CCIE for 20 years... how did this happen?

I just recertified my CCIE until 2023, and by then I will be able to use that cool 20-year CCIE logo. But… how did this happen? 

I still remember everything like it was yesterday… it was 1999 and, while sitting next to a colleague, I saw a CLI window. I asked what he was doing and he said: “Configuring a router”. That caught my attention. Of course, it was a Cisco router. At college I had studied the concept of what a router is, but I had never seen a real one. The sudden realization that they actually existed, and enabled communication among different locations was really appealing to me. I kindly asked him what he was configuring and he said: “A routing protocol”. He explained how it worked and I thought it was absolutely amazing! It was pseudo-magical and I was hooked, so I decided to start studying networking on my own.

When I got the call in year 2000 to join Cisco it was a dream come true. I would be able to work for the company that actually invented those devices and continue learning about this magical world. I discovered Cisco Press books and Certifications, the magical combination for a youngster like me to spend a ton of time studying with real milestones ahead. Those books were the perfect structured approach to what you needed to learn to get started in many different technology areas. In fact I still remember taking a look at some topics in the index pages and get all excited about how exotic they were: “Voice over ATM”. How was that even possible?

Probably the one I enjoyed most was the Interconnecting Cisco Network Devices book, as it was the first one and everything was new and exciting. Every page was filled with amazing and well explained concepts that opened my mind into the beautiful world of networking. I remember staying late at night, reading it in bed and going to sleep with the warm feeling of thinking how lucky I was to have found something I really enjoyed.

Knowing that there was an associated exam and certification for the content included in that book really made me study it in a different way. I really wanted to pass it. Besides this, it was the first time I would be testing outside of college (also the first time I would take a test in English) so everything was quite alien. That translated into excitement and drive to try my best!

Luckily enough I passed my CCNA, and immediately thought of next steps. CCNP required you to pass 4 different exams in different areas (routing, switching, WAN and troubleshooting). It was a very different league and I was not sure a n00b like me could do it. Fortunately my manager at Cisco encouraged me to go for it and even gave me some time to study. One by one I read the books, learned a ton of new stuff, passed the exams and some months later I got my CCNP… I simply could not believe it!

I thought I had done it, I had accomplished a goal higher than what I would have ever thought. But I had an itsy bitsy thought in the back of my head: “There is a higher certification level: CCIE”. It was kind of the summum of all certifications, a recognition only reserved to the best of the best, people willing to go the extra mile and learn everything there was to know related to associated technologies.

Not only you needed to study a lot (like, really a lot), but also there were several additional challenges that made it the uber-challenge:

1.    There were no official materials to study

2.    You needed plenty of hands-on experience

3.    The exam was 2-day long and the exam center was in a different country

I discussed it with my manager and we agreed on a plan for me to try. I could not believe I was going for it!

Based on the exam blueprint I got used to browse the Cisco website, looking for info I thought might be useful, focusing on those weak areas that would be required to pass. I would often find myself reading RFCs just to clarify and better understand behaviours and debug info. I would SSH into any device I could find, just to gain some experience understanding what was configured there and why.

 One of the best things that happened to me at that time was finding a group of local people with the same interests. Studying with them, sharing frustrations, discussing questions and more than anything encouraging one another to not give up, was without any kind of doubt the driver to get to the CCIE milestone.

I would say those were the days when I learned more in my entire work life, and the period when I got the most useful skills for my life as a Systems Engineer at Cisco.

By 2002 I finally got my CCIE and I could not be prouder. I even loved the license number I got: #9302. I remember the study group even joked about getting tattoos with our license number!

Since then, no matter where I was, or what were the challenges I was going through, I’ve been recertifying my CCIE every 2 years. Periodically passing the required exam keeps you up-to-date with the latest, and gives you the option to choose a different architecture every time you have to do it. There’s been years where I did it on Security, others on Data Center, others on the classic Routing & Switching. Life at Cisco takes you to many different places!

Fast forward and we are in 2020. Last month I recertified for my CCIE once again, this time using the option of Continuing Education, and focused on a completely different area where I work now: programmability. As always, Cisco is evolving and there is a brand-new world of technology that will change the way we live, work and play.

My CCIE is now valid until 2023, and by then I will have been a CCIE for 21 years. After this long time I still think of that day I got hooked on networking, and how a decision like starting to read a routing book defined my work life. Life is full of surprises!