Recently, I’ve been thinking – one of the rare moments that I do – if I should press on with getting my CCNP or not. Here’s where I’m at: I know that I want to one day pursue the CCIE. First I thought I’ll get there when I get there. But now (largely because of support and encouraging wave of the CCIE community and their own pursuit) I am more firm in my desire to go for it. I am more confident that I’m not alone or just a stranger stuck in a solitary and lonely pursuit of it. There’s actually a lot of folks out there that are trying it and going for it; folks that are more advanced in their knowledge of the technologies, as well as those who don’t know jack – take me for example.  

But since I cleared the CCNA, it’s been my semi-long-term goal to go for the CCNP next. Seems like the natural progression. But as I plowed through my trek to get through the first hurdle – passing BSCI – my approach towards my studies has began to evolve. My focus is no longer just passing the BSCI. But instead, I’m going deeper into the technologies with the idea that I will be taking this knowledge towards my IE pursuit.

This is good and all. But what ends up happening is that my original goal of getting  through the BSCI in 5 months (6 months top) is now going into its 7th month. I’m not really as worried about that as much as about abandoning a solid strategy. By now my original strategy has changed since I didn’t accomplish that goal of clearing the BSCI in 6 months. That is, of course, not to say that I haven’t accomplished anything. In fact, I have learned so much in that last 6 months. I’ve gone pretty deep into my studies that I know OSPF more than I’ve ever have. The same goes for BGP. I read the chapters on these technologies more than twice. I read the Doyle chapters at least once with scattered follow ups. I did labs. I wrote a lot of notes. But feeling confident about BGP and OSPF is not enough to pass the BSCI. I still have to go back to review EIGRP, RIP, Multicast, IPv6, et al.

Herein lies my dilemma. Since I’ve spent more time on OSPF and BGP over anything else, it came at the expense of the other technologies I should be focusing on just as equally. And because I’ve invested this much already, I’m feeling that I might as well spend as much on the other technologies and shift my focus on learning them just as well as opposed to limiting myself to a timeline for getting throught this track – in essence, go deeper into the technologies as a CCIE candidate would. This would mean that it’ll be 6 more months before I’ve gone through the whole BSCI blueprint thoroughly. That’s quite a long time to prepare for just the BSCI. Of course that’s not nearly long enough if I were actually preparing for the CCIE. So I’m thinking, I should just shift my focus towards CCIE preparation.

On the other side, if I were to work on acquiring knowledge just enough to pass the BSCI and the subsequent tracks that follow, then I would have a better and measurable strategy, than just going all out. And doing just enough may not be as bad as one might think. It might actually even be more effective. By focusing just enough of the basics (or intermediate knowledge), without going too deep into the technologies, it allows n00bs like me to cover a wider spectrum of technologies without risking exhaustion or overwhelming oneself.  It could allow the brain to retain more knowledge for long term use – say, for CCIE prep. Going through each track, to me, seems like the best way to measure ones progress – passing (or failing) each test gives somewhat of general idea where one is at. Reminds me of that qoute: “yard by yard, everything is hard; inch by inch, anything’s a cinch”, or something like that. And really, it was my origininal intention all along to just get through the CCNP tracks before going too deep. It’s just that somewhere along my preparation, I got too caught up that I went deep much too fast than I might have been able to handle. Come to think of it, I’ve gone through so much information already, that I might only be able recognize a concept if you asked me about it, but not be able to expound on it as profoundly as I should.

So, in summary:

1. I could forget the CCNP and focus the next few years preparing myself for the CCIE:
   • It will free me from the self-imposed timeline that limit me from exploring all technologies as wide and deep as I can.
   • I will be going after what my end goal is anyway – CCIE.
   • By going through the CCIE blueprint, I will be covering most CCNP related materials anyway.
   • I’m already digging deep into the technologies, no sense to ease up now.
2. Stay the course and stick with the original plan:
   • By taking carefully measured steps, I can slowly build up to my ultimate goal - the CCNP would be merely a consequence.
   • It’ll prevent sensory overload (brought on by the demands of CCIE preparation) to the point of exhaustion.
   • Having a smaller and more manageable area of focus will improve my chances of success.
   • Spreading out the information allows for better chances of learning and remembering the materials.
   • “Yard by yard, everything is…”, well you know the rest.

Here’s another thought: maybe I’m really not as smart as my mom said I was. She also said early on that I was really really ridiculously good looking, only to be disappointed when I found out that  she only said that to get me to eat my peas. Then again, maybe my bearings are all screwed up and I somehow I have this crazy idea that all this should be easy.

Well, I’m glad I wrote this post. Because reading it back to myself, I just wrote some pretty good arguments for and against either points. Arguments that I can use to help me clear my mind and stick to a plan.