I have worked with many an IT engineer. I can divide them into three very broad categories:

Super technical

Fairly technical

Not technical at all

and three personality types:

Very poor interpersonal skills

Does what is needed but no more

Great fun to work with

And of course you can mix and match. Getting a super technical person who is also great fun to work with is fairly rare to be honest but it does happen.

I have worked with all sorts but the ones who stand out are the uuber geeks who can read hex like it is a Harry Potter novel and quote all the RFCs but you wouldn’t put them in front of a customer in a million years.

The others were ones who made work fun and did their job to the best of their ability. They could be pretty technical but it was more their attitude which makes them stand out in my mind.

This brings me onto skills I feel you will need to make a success of your IT career as far as being good at your job is concerned.

1. Touch typing – I know this is not a technical skill but if you look at a network engineer typing away with one finger on each hand, the customer begins to sweat. Being able to touch type at a reasonable speed means you can configure and fix things much faster.

When it comes to your CCIE lab you had better be able to type fast my friend because 8 hours flys by in a flash.

2. Google – answers to 99% of your problems can be found on the web in the form of white papers or forum questions and answers. Even at Cisco TAC, with an absolutely huge repository of information we often ended up checking Google for answers to questions.

3. An enquiring mind – great if you can configure frame relay but if you have an enquiring mind you will want to understand how it actually works. Where do the lmi’s fit in and what happens between your router and the frame relay switch?

You will want to set stuff up in your own lab, break it and then fix it over and over.

Don’t get caught up in too much off topic stuff if you have an exam coming up but most every good network engineer is good at lots of stuff but has a very in depth knowledge of certain technologies they find interesting personally.

4. Sense of humor – this is vital. When your backbone goes down at 17:00 Friday evening you will need to take quick action but also be able to keep a sense of humor about it. Be appropriate of course but I’ve seen grown men scream and cry when there is a network fault!

5. Be a people person – I know this is hard for many of  us, especially if we are very technical. Unless you want to stay locked in the basement with all the geeks you need to work on your verbal, listening and interpersonal skills.

I know of one CCIE who is actually left in a basement, he can fix anything, anytime but the company would never ever let him in front of a customer. He can barely speak to his own colleagues.

When all is said and done, we will look back and remember the relationships we have had with others rather than the great configs we wrote.

Paul Browning

I’m having to remind myself all of this stuff at the moment to be honest. Due to an illness in the family I am starting work late many days so I have to be doubly careful to remain focused and avoid distractions.

Here is an example from just yesterday.

Got home intending to write articles for three hours.

Started but a friend started to chat with me on msn – 10
mins.

Checked my bank account online – 5 mins.

Checking my e-mail for anything important – 10 mins.

Helped wife bring shopping in – 10 mins.

Making tea and coffee – 10 mins.

Friend called me to chat – 20 mins.

Checked discussion forum – 20 mins.

Sent funny video on web to watch – 15 mins.

Hey presto. 3 hours writing turned into a poor quality and interrupted 90 minutes. 90 minutes of my precious time thrown away never to return.

If you are to get the most out of your study sessions then
you simply must:

1. Turn off all distractions including pagers, mobile phone ringers, e-mail audio alerts, instant messengers and home phones.

2. Turn off your internet browser unless you need it specifically to research a topic.

3. Inform your family not to interrupt you unless there is some sort of emergency.

4. Go somewhere where you know you will not be distracted.

5. Set your timer for the amount of time you intend to study and keep going until your time is up. Make sure you take a short break every 45 minutes.

Paul Browning

The results of our ‘What Motivates You to Study’ poll are in. They make very interesting reading.

Personal development comes first.

Making more money second, closely followed by protecting yourself for redundancy.

I’m looking in the future to have all the main Cisco certs. which I have already mentioned here. I am also looking to hand over the day to day running of the site to the members who have proven themselves most keen to help others and grow the site.

I will still be involved but very soon I am about to launch a brand new project which is going to be very big indeed. I will give you more details when I have something to show you.

I don’t want to be the big man of the site, it is there for you to help grow you and grow your skills so you should be thinking now if you want to be a part of it or not.

Clues – help on the forum. Make comments on articles, log in and study/pass exams. Have a sense of humor, make a few suggestions. Bonus points for submitting your own articles or other content.

Paul Browning

I’ve heard all the excuses about why people can’t study or come on my weekend course (the day before it is due to run). I thought I’d share afew of them with you for fun.

I put down the excuse and my somewhat sarcastic comment about it in square brackets.

In no particular order.

1. I couldn’t make the weekend course because it was raining. [This guy paid $997 twice and didn’t turn up twice. Turned out he was using my course as a cover to see his mistress].

2. I’ve been busy [watching the box set of Lost].

3. My wife is pregnant. [she only fell pregnant last week].

4. I fell down the stairs. [you should get those fixed as you called in last month saying the same thing].

5. It isn’t sinking in. [no, you actually need to open the book to assist in the learning process].

6. My partner won’t let me study. [no, she would rather you sit on the sofa watching TV with her. Get rid of her and you will have lots of free time].

7. I’m a slow learner. [so are the rest of us but c’mon, three years for the CCENT is a bit much].

8. I just don’t have the time. [join the club. Ever heard of getting up earlier. How about weekends? Ever heard of Tivo?]

9. I can’t come this weekend. I forgot it is my wifes/ mothers/own birthday. [don’t they have calendars where you come from]?

10. I don’t have the money to join the site/buy a book [no, it all went on your cigarettes, beer and flat screen TV..sheesh]

I get some strange messages sometimes. Well, okay pretty much daily. I guess it comes with having a large list of people getting my messages. Here is one from yesterday in response to my tip of the day.

‘no I don’t have a job yet, in fact for all the money I’ve wasted on trying to get Cisco certified I may as well have become a lawyer.’

Firstly – is any money invested in your own development really a waste? I find most successful people spend around 10% of their disposable income on self improvement. Maybe he hasn’t passed the exam yet but surely all the studying was for some purpose.

Second – you really do not need to spend a lot of money to become Cisco certified. Many people buy a few books which of course you can usually get second hand and plenty of hands on time on live racks. You can even buy eBay kit and sell it after you pass.

Third – attitude is everything. Anyone can pass their exam but it is a hard road with at least 2 hours per day for 60 days. I’ll be honest here with you and tell you that most people who start quit. QUIT QUIT QUIT QUIT QUIT and QUIT again.

At this point they make excuses, fade off back to life as it was pre-goal or look for somebody to blame of course which is an all time favourite.

If the above guy started out training to be a lawyer, which I’ve done by the way he is looking at five years hard grind and you have to start out at the bottom.

Compare that to 60 days and you can make some good money as well!

Paul Browning

I’m not sure if you remember one member passing her CCNA at the end of the week. Ana B has had two job interviews already:

‘Hi Guys, thank you again. Just to let you know how important and powerful is the CCNA certification I had two interviews already! So far I can tell you that there were heavily focused in security: VPNs, Firewalls, and topics of CCNP that I just start reading. Just a comment, don’t forget the basics, I had many questions about OS, so I have to review very quickly that as well, maybe take a A+.’

Yet another strange message after I put out the post about a member passing and getting 2 job interviews the same week.

‘If the CCNA is so great, why can’t I get a job?’

I can tell you why just after reading your one line message.

1. You probably expect the job offers to come rolling in as soon as you pass the exam. The CCNA just gets your resume read. That is all. The rest is down to your personality and any experience you can show.

2. Your attitude probably sucks looking at your message. Instead of asking for advice you moan that life hasn’t gone the way you wanted it to. Would you hire you?

3. You need to apply for around 50 jobs per week. You need to be chasing recruitment agents. You need to be improving your skills even more by adding voice and security. You need to speak to all your friends, colleagues and family telling them that you are looking for networking roles and asking if they can get you in front of any network managers so you can demonstrate how enthusiastic you are.

4. You need to draw up a list of every company in your area and call asking to speak to the network manager asking if they have any openings for network engineers.

I don’t know anyone who had success come knocking on their door. Take Jim Carrey for instance. He drove to LA broke and homeless. He started doing stand up for free until he made a name for himself. After all his hard work he made the big time and demands $10 million per movie now.

Paul Browning

I have been writing articles for a new site I am launching and some of them are about having credibility. It got me thinking. Does a certification give you credibility?

Passing an exam only really means one thing. That you passed the exam. In the context of Cisco, unless you have cheated somehow then it means you have hit the level of knowledge Cisco deem you need for that level of role:

Network Associate Network Professional or Network Expert

The certification gains you:

Respect from colleagues Personal satisfaction Career choices Kudos Increased confidence

But this isn’t the main thing to be honest, although they are all important.

Having the qualification means you are the sort of person who has the determination and tenacity to put the work in to achieve your goals.

You can be answering all the forum questions. Know all the configs and secret commands but when it comes down to it, do you have the strength of character to sit down for two hours per day and do you have the courage to walk into the testing centre and risk failure.

Hats off to you if you do because you are in the minority.

Paul Browning

I have special powers and if I came over to your house I could tell in five minutes or less if you were going to pass your exam. I wouldn’t even have to ask you a single question.

Here is what I look for:

1. Lawn not mowed for weeks

2. DIY jobs neglected

3. Car not washed

4. Dog not clipped

5. E-mails not read

6. Twitter and Facebook not updated

7. Rack of routers on your desktop (powered on)

8. Labs printed

9. CCNA manual covered in hi-lighting and scribbles

10. Flash cards open

11. Hypno audio on your MP3 player

and finally…

12. Print out of your exam date on your notice board.

Paul Browning