Where do you start a blog? I've been thinking about this for the past week, I have many topics I would like to talk about, so which one goes first? I settled on starting at the beginning. Education. How we become network engineers, architects and designers.
I spent 6 years at university getting a masters in telecommunication. At the end of it I had acquired many new and interesting skills. Above all others I was an expert at passing exams.
Looking back, I now see, that about 5% of what I learned has been relevant for my working life, And that I actually only use about 1%. That equals about 3,5 months of relevant knowledge and about 3 weeks of useful knowledge.
During that same period I did a lot of IT in my free time. All kinds of stuff, servers, networks, programming. Some of it was at my student job, some was voluntary work, and some was just for fun.
What shocked me, was that when I started my first "real" job, I needed almost all the skills and knowledge I had gained in my free time and hardly any I had gained in my education. Actually, I couldn't have done my job without them. I would have been completely naked, just holding my degree. I remember thinking, I should have done more of that! Some of my friends had and I realized, that they actually knew much more than me and where far better prepared for a "real" job.
So what does my degree prove? It proves I spent a certain amount of time, learning certain subjects and that I can pass certain exams. Full stop.
A certificate is exactly the same. A CCIE [Replace with certification, from your favorite vendor here] proves you spent a certain amount of time, learning certain topics and that you passed a specific exam. Full stop.
A CCIE has little in common with real life. You don't use theoretical knowledge in the field you use practical knowledge. Theoretical knowledge is something you look up, when you need it as Einstein said:"Never memorize something that you can look up". A lab isn't a reflection of reality either. There is no network, that has all equipment from the same vendor, with the newest versions of hardware and software, where you have 1ms between devices and your work isn't service effecting. Dealing with "problems" in a lab environment is not "real". Real problems happen at 4.00 in the morning when you haven't slept, you are hungry, your devices are at least an hours drive apart, your service window ends in 1 hour, in two hours your customers are going online and your colleague will have 5.000 phone calls to deal with if you can't get this router to work.
So whats the deal with certifications? IMHO it's cash cow - not for the people who get certified, but for the vendors providing the certification. They make money on the certification programs, exams, learning materials and they requirer their partners to have certificates and they are churning out evangelists by the thousands, who will market their brand.
It's fueled by partner programs, which only serve to acquire higher discounts and by selling the illusion, that with a CCIE you can get a great job and earn lots of money.
Now you ask: "But don't CCIEs get well paying jobs?" Well, didn't your mother tell you to get a college degree, so you can get a well paying job? Unfortunately, that's not how the World works. A college degree is no guarantee of employment. But the costs of the degree are going up. Why is that? Because everyone is getting a college degree. It's a cash cow for the universities fueled by the false equation "degree = job". It's no longer only the top 10%, who can achieve one - everybody gets one. The same goes for CCIEs. There are about 40.000 CCIEs out there, add in all the top level certifications from other vendors and you probably have over 60.000. And thousands are added to theses numbers every year. Once a CCIE was something special, just like a college degree. That just isn't true anymore.
"What about the well paying jobs then?" Here's the secret: It's the other way around! You get experience and prove that you are worthy of a well paying job. Then you can do a CCIE, if you feel like challenging yourself, your employer requires you to or you need to prove yourself, to someone (maybe yourself?).
After working almost 15 years in this industry, I have come to realize, that the people I prefer to work with are usually autodidact, they have no certificates, no degree, never went to university, but they love what they do. They have a desire to do more, learn more, be better and a they are humble to the fact, that they don't know everything. They are not afraid to ask online and offline about the problems they face. If a new skill is required they will go seek it out and absorb it like a sponge. These are the people you want in your company,
When I do a job interview on the employers side of the table, I don't do a validation of the candidates technical skills. I don't have a checklist saying: OSPF, BGP, MPLS...and so on. I want to know who the persons is, how does he deal with an unexpected situation, does he have a desire to acquire new knowledge, has he been in a similar work environment, does he know how to deal with demanding customers.
I have seen job descriptions, with one requirement only: CCIE. Are you kidding me? Is one CCIE the same as the other, so you can just replace them. I would never apply for a position, that has a requirement list as short as that. Either they don't know what they need or they just need a replacement, Like a switch in network, "This one's broke, we'll just get a new one with a different serial number." What does this tell you about yourself, if you apply for a position like that? Are you just a serial number?
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