Featured Student Testimonial – Antonio McCarver #CCIE 51061 (Collaboration)

This week’s featured testimonial is from Antonio McCarver who recently passed the CCIE Collaboration Lab Exam November 17th, 2015 which was also his birthday!  Congratulations Antonio and it was a great pleasure to be a part of your success! Here’s what Antonio had to say about his experience:

First and foremost there are NO words that can adequately express how grateful and thankful I am to have passed this beast of an exam. There are even fewer words that I can use to describe how blessed and fortunate I am to have had the training and tutlage that I have had from Vik Malhi. To say that he is the best in the industry is an understatement.

Anyway where do I start? If I go to the very begining then we may be here all day long. However, I need to, as best I can, give credit where credit is due. The journey for me honestly started back on December 19, 2008. That’s when I was notified that I had won a complete end-to-end training program to begin preparing me for the CCIE Voice track. I decided that I would start preparing after the new year started and when the CCIE Voice track was going to be changing from v2 to v3. That’s when I met Vik Malhi who was the Sr. Instructor at the time, and Mike Down who was one of the sales consultants. I made some half-hearted attempts at the Voice track and if I am being honest with myself, I probably was more afraid of putting in the “real” work to get over the hump.

So how did I go from half-hearted failed attempts on the CCIE Voice track to passing the CCIE Collaboration track? Simple, knowing that over the years that Mike Down and Vik Malhi never gave up on me, even when I gave up on myself. I made the decision to pursue my CCIE Collaboration with everything that I have in me. I decided that I would sacrifice whatever I had to sacrifice to make it happen. That’s when I contacted Mike and said “Hey I haven’t seen Vik’s material since he started CollabCert but I want to EXCLUSIVELY use whatever material he has. Oh and I have 5 other people that want to join me.” That was the birth.

I convinced 5 of my buddies that Vik was the best trainer in the world and that I was sure that his material would be the difference between us passing and us failing. I was right! (3) of us have passed and the remaining (3) are preparing for their studies now.

So how did it happen? Again the answer is simple, I started with the CollabCert LMS + Workbook material. I watched and devoured every video that Vik has in the LMS. And honestly, his LMS product is without question the best product in the market to help you go from wherever you may be in the technologies to knowing the technologies inside and out. I would watch one of his videos and then work my way through his workbook. Vik’s ability to keep his hands on the pulse of the industry while at the same time being able to teach and explain the most complex scenarios in the most Layman’s terms.

I could honestly stop right there and it would all be true. However, the secret sauce. The reason why I actually passed. Yes I had to put in the work. I spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours, in front of the rack pounding a keyboard and making phone calls. But the truth beyond the truth is, I passed in part because Vik and Mike care about their students. I attended Vik’s bootcamp back in April and took my 1st attempt on May 4, 2015. I thought I was game and ready but Vik cared enough to be honest and say, “I don’t think that you’re ready.” He was right. I wasn’t and I ended up not passing. I was hurt and devastated and I took a break. A long break actually. A 4 or 5 month break. BUT during this time, Vik never gave up on me. He would still call, text, or email. Name another instructor that cares enough to take the time to do that with their students while at the same time preparing other students to pass!

I got up off my behind and said I can do this and I told Vik that I was going to pass this test. He told me to schedule the exam and don’t change the date. I did. I set it for October 15. I got back on the horse and I worked my butt off. True to his character Vik was still there for me. Looking at my configs, answering my questions, and most importantly being honest with me about where he felt I was at. I sat for the lab and came the closest that I have ever come. I showed him my score report and he said “schedule it again for 30 days from now and get it done.”

So what made the difference this time. Was it the superior training material from CollabCert? Yes that played it’s part. Was it all of the hours that I spent in front of the rack? Yes that played it’s part as well. What about the vested interest that Vik has in all of his students? Sure that made a difference too. But what it was, without question was the workshop bootcamp AND Vik remaining honest about what I was doing right, wrong, and just stupid. Up until the night before my exam, Vik was hitting me up and reinforcing where my shortcomings had previously been. Name another instructor in any track at any company that will take their time to call or text a student (while a class is going on none the less) and say “hey let’s talk about this or that?”

The night before my exam after Vik and I spent an hour going over some minor details and him dissecting my personal strategy, he says “I think you’re ready!” No words can describe the level of comfort in those words from someone that you believe is the best in the business. That night I couldn’t sleep or rest well. I woke up at 3am EST the morning of my exam. Read my notes from our conversation and said I can do this. I went into the lab and stuck to my gameplan. When I was about to do something stupid, I heard Vik’s British accent say “Don’t do that or Why are you doing that?” I learned at the bootcamp that it’s just as important if not more important to have a testing strategy in place and not just a configuration strategy. I was finished with my lab in more than enough time to test, re-read the lab, test some more, read the lab again extremely slow, and test again.

I walked out of there feeling like I passed. I immediately called Vik and we conversed about my day. There were some challenges along the way but because of our conversation I was able to overcome those in the way that a true CCIE should be able to. Vik ended the conversation with “Good luck, I hope you got it. Text me when you get the results.” Almost 3 hours later it happened. I got the email from Cisco with the subject of “CCIE Lab Score Report.” My first thought was, oh man that was way to soon this can’t be good. But I trusted my configs and I trusted Vik’s teaching. I went to the CCIE portal, logged in and I saw the greatest (4) letters ever, “PASS.” I clicked on PASS and there it was “Congratulations on passing the CCIE Collaboration Lab Exam!” along with my brand new shiny CCIE Number: 51061! I took a screenshot and immediately sent it to Vik. Why? Because he cared enough to never give up on me, always be honest with me, and to do what he could to help me get over the hump.

So if you are one of the ones that looking to pursue the CCIE Collaboration, why would I recommend the awesome folk over at CollabCert.com? Simple:

1.) The LMS+Workbook is the best training material on the market.
2.) The Workshop Boot camp is without question the best in the world.
3.) Vik Malhi and Mike Down care more about your success than any amount of money.

If you do your part and put in the work, trust in the products that CollabCert offers, and allow Vik to mentor you, you will experience the extreme unexplainable joy that I am feeling being a CCIE Collaboration! Vik, Mike, THANK YOU! I love you both!

Antonio McCarver – CCIE# 51061 (Collaboration)