Hello :)

General New Member Introductions
1

Hi there, I am glad to join this community. My name is Filip and I am from Serbia, a small country in the central Balkans. I fell in love with networking almost accidentally about 1,5 year ago.

For me, CCNA was very tough exam because I started from the scratch and spent almost 6 months studying. At the begining, I didn’t even know the difference between DNS and DHCP, but I was very persistent to succeed and passed CCNA with 1000/1000 in october 2014. I was so happy and that was the great motivation for me. After that, I enjoyed learning CCNP RS and CCNA Security. I became CCNP certified in april 2015 and CCNA Security in june 2015. After that, I’ve started learning RHCE, but decided to come back to Cisco and go for CCDA and CCNA Collaboration. I havent’t yet taken these exams, but I will in next few monts.

The situation I which I am right now is that I want to learn everything. I want to go for CCIE RS, CCNP Security, CCNA Wireless and Collaboration, but I cannot decide in which way to go first. :smiley: Now I am learning MPLS, QoS and Multicast and maybe it’s strange, but I really like it. :smiley: Besides that, i like VPN technologies, IPsec, BGP, OSPF. These are the protocols and technologies where you have to use your mind any logically think and that’s why I like it. Few days ago, I’ve solved “Advanced MPLS VPN” lab on GNS3Vault website, includin gSham-link and BGP SOO, and I am very proud of that. :smiley:

I have to say that Rene’s “How to master” books and GNS3Vault website were very very helpful for me, and without it, it would be very difficult for me to pass CCNP. These books are gold and labs are great, I am very thankful for that, and that is why I decided to join this website. I like Rene’s explanations, they are very clear, and after reading them, It is very easy to understand how technologies work. They cannot be the only resource for learning, but after reading them, everything else becomes so easy and understandable.

The bad side of the story is that I still cannot find my first networking job. We are very poor country and the job market is very small. I want to go for CCIE but, according to serbian salaries, it is very very expensive and probably unprofitable here. That’s why I hope to one day go to work in the western Europe.

That would be the short story of me, I would like to greet all and wish a happy new year. :slight_smile:

2

Hi Filip,

Welcome aboard and happy new year :slight_smile:

CCNA is probably one of the most difficult exams since many topics are probably new to you. CCNP is easier since learning more about something you already know is easier then learning something new.

About your goals/plans, make sure you keep focus. It’s easy to chase butterflies by switching from one topic to the other. CCIE R&S is a lot of fun to do but it’s also very time consuming. Doing CCNP security / wireless together will take less time to complete and might be very valuable on the job market. I know some CCIE R&S people who had difficulty finding work since all they could do was R&S.

Good luck for now!

Rene

3

Thanks Rene, you are totally right. I don’t want to be a “CCIE” that does not know anything but routing and switching. To be called an expert, I have to know at least the basics of wireless and VoIP technologies. After I finish learning Multicast, that I have already began, I’ll use this year to gain the CCNA Wireless, Collaboration and CCNP Security. I’ve already started CCNA Collaboration. I like it but, personally, I hate GUIs and CUCM kills me. :slight_smile:

4

Hi Filip,

I’m also not a big fan of GUIs, another issue with products like CUCM is that they change very often. One of the advantages of R&S is that things don’t change that often…OSPF will be OSPF and BGP is BGP, there are no “major” changes for these protocols.

It’s good to know the basics though :slight_smile:

Rene