This week’s featured testimonial comes from Paul Rittell. Paul was able to end his 2015 in style by passing the CCIE Collaboration Lab Exam. Here’s what he had to say:
I will tell you guys the good, the bad, and the ugly of the CCIE Collaboration study world. My journey towards the CCIE was very frustrating at first. I originally used a different training vendor for the CCIE due to brand loyalty, their popularity and my assumption that the quality from other products would surely follow into their CCIE Collaboration Bootcamp. I was completely inaccurate.
The “training center” for this well-known and “reputable” company was hosted at a large room in a hotel. We had to share labs with other people on a desk that was just deep enough to allow one laptop and nothing else. Sharing labs ended up being pretty frustrating because you could not venture off without ruining the pace of the other person. The bandwidth in the room was not adequate for our class. At any moment we would lose internet connectivity and all phones would unregister in the middle of our labs. If someone performed a video conference then we lost connectivity. It was absolute chaos and extremely difficult to work through labs as you had to troubleshoot your own mistakes and the poor network setup as well. To top it off, we never received the workbooks that were promised. In conclusion, the CCIE training is a different ball game and do not trust someone based on Web Appearance, Videos they have created or lower level training materials.
I was at the end of my rope when I met Vik Malhi. I had the opportunity to speak with Vik in person and after talking with him I knew I would have a better experience with his training facility and approach to the lab exam. I took Vik Malhi’s CollabCert Workshop twice and the experience cannot be considered to be in the same class as these other guys. There were NO shared labs, bandwidth issues, misconfigured racks and when we paid for the workbook he actually gave it to us! The training center is an actual training center with a kitchen and an astonishing view of downtown San Jose. The tables have a huge amount of space and you can easily spread out notes, laptop, keyboard and mouse. Vik stayed late with us and was very patient with even the most inexperienced students in the class. The workbooks and facility alone were worth it but I truly do believe the best asset is learning from Vik. He gives you an actual game plan and teaches you how to attack the lab. When you come out of his class you WILL know what you need to do. At that point, it’s up to you banging out the hours of practice on the keyboard to get your number. Don’t trust these other guys! Go to CollabCert, practice, practice, practice and get your number!
Paul Rittell – CCIE #50814 (Collaboration)