One year ago today, my 15yr old and 11yr old sons both passed their Cisco CCNA Exams

One year ago today, my 15yr old and 11yr old sons both passed their Cisco CCNA Exams?

It was a rare privilege and honor to take them through the entire training process.??From learning the early history of the internet, how to physically build out dev networks, OSI, subnetting, network programmability all the way through to designing & configuring networks end-to-end, it was so exciting to take them through the process of becoming *legit* CCNA’s.??As I’ve told them:??this is an achievement that most *adults* in the industry have difficulty achieving.

I decided to take a "Top-->Down" Approach to training them. I thought it was important to really help them understand the "Why". What problem was "the internet" originally trying to solve all those years ago? What were the physical challenges? The geographical challenges? The logical challenges? What drove development at such an unprecedented scale? Once they developed a better understanding of the problems, we could then go over the building blocks needed to solve those problems. And as I told them over and over (until they were undoubtedly sick of hearing it): "Routers Route Between Networks!" This was a phrase that a close friend and industry mentor of mine instilled in me from the very beginning. As I instilled in the boys: "You will never reach the bottom of the depths of understanding that phrase, and you will never fully reach the bottom of understanding the OSI Model."

Unfortunately, Cisco’s certification policies do not allow my 11yr old (now 12) to officially hold the certification yet.??But he passed the exam, and for that I could not be prouder.??From what we were able to find in our research, he is in rare air among some of the youngest in the world to have ever passed the CCNA Exam.

They are both continuing forward, with one preparing for the CCNP Collab Core, and the other preparing for the CCNP EN Core.??The mantra they will continue to keep hearing from their dad, is simply that they have options.??They can absolutely go to college, but they will NOT be “failures” if they decide not to go.??Frankly, they will have opportunities to become Network Engineers right out of High School, should they choose that path. This career path and industry as a whole has been very good to me, and to my family.

Whatever they choose to do, I’m so very proud of them. It was such a privilege to see that first gleam in their eyes as things really started “clicking” for them.??I remember gaining that exact same gleam in my eye years ago, when I started in the industry as a timid, na?ve teenager.??I will never forget all of those kind and patient people who took the time to teach me, mentor me, point me in the right direction. who helped me learn from my mistakes, and patiently allow me to pester them with question after question.

Here’s to the next generation of network engineers.??Let’s encourage them, pour into them, and put them up on our shoulders.??It is truly one of the most rewarding things that you’ll ever do.

#cisco #ccna #ccnacertification #cisconetworking #ccnp #networking #ciscocertification #ccnatraining #networktechnician #networkengineer #historyoftheinternet