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A secretary-turned CCIE
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| HardLearner 2002-06-19, 9:58 am |
| Ok, my turn, my turn.
I passed today in San Jose on my second attempt. It's strange. I keep thinking I'm going to wake up in the morning and find out this is only a dream. I think I'm the first female CCIE employed by Schlumberger. I'll find out later when I get back to work.
There were three people from Day 1 who made it to Day 2 in my group. The weird thing is that all three of us got our numbers today. That was really cool.
The only advice I can give to people is to reread your foundational books such as Doyle and Halabi. I got so much more out of reading those again the second and third time through. I continued to learn tidbits even though I thought I already knew most of it. And practice, practice, practice. Be able to configure this stuff in your sleep because you won't have time to figure it out then, yada yada yada. You've heard this all before.
Don't ever think you can't do this. It can be done. Two years and nine months ago I quit my secretarial job because the pay sucked ($27k/yr) to change careers and go into the IT field. See, I'd heard about this thing called MCSE that paid about 10 grand more a year as a starting salary than I was currently making. So, I quit my job and went through the Microsoft classes and got my first job on a help desk in May, 1999. In August three months later I got transferred from that help desk position over to the Cisco-outsourced helpdesk called the "TAC". But, oh gosh, I gotta learn about something called a router that kinda looked like a VCR. Whatever, the pay was better and I didn't have to listen to anyone patter on about not being able to get their mouse to work. But, none of my new co-workers cared about my shiny new MCSE, all they talked about was this thing called CCIE, which was something you got after you got your CCNA. Little did I know at the time where that fork in the road would lead and that I'd finally found my niche.
Well it was two years ago this month that I first learned what a router was and how they made a network go. And look at me now. Crying on the proctor's shoulder this afternoon sobbing "I've got my life back!" I couldn't stop laughing and crying simultaneously. I'm sure they thought I was nuts, but, hey, I didn't care. The stress had me a bit crazy here at the end, anyway. And if anyone doesn't like it, I'm a CCIE and can kick your butt...
So, that's about it.
Norma
--------------------------------------------------------------
Schlumberger/Network Solutions
Norma Schutt, CCIE 8063
WAN Element Manager - Cisco
5599 San Felipe #400
Houston, TX 77056
Office: (713) 513-3253
Fax: (713) 513-3150
Helpdesk 24x7: (713) 513-3180 | |
| The Reamer 2002-06-19, 10:08 am |
| Congrats!!!! I am hoping to find the same relief sometime next year. 
Reamer | |
| shanelai 2002-06-19, 10:41 am |
| I'm guessing that when you say "today", you mean a year ago?  | |
| darthfeces 2002-06-19, 11:30 am |
| "today" would have to have been like 7-9 months
ago since i know somone with an 8700's # who passed the 1 day arround jan - feb.
the last 2 day was arround october 01.
this would have has to have been late last fall.
9369 was issued 5/25/02
either way contrats | |
| Imran4sin 2002-06-22, 4:48 am |
| Sup,
Good stuff Norma,
im a ..well nothin against you .. dont even have my CCNA yet... but im gonna get that ..very soon.
Gonna be graduating this year..hopefully with a double major(BSc CompSci and InfoSys) .. hope to get a good job but if the IT jobs remain the way they are then its gona be frekin difficult.
Will continue my studies towards CCIE.. hope to get there.. one day... Can learn a lot from situation....
So yea.. hav fun for now.. you deserve it..
aiight  ,
l8r, | |
| Soray 2002-06-22, 11:36 am |
| sounds good. congrads. | |
| born2network 2002-06-25, 8:12 pm |
| geeeeee Norma,
U go girl. :-)))))
Congrats, | |
| ciscoteacher 2002-06-27, 9:28 am |
| Good job Norma, girls kick ***!! | |
| limsam 2002-07-02, 6:42 pm |
| Norma, how much did you spend for CCIE classes? | |
| buckwheat 2002-07-02, 6:53 pm |
| Wow, way to go. That's very inspiring. Congratulations on a major achievement. We all kowtow before you. | |
| rsteedma 2002-07-02, 11:45 pm |
| I tried the new CCIE Verification Tool. 
> CCIE Verification Tool
> Yes, Norma Schutt is CCIE number 8063.
> Certification is currently active.
Go Norma! A wonderful achievement.
Cheers,
Ron | |
| darthfeces 2002-07-03, 5:59 am |
| yes, but that post might not have come from norma
indicated by the time difference in when that # was issued and lack of a reply.
I could pull maybe 5 of those type of
letters off of groupstudy per week.
either way in real life the real norma is someone
to look up to. It can be done.
in 2 years i've amassed my certs and hope to take the lab next spring and security right after. | |
| Norma_S 2006-04-23, 6:15 pm |
| This is the real Norma here. I just found this thread about me. Cool, eh.
I originally wrote that post to Group Study on August 23, 2001. Someone else posted it here months later.
I'm glad I've been an inspiration to others. I just recently took a new job with another company after getting laid off from SLB. My new company required a mini-lab during the interviewing process. I was so nervous. I kept remembering the real lab of 5 years ago. My prospective boss told me how they had another CCIE on staff and that the highest anyone had ever made on the lab was a 90%, which did nothing for my nervousness.
I scheduled their lab for the following week. I got there and found I had to confiugre frame-relay, router on a stick, EIGRP, and VPN between a router and a PIX. Nothing really all that hard if you've been working with it.
Anyway, they told me later after I got the job that I'd made 100% on it. My new team consists of me, five guys and the boss. Who'd of thunk it, me, the only girl on the team and the only one to ever score a 100% on their lab.
I'm still kicking butt and taking names five years later. LOL
Norma Schutt, 8063 | |
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