I initially wrote this about a year ago. Updates at the end!
Many of you know that I started my career many years ago, working for a Cisco Partner and Cisco Training Partner back in my country Venezuela, and soon after, I started to take exams, and get certified!
I earned the CCNP, CCDP, and CCSI certifications back in 1999, and then CCIP in 2006.
Unfortunately, the CCIP was later retired by Cisco. And I say unfortunately, because that was one of 2 certifications I have been most proud of during my career. JNCIE-SEC is the other.
I stopped teaching Cisco classes long ago, so the CCSI is no longer valid.
However, the CCNP and CCDP are still ACTIVE!!! yeap! That’s right! Still ACTIVE!
You probably realize that it’s been more than 20 years since I obtained these two certifications (yeap, I am little older than many of you reading this! LOL!), and yet, through all these years, I have kept them ACTIVE!!! I have religiously taken the re-certification exam every 3 years, and right now, I am preparing to take the ROUTE exam again, which will make it my 7th time re-certifying!
Many of you also know well, that at some point in my professional life things took an unexpected turn, and my career took off on a completely different, very successful, fun, and rewarding path with Juniper Networks!!!
In fact, the last time I re-certified CCNP/CCDP I was teaching a Juniper class, I believe it was an AJSRP. I told my students on Monday that I had spent the weekend studying for a Cisco test, and that some Cisco terms could slip out of my mouth (It actually happened once, and we all laughed!). I asked them to forgive me, and told them that my brain would come back to 100% Juniper, after passing the test that afternoon, which I did!
Now, you might be asking yourself: why does she bother to study and take a Cisco exam every 3 years to keep her Cisco certs active, if she’s mostly working with Juniper products?
Well, here are my thoughts:
– I took me so much time, so much effort, so many long nights studying, so many sacrifices (not only mine, but my husband’s), to go from very basic networking knowledge, to the CCNP/CCDP level that: Why not make a very small effort in comparison, every 3 years, to study and refresh my knowledge, and pass one exam, to keep them active?
– Being “bilingual” has been invaluable in many ways, and preparing to renew my certifications helps me maintain that. It gives me the ability to interact with other people, that might not be as familiar as I am with Juniper.
I can tell you one thing: I am very happy where I am right now in my career, and will keep passionately advocating for Juniper Networks, teaching people about Juniper products, and pursuing Juniper Certifications (Next in my horizon: JNCIE-CLOUD) because I truly believe their products are superb, and because Junos Rocks!! but I will always respect and appreciate, the fact that my beginnings were doing Cisco training and engineering, and that the CCNP, CCDP, CCSI, and CCIP opened doors for me in two crucial moments of my life.
12/05/2020 UPDATE:
I took the SPCOR exam yesterday to recertify, but I did not make the cut. I got 795, needed 825. And just like that my Cisco certs are gone after 20 years!
I don’t want to make excuses, because most of it is totally on me which kind of makes me mad at myself. It had never been so hard for me to find the discipline and focus to study. When I got my CCIP, I did it with two little boys under 5 years old. I took care of them, and still passed all 4 exams.
The fact that I was able to be that close to passing SPCOR, despite all the craziness of the last few months (super busy at work, COVID and the fears of catching it with MS, election year, …) and not having touched a Cisco router in quite some time gives me comfort.
So, what is next?
I know I can pass SPCOR and I spent a lot of time in the passed couple of weeks studying. I will go back and pass it in a few weeks. Will decide later if I want to take any other exams to get CCNP back.
After SPCOR, I am switching my focus back to my beloved Junos.
#JNCIA and #JNCIS MistAI are next!
and I have to get that 5E jacket I saw at Nxtwork last year…
Stay tuned!
03/05/2021 UPDATE:
Re-took SPCOR and passed!!!
03/20/2022 UPDATE:
And yesterday, I passed the SPVI exam, and I got my CCNP SP back!!!!
THANKS to my hubby (best husband ever) for pushing me to take the exam!!!
Also, THANKS to Matt Saunders (@citylifematt) from Cisco for his support!!!
Was not easy! Cisco’s knowledge keeps fading in my brain! It was a good refreshing exercise to study for these tests. Yesterday, as I was taking the test, some questions were easy, and some were like: “wait, what?” and during those moments, the annoying negativity voice in the backs of our heads that many times haunts us, kept saying: “well, if you fail this, what are you going to do? Is it really worth it? Aren’t you too old for this now? You can really just sit back, relax, and enjoy what you have achieved!” But nope! the other voices in my head were stronger: “if you give up on this, you will give up on all the other things! and you are not like that!”. I clicked END, and no report came up! don’t know why! that has never happened before. Came out and the lady was messing with me: “I am sorry dear!” but then laugh and gave me my printed report: WOW! I passed! (not a stellar score but good enough). 3 years from now, I am taking a class to recertify!!! That’d be easier on my brain cells!
BUT now ladies and gentleman, no more Cisco for me for a long while.
Next: get my JNCIEs recertified and start seriously working on that JNCIE-CLOUD!
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