An ISP of their own (was RE: [rescue] Being jobless)

[Andrew Weiss]

On Thursday, July 31, 2003, at 02:11 PM, N.Miller wrote:
>
> One good thing did come at Cisco from the latter--since Clarify
> was a competitor's product, it could not be used in a production
> capacity at Cisco (company policy).  The were just getting started
> on the spec'ing internal tech support replacement tool when I left.
> Let me be clear: Clarify sucks rocks.
>
HOW very TRUE... I HATE CLARIFY....blargh... absolute piece of 
crap...the main web client is ActiveX... so what's the point of it... 
it certainly isn't cross-platform.

>
> Ditto on that.  I had a CCNP on my lab staff that new the hardware
> backwards and forwards, but couldn't troubleshoot to save his fricking
> life.  I had a 20-something UNIX admin with the same attitude, who
> had better trouble-shooting skills.  From him, I could understand
> the "certs are everything" attitude--he was trained to think that.
> The network guy was old enough to know better (he was older than
> I am).

> I have considered studying for several certs, but just don't have
> the proper mind-set for all the memorization b.s.  I'd much rather
> shell out the cash, spend a week in a cram lab setting, and immediately
> take the test.
>
In hindsight I could have passed both CCNA and CCNP exams with just the 
books... well at least the CCNP ones since I already had gotten some 
hands-on experience in the consulting I was doing... I still don't 
devalue what came out of those books... I single-handedly obtained a 
large amount of networking and routing knowledge from those texts and 
wouldn't give it up for anything.  Cisco stuff just makes sense to 
me... and even though many here don't like IOS, I think of it as one of 
the most comfortable and straight forward environments I've ever 
encountered... (I am talking Cisco router IOS... not the hybrids).

I'm still happy my last company paid for my CCNA and CCNP training... I 
reciprocated by scoring them an awesome deal... they bought the CCNA 
training for $3000... our guy got sick part of the way through and it 
got cancelled... I took the test anyhow and passed... instead of 
getting a refund, I asked for free admission to the CCNP course... they 
accepted... so I got a $3000 and an $8000 course for $3000.  The CCNP 
training was worth it... the CCNA not... CCNP training is for the lab 
setup and the equipment practice.

Andrew