Walk the Walk

My journey started back in October 2016. I had just failed to clear the CCIE Collaboration Written exam in order to re-certify my Cisco credentials. This had been a biennial occurrence since 2004 when I had first passed the CCIE Voice lab exam.

In case you are unaware of what happens to an active CCIE after the recertification deadline has passed – Cisco doesn’t waste any time in telling you that your CCIE goes into the SUSPEND status. This is a snippet from the email I received a few hours after the deadline has passed:

“Our records show that your recertification deadline was October 4 2016 and your CCIE now has a Suspended status. If you have suspended status for more than one year, you will be required to take an the CCIE written exam and the corresponding CCIE lab/practical exam to restore active CCIE status.”

I found myself visiting the Person VUE website organizing the logistics of re-sitting the Written exam when it suddenly occurred to me- what happens if I don’t re-certify? Surely the CCIE Collab blueprint is due a massive upgrade. What if I accidentally on purpose forget to re-certify? Wouldn’t it be so beneficial to both me and my customers if I had the opportunity to go through the entire process myself?

My skills were out of date and surely this was a great way to give myself a refresher and also stay up to date with changes that were about to happen behind the scenes. Enough talk Vik- time to Walk the Walk.

Throwing Everything Away

I still had a year grace period remaining in case I wanted to reverse my decision should common sense prevail. I had a year to simply pass any Written exam and re-certify. Nothing lost nothing gained.

In the 365 days that followed I questioned myself- was this necessary? Was I being stupid? I talked it over with several previous customers with whom I had built up a friendship and opinion was divided.
Continue reading The journey to become the first person (I think!) to pass CCIE Collaboration version 2 →