CCNA/CCNP bloggers… Represent!
Posted by Aragoen Celtdra on July 15th, 2008
All CCNA/CCNP bloggers, where ya at?
In recent days, there’s been a lot of buzz amongst popular CCIE bloggers about the growing trend of CCIE candidates blogging about their experiences. Ethan Banks recently added some new CCIE bloggers on his list and I know he’s been looking for writers to contribute to his own blog as well. Just today CCIE Pursuit summarized some of the previous headlines calling for CCIE candidates to blog about their journeys. IpExpert is looking for bloggers on their new CCIEblog.com domain – and they are giving away excellent prizes to get people to sign up.
I think these are excellent ways to share knowledge and contribute to the networking community as well. In fact reading these blogs is what really gave me a lot of ideas that I incorporate in my own blog. They also serve to inspire me to keep pushing towards my career goals.
But while these expert level blogs continue to increase, I haven’t seen many CCNA/CCNP-centric blogs out there. Once every week or so I scour the internet to find such blogs that can potentially be a source of “information dump” for people like me pursuing the CCNP. And when I refer to information, I don’t just mean facts and figures related to the CCNP subject areas like routing, switching, or anything technology related. I’m also looking for people just sharing about how they feel towards the actual journey itself:
- Are they finding it hard, easy, manageable, etc?
- Do they approach their studies similar to how I approach it.
- Are they spending the same amount of time to certify as I am?
- What kind of real-world experience do they currently have and to what extent does real-world experience minimize the effort needed to pursue their goals?
Essentially, it’s a study of patterns and habits, and ways of doing things. It’s a gauge of where typical is and isn’t. Information and tidbits can be had very easily with all the information that is out there. But to follow a specific person’s journey is a true learning in itself. And I do think it’s a great way to learn.
Just to expound a little bit on what I’m trying to get at: When I was in college, I took a lot of sociology and anthropology classes. When I was learning about how researches studied other cultures/tribes/groups of people, these researches couldn’t just observe them and formulate their own conclusions. They had to live with these people. They followed their every move, their every habits, and participated in their customs. By doing this, we learned why people do things that to others don’t make sense. And we can agree that other ways of doing things can be just as effective as the way we do things.
That’s kinda like how it is with blogging. Technology has gone a long way to bridge people closer. With the popularization of web 2.0 technologies, we are able to experience a whole new way of doing things. I’ve been blogging since late 2003/early 2004 and I found it a very convenient way to interact with my friends and family by sharing with each other happenings, events, images, and other things through this.
So back to my original thought, where are all the CCNA/CCNP bloggers? Make yourselves known if you’re out there. Let us know how you study, how you feel about your journey, and what your goals might be. It’s interesting how so many CCIE blogs are out there when there clearly is a lot more folks running for the CCNP. Is it that CCIE candidates take a more serious effort towards getting their digits than someone who is working on his CCNP? I’d hate to think so. If anything, a strong foundational background of the lower to mid level skills will probably do more to help in preparation for the higher-level certs such as CCIE. Or is it that people just don’t bother with it because the CCNA/CCNP level certs don’t reflect as much “prestige” as trying to acquire a CCIE cert? Who knows! But if you happen to read this and are on a path to getting a CCNA or CCIE, I encourage you to blog about it (if you don’t already do). We get to learn a lot about the characteristics and tendencies of those studying for the CCIE, but there is a huge void about how they got there.
July 16th, 2008 at 7:37 am
Mine should be up and running in the next few weeks. Temp name & url:
http://jsbnb.blogspot.com/
Just trying to wrap up my S+ (easy, I know, but I’ve been slacking) and then I’ll be hitting my CCIP. Current NA (April 07).
-Joey B
July 16th, 2008 at 8:44 am
You are absolutely correct about how many CCIE’s blogs their are out there and hardly any for the NP track, so I was pleased to have googled and stumbled upon yours. I’m currently working on my BSCI and really need to make a schedule because between family and work it’s so hard and I’m begining to feel as though I’m letting my goal slip away BUT that’s just talk sometime (you know that voice asking you why you’re doing this..well maybe that’s just me). Anyways I started my site last week I guess but haven’t had the time to put everything I wanted so give me a few weeks but I do enjoy your site. I’m always here seeing what else have you blogged lately. With that said, good luck and hopefully we’ll both cross that IE one day..
Bless..
July 16th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
[...] Aragoen posted a blog entry on Route My World (which by the way is an execellent blog which I have followed since his CCNA [...]
July 16th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Aragoen,
You actually inspired me to start a blog last week. I need to update my links (gonna have to steal some of yours, haha) but thanks for everything.
http://ciscofun.wordpress.com/
July 16th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Joey: Nice of you to be back! Good luck on the S+ (and nothing is ever easy). Excellent decision to start a blog of your journey. I’ll drop by every now and then to see how you’re progressing. You’ll be on your way to IP in no time.
Michael: A schedule is a MUST if you want to stay disciplined in your study (if you aren’t already). If you’re like me, I tend to wander around if I don’t have a specific daily goal to shoot for. In the end I accomplish nothing. And congrats on the blog. Blogging has also proven to be an effective motivator to study ever since I started having regular visitors. So, if I don’t study I don’t have anything to update the blog with.
Suffah: Hey Suffah! I’m glad that I inspired you to start your blog. The truth is, I use everyone else’s experience as inspiration for me as well. That’s why I like reading other people’s blogs to help me moving when I feel like I don’t want to study. When I see people really into their studies, I feel like, “hey, I can do that too.” And also, I feed off other people’s style of studying. I’m always tweaking my study methods to find the most effective ways to learn.
June 22nd, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Here’s mine! I need to get better about writing more regularly. It is my own blog and it has sections for network stuff as well as just my own personal journal. If you like it, tell somebody!!! http://www.bigblueorange.com
June 26th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Greg: I actually just posted something about CCNA/CCNP level bloggers not posting a lot in their blogs. This blog is one of the exceptions obviously!
Feel free to check it out @ http://www.ciscocertifiedhell.com/ccna-ccnp-blogging
July 7th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Gerren, I like the look and feel of your blog. Nice. I added your site and this site to the links section on my site.