.  Shortly a few days after committing payment to Cisco for the lab, the announcement for the OEQ or Core Knowledge came out which changed my studying strategy quite a bit.  At the time, I had just begun going through INE VOL2 labs before the Christmas holidays and so now I needed to come up with another game plan.  I gave myself a deadline to finish up the VOL2 labs 1 through 5 by New Years.  For the remaining 5 VOL2 labs, I was just going to read the solutions.  Once the new year began, I only labbed up mini scenarios and didn’t bother doing any full scale labs.  All I ended up doing was reading anything I could get my hands on regarding the SP lab blueprint (i.e. books, FAQs, blogs, Cisco white papers, articles, etc.).

Did all the reading help?  Yes, it did.  The set of OEQs that I received were pretty straightforward.  If you have some clue as to what you are doing in general with topics covered in the blueprint, you should be prepared.  Now I know that statement is vague and probably doesn’t really help you much, but the OEQs are really nothing to be concerned with at all.  I can’t speak for individuals who took the lab in the first 2 months, but I think the Cisco folks have finally figured it out where the OEQs are really ‘Core Knowledge’ type questions.  If I could make one suggestion to the Cisco developers, you should have the OEQs at the end of the lab.  The biggest complaint for many individuals that get a set of off-the-wall questions is they feel gypped having just forked over $1400 for only 30 minutes of completing the test.  What’s the point in continuing onward if you already knew you blew your chance at the start of your day?  Nothing you do in the configuration portion matters if you can’t get by 3 out of 4 questions.  IMHO, I think if the questions were at the end of the lab then test takers couldn’t complain since they would actually have to work through the entire day.

Unfortunately, because I spent so much time on reading, my speed was off with the configurations.  There was a lot of typing involved with my version of the lab. On top of that, I wasn’t fully rested going into the test as I would’ve liked.  I was a bit foggy having been up all night due to nerves.  Believe me, I exhausted myself before my flight out to Raleigh so I could just sleep when I arrived, but I was pretty wired and couldn’t stop thinking about 4 questions.  In the end, I fell short on the configuration end of the spectrum.

Here’s an outline on what I did for this attempt:

1) Read: Just try to understand the material you are reading.  I don’t think you need to memorize every little detail, but know the important subject matter.  Here’s a list of everything I read:
MPLS Fundamentals
MPLS VPN Architectures
MPLS VPN Architectures Volume II
Routing TCP/IP Volume I
Routing TCP/IP Volume II
Cisco FAQs
Cisco White Papers
RFCs

2) Choose a vendor workbook:  For my attempt, I used INE’s VOL1 and VOL2.  Keep in mind the material is very outdated but still relevant for this lab.  Everything you need to know is in VOL2, you just need to reference the Cisco documentation yourself to get a thorough understanding of the technology.  If I could make a suggestion to the INE folks, I think the only updates you should make for your products are:

-VOL1: Create some IS-IS labs with explanations.  I ended having to use my R&S OSPF, EIGRP, and RIP VOL1 lab scenarios to test out IS-IS.  IS-IS is extensive enough on the exam that it should be covered in your product.

-VOL2: I really liked what INE has done with the R&S and Security workbooks; they give you a brief explanation alongside the expected output.  We could really use the additional information to help reference materials for the OEQ.

3) Core Knowledge Simulator:  I ended up purchasing this product 1.5 weeks before the lab and only looked at it 2-3 days beforehand.  IMHO, the product just destroys your confidence all together because you feel like you’ve forgotten your CCNP studies.  You also get a false sense that you are required to know the granular details of the technologies.  Based on the OEQs I received, your questions are really off the mark and probably need to be scaled down just a bit.

4) Practice: I didn’t utilize the rack rentals as I had anticipated.  I ended up just using dynamips when I was labbing, which should be enough.  If you have the money to spend, go ahead and rent or buy equipment.  If you are on a shoe string budget and have a powerful enough workstation, then invest some time in dynamips or GNS3; the IOS code you should be running is 12.2S.  There’s definitely a difference in the feature sets when you are running 12.3T and 12.2S so you should be familiar with both versions.

Am I going to take a 2nd attempt?  That depends, having just checked the availability the next possible opening at San Jose is in September.  I don’t think I’ll be flying out to other locations anymore to test.  In fact, most of the tests will be running of SJ anyways (similar to the R&S format) and conducted at nearby Pearson Vue locations in the future so it doesn’t make sense to fly out (unless of course work pays for it and everything isn’t out of my own pocket).  There are other rumors that this lab will be retired and replaced by SP Operations.  I was told that for the month of July all lab testing sites will be blocked off completely to allow major changes to the lab testing facilities as well as when the announcements will be revealed.  If I can get another test in before June, I think I’ll donate more money to Cisco.  Until I can get a close enough date, I’ll just be enjoying my time away from all the stress:

-Catching up on all my shows on the DVR

-Toying around with JNCIE-ER or JNCIE-M/T

-Creating some mini-scenarios to help cover the lacking areas of technologies

-Playing basketball on the weekends again

-Networking at Interop, CiscoLive, etc.

Since my last posting I’ve been quite busy with various projects at work and took on a few weekend contracts to familiarize myself with some of the SP technologies.  My time for studying was split between working and enjoying whatever free time I had to spare.  Aside from keeping up with all my TV shows (i.e Stargate Universe, Sanctuary, V, Dexter, Californication, Heroes, Trauma, Vampire Diaries, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Fringe, Cake Boss, Crash, etc.), I did manage to squeeze in some reading of a few technologies (i.e. MPLS, QoS, and IS-IS).  I know what you are thinking, does he really watch all those shows?  The answer is ‘yes’ and then some.  Aside from playing basketball once a week and going to the gym 3-4 times a week, it was the only way of keeping my brain from melting with a 7-day work schedule.

Another outlet for me has been Twitter; I don’t really tweet as much and mainly use it as a means of aggregating information on potential IE candidates, IEs, and sports.  Most of the bloggers who were diligently updating their sites before have now turned to tweeting.  In fact, many of their sites have gone unattended, so I finally decided to clean up my blogroll.  Can’t you tell the list is shorter? 

My game plan from this point forward is to finish off my projects and contracts before the Christmas holidays.  I’ve already reserved some ‘me’ time with the family, so they know I’ll be concentrating on studying the last week of the year.  I have a little over 100 days from now until my scheduled lab, 03/04/2010, so hopefully the exam doesn’t change by then.