CCIE Emeritus

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I prepared for the toughest IT certification challenge at the time. I already had a couple of years of experience in the infrastructure and networking sphere. Preparing for the prestigious Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) routing and switching certification, with a significant lab portion, shifted my experience to another level. The networking and associated IT knowledge I gained at this time and afterward are still precious today; even I moved my focus a bit now to security & privacy software (from OSI layer 1 to layer 7 :) ).

I passed the exam on my third attempt, proving how vital ambition is; even some people thought I would not make it. The emotion between exiting the exam room in Brussels in May 2002 and getting the pass notification via email the following day can only be described as nerve-wracking and exciting.

This certification opened the door for my international IT career; thank you to all my friends and ex-colleagues for your support on that journey.

Cheers,

Thomas

August 2022, Thessaloniki/Greece