Hello!

He’s been an inspiration to me , just because he’s another family man, kicking some serious CCIE-sec rear. He’s very knowledgeable and friendly and he’s solved many a doubt on twitter for me. So i sent him some questions and i for one am very very excited about this interview . I have learnt a lot after reading this and i hope it’ll motivate you too. Let’s get this show on the road!

I am doing well how are you?

I currently live in the Tampa Bay area of Florida.

I actually started my IT career with the CCNA certification. I was in my second year of college and met one of the Cisco instructors. He convinced me to sign up for the CCNA class. I eventually got my CCNA then went on to achieve my CCDA, CCSP, CCNP and CCDP. Essentially, my introduction to I.T. was through Cisco training.

This was an easy decision for me. I am a Network Security Engineer/Penetration Tester so it was a very natural fit for me to choose the Security CCIE. I also am of the opinion that since their are less people who are certified as a CCIE in security that more jobs will be available once I am certified.

I currently own all of the IPexpert materials.

I don’t have a daily study plan as a weekly number of hours I try to put in. I schedule two eight hour rack sessions per week and I try to spend at least four hours doing theoretical study such as reading, watching videos and doing practice OEQ questions. This puts me at right at 20 hours per week. This has worked well for me so far.

My advice would be to make sure that your family understands how much is involved in attaining a CCIE before beginning the process. My wife is very understanding and realizes that achieving a CCIE is good for us both. She wants me to succeed and that helps, but I also think you should be at a point in your life where you can allocate that 20 hrs per week and not feel like you will lose your mind. If attaining a CCIE is going to cause you to lose your job or family you should consider something else.

I am happy to say that at this point I don’t have what I would consider any really bad weak points. I still hate dealing with NAT on routers as it can get ridiculously over complex, I also am not a fan of NAC framework as it can be very nit picky to get just right. I will say at this point I am at what I would consider a comfortable level with all of the material. I have done over 400 hrs of study and a bootcamp to get to this point but, I do feel like I can get close if not correct on most topics without the documentation.

The only role-model I have is my father. He is a mechanical engineer and worked for NASA for many years. He designed and tested systems that are part of the current Space Shuttle fleet. He gave me my first computer when I was 13. It was a Packard Bell 486sx. What’s funny as these computers were known to be complete pieces of crap.(I still don’t know if he did that on purpose). It would break and my dad would say if you want it to work you have to fix it. So I would fix it.He basically forced me to start learning to fix computers at 13 years old. I attribute most of my success to him pushing me.

The lab is a very different experience from your studies. It’s not super hard but not easy either. It will stretch your mind and you probably will be asked to do something you haven’t done before. make sure you know the Doc website well and don’t take the OEQ’s for granted they can be quite hard.

TacACK : On a scale of 1..10 , how close are the ccie material to the actual lab. Does this break the NDA? If yes, please feel free to skip this question.

I would say about an 8.

1. Know what you are undertaking and commit to it. There will be times when you want to quit, just keep going.

2. Take your time read the questions and don’t rush. Make sure you understand every detail of what is being asked.

3. Try to be calm! Nerves are probably why I didn’t pass on my first attempt.

4. Know how to stack technologies. VPN and Multicast routing for example.

5. Read the Doc Website and know where to look for subjects you are weaker on.

I think I am going to take a real vacation. I haven’t had a real vacation in over 5 years and I think after this I will deserve one.

Now , wasn’t that a great interview?! Brian was actually in the process of sending me his pic, but i just couldn’t wait. This interview was so awesome, i had to post it up for everyone to see. Once i get a picture, i’ll add it in

I am very very confident that Brian’s going to kill this lab the next time he attempts it. My best wishes to him and to his family You can reach Brian on twitter through his twitter handle ( @infosecsamurai ).

Hope you enjoyed this as much as i did!

Cheers!

TacACK