Morris studied for one-and-a-half years before attempting his first CCIE. He says the first was the most difficult. “From a content perspective, they’re equally hard, but from an experience perspective, the first one was the hardest. [Studying for the CCIE] was all fairly new back then; I didn’t know how to prep.”
Not Cheap or Easy
It’s gotten easier over the years, as a plethora of test preparation equipment has been developed. That doesn’t mean, however, that the CCIE is easier to get. The written test and lab practical take a great deal of time and money to prepare for. The average CCIE, Morris says, takes the test 3.5 times and spends $15,000-$20,000 to get the credential.Once earned, though, the certification opens doors. Morris says the CCIE doesn’t sell itself the way it used to, but is still valuable. “It’s not quite the same as it used to be, because of increased awareness of [the CCIE]. Back in 2000, you would have a higher chance of being employed in a really high-paying job. But nowadays, there are more places to be employed with it. But there’s a lot more competition [i.e. more CCIEs] that in some areas drives the prices down a bit.”
More Than Just a Job
While his Cisco certifications have helped keep Morris employed over the years, he gets more out of his CCIE than that. For him, preparing for both the written and especially the lab portions of the test is its own reward. “The certification itself makes you prove that you know what you’re doing. With the lab exam, there’s not a lot of guessing. The value is really in the doing.”It’s not like that for everyone. Brain dumping – the practice of getting test answers ahead of time from websites that aggregate test content – has become more commonplace, even for a certification as grueling as the CCIE.
Security Upgrades
Morris points to that as a weakness in Cisco’s certification program. “The biggest area I’d like to see them strengthen is security of the exams, particularly at the CCIE level.”He says that Cisco recognizes the problem. “They’ve added core technology questions as a way to weed out brain-dumpers in the CCIE lab. You find people willing to take shortcuts [in the current recession]. The quantity of people attempting the CCIE is increasing, and the number of people getting caught is increasing, too.”
Help Wanted
As for employers, Morris says that CCIEs, and other Cisco-certified candidates are good fits in most environments. “The CCIE and CCNP [Cisco Certified Network Professional] will give you someone with more experience. But there are fewer people certified at that level, so the cost will be more.”As for the lower-level category, the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), Morris says there’s a place for them in IT shops, especially since Cisco has made that entry-level credential more challenging. “The CCNA today, the stuff they test you on is harder than what it originally was. And there is a much higher quantity of people at that level. For a small network, a CCNA is right up the alley and at the right price point” for many companies.
In other words, you don’t have to be a quadruple CCIE like Scott Morris to have a good career with Cisco technologies. That’s a good thing.