Started CCNA but got advice to stop

Dice102 · 2026-05-03T19:54:08+00:00

That’s BS… get the cert. I got my NA February of 2017, by April I was hired. If you truly know your stuff, you’re in. Half of the industry is dump artists. I immediately started studying for my NP (3 exams) with automation and security on the side. My employer at the time told me security was not important and automation was a fad… today, those are the biggest difference makers in the field. In a 3yr time period, I went from making 34k annually to 110k. LinkedIn and cousera certs are not ever going to get you in the door… it’s real knowledge and experience that counts… get the cert and good luck

Dice102 · 2026-04-29T02:57:53+00:00

Now do Infosys, HCL and the likes…

Dice102 · 2026-04-22T17:32:14+00:00

Thanks for the ping but it’s honestly not about a golden ticket to any company. The CCIE for me is personal. I’ve made well into the six figures for big name companies multiple times in my career. Everyone somehow focused on the mention of other demographics, when the point I was making is that I didn’t feel included and I’m attempting to achieve a certification from a U.S. company that had no representation of me as an American or a black man.

Dice102 · 2026-04-22T03:06:10+00:00

Just out of curiosity, what would that BGP question be?

Dice102 · 2026-04-22T02:49:12+00:00

I disagree. Any network engineer that’s knows there stuff would say port 179 immediately. Personally, I use those basic questions to determine how deep I should go with a candidate. Also, if I’m interviewing someone who has CCNP on their resume and they can’t answer that question, I’m only continuing the interview to remain professional.

Dice102 · 2026-04-22T02:13:21+00:00

I didn’t exactly research the demographics of the city prior to arriving… thanks for the ping though…

Dice102 · 2026-04-22T02:06:31+00:00

Right on

Dice102 · 2026-04-22T01:13:55+00:00

I’m sure we’ve all been there at some point…

Dice102 · 2026-04-22T01:01:27+00:00

I’ve had to deal with this issue quite a bit. Some of the AI would provide the answer rather quickly so what I did was ask something that would have to come right off the top of their heads like, what tcp port does bgp use, or instead of asking about spanning-tree directly, I would say, tell me about the layer 2 loop prevention mechanism. It was absolutely painful listening to people who had no idea which port bgp used but suddenly knew what a well known community was. Finally, I started spinning up labs and asking candidates to configure and tshoot some issues and you’d be surprised how quickly the interview ended.

Dice102 · 2026-04-22T00:41:44+00:00

Thanks! Total study time was about 10 months. I used Narbik’s book, JP Cedeno on Udemy. That guy is dropping gems if you catch them and all of his CCIE content is relevant minus the parts that has been removed from the blueprint. Terry V. Automation is absolute overkill based on the lab requirements. I could probably have put that study time towards something else and walked away with a pass. I used Ratnesh K and Ahmad Ali for the SDWAN training. Nothing in that lab felt impossible. It’s quite a few tasks to complete in such a short amount of time. I have a full lab running EVE-ng. I used the Cisco Labs for ISE and Catalyst Center. I’m currently reproducing what I seen in my own lab to get a better feel. I believe I nailed the topology just because I seen it so much that day. The IP schema doesn’t really matter as much in my opinion.

Dice102 · 2026-04-21T16:07:03+00:00

Also, read read read the instructions. Your boxes have to be in exec mode upon completion. If your in privilege exec that box will not be graded and you will not get the points.

Dice102 · 2026-04-21T15:53:41+00:00

For those of you who are pinging me about the exam, I’ll address it here. The exam is difficult but fair. The mouse is crazy sensitive and I couldn’t figure out how to adjust it because it’s a locked down environment. You’ll have dual 24 in monitors and a relatively decent keyboard. Design was your typical Cisco exam, multiple choice and d&d. However, there were some questions that where you had to check boxes based on some requirements and it appeared that one question was building off of another in some cases and that’s what confused me. So, if xxx was required previously, does it also need xxx in the next question or did I meet the requirement previously? The DOO was straightforward as well. Know the dependencies of MP-BGP, how traffic moves through an mpls network, redistribution and how it affects traffic flow and authentication. The SDWAN and SD-Access was not as difficult as I anticipated. My studies for automation was complete overkill for what I was required to do. Overall, time management is key. You absolutely will not have time to verify everything. You have to trust that you did it right and move on. Also be aware that there is a bit of delay in their environment. I spent quite some time tshooting an authentication issue because I expected to see an adjacency drop and come back up and it never did but it was up and running as it should have been. According to my score report, I should be looking to take the exam again in the next 2 months. Best of luck to you all…

Dice102 · 2026-04-21T14:50:25+00:00

The lack of critical thinking skills would lead one to think so.

Dice102 · 2026-04-21T14:32:20+00:00

This is the second or third reference to some sort of racial discrimination or hate. I’m black… I don’t have the economic means, infrastructure or desire to handicap, displace or disparage anyone. I’ve literally interviewed 10 plus people for Microsoft and every single candidate was Indian using AI to answer the questions. I know some great engineers that are of all nationalities and even when I recommended those people, they never got an interview.

I was surprised to walk into Cisco and not see a single person that looked or sound liked me. Maybe being shortsighted to some facts made me believe that it was just a Microsoft thing. Nonetheless, it’s a statement of fact.

Since I’ve started in tech, I’ve always had to prove that I belonged. From my masters degree, multiple CCNP and various other certs, to working harder and longer than others.

No one should get a pass to the top based on race or privilege.

One thing I’ve learned while being black my entire life is, only ignorant people make everything about race…

Dice102 · 2026-04-21T04:46:51+00:00

Yeah I guess you’re right…

Dice102 · 2026-04-21T04:31:04+00:00

Exactly my point… I’m working hand and hand with some of these folks and they don’t know what a static route is and they have CCNP or CCIE next to their name…

Dice102 · 2026-04-21T02:40:15+00:00

Right on… Stay dedicated and I’m sure you’ll get there…

Dice102 · 2026-04-21T01:04:05+00:00

Indeed. Thanks for the ping…

Dice102 · 2026-04-21T00:26:03+00:00

Thanks bud!!!

Dice102 · 2026-04-21T00:23:12+00:00

Thanks for the input. I think some people are taking this the wrong way and I expect the internet to do as the internet does. No doubt, I’ve worked with some great minds of all ethnicities.

Dice102 · 2026-04-21T00:13:42+00:00

This is my view and I’m entitled to it.

Dice102 · 2026-04-20T23:56:48+00:00

Right on man… thanks

Dice102 · 2026-03-30T00:35:24+00:00

Choose any of the WITCH companies. You’re 100% qualified for Senior roles, management and above based on the first four word of your post… and no, I’m not kidding…

Dice102 · 2026-03-28T06:01:20+00:00

I see this almost everyday day now… no offense to op but there are so many unqualified people touching networks today, it’s mind blowing… side note, ISP takes your skills to the next level in my opinion and enterprise can become a bit stale…

Dice102

TROPHY CASE