What Next? June 4

Filed under IT by Павел Стефанов | 0 comments

Now that I have finally completed my high school studies and boring and tedious stuff is out of the way, I am starting to make new plans for the upcoming months.  I have already accepted an unconditional offer to study Telecommunications Engineering in the Glasgow Caledonian University and almost everything is set up there so it’s time to get back to my studies. I will probably take a few weeks’ break until I start again, but it’s very important to have a plan beforehand. In the meantime, I covered IPSec extensively as this was removed in the R&S track a few years ago and wanted to get the grip of it.

Paths

The paths that I have considered in the months between passing my CCIE R&S lab and now are very different and include:

  • Microsoft Certified IT Professional
  • Linux
  • CCIE Service Provider

The reason I chose to study Telecommunications Engineering over Computer Networks & Security or other similar courses was the chance to broaden my knowledge and have such in different areas. That is why I prefer a course with a wide area of knowledge to a very “tight” course. To be honest, end-user applications/OS do not really draw my attention so it’s not something that I feel like dealing with in the future. However, I realize that only by having knowledge in these areas in addition to networking can I succeed in the jobs market.

MCITP

This certification seems interesting as it consists of 7 exams, $50 each. I am not really pursuing certifications because being certified does not mean anything by itself, it just means you’ve passed an exam. The way that you gain it is what counts, but no-one could argue certifications are a great facilitation to get that knowledge by setting yourself a goal.

I took a look at some of the guides and to be honest the stuff inside is not really rocket science as most of the things are like which thing is situated where and what this option does. So I’ll leave that certification for my term-time, when I expect to have very tight schedule and very little time and Microsoft books would be much easier to read than ISIS or AToM :)

Linux

I’ve been advised by many of my friends to play around with Linux and try working with some of the services available like NAT, Firewall, DHCP, DNS, FTP & HTTP servers, etc. That I will probably leave until I finish my CCIE SP track.

CCIE SP

I think CCIE Service Provider should my next step. First off, I’d like stay in shape after my CCIE R&S lab so that my knowledge is fresh. Second, CCIE SP seems to be a natural and appropriate path after R&S as the similarities in the blueprint are most compared to other tracks. Besides, I’ve already read a few books about MPLS and it really got me interested. CCIE Security was another way to go, but I think I’d better leave it after SP. The only thing that I am thinking of changing in my preparation for the SP track  is passing the written after I am done with all the books, RFCs, Configuration Guides, CoD and other video materials.