This week I spent my own personal money to attend a bootcamp in the pursuit of my CCIE. I had plenty of choices and options of where to go and where to take it.  I choose CCBOOTCAMP, because I was already watching the videos from INE and doing their labs and IPEXPERT just didn’t fit within my schedule, also the travel to their training location was out of my way.  I took the class in Las Vegas and stayed at a hotel within walking distance to try and minimize as much as possible the cost to me.  I am footing the bill for this myself since my company is less than interested in helping me.  This is something that I wanted to do and so I am doing what I think it takes to make it happen.

I came into this week being very nervous that I was going to be behind everyone else and not know enough and basically waste this week and my money.  I have been studying for the past several months labbing as much as possible and some days it just doesn’t feel like enough.  I was pleasantly surprised to come out of this week and be able to do most of the tasks with little problem and only referencing the docs for the stuff I had no idea on or was questioning the syntax.  Of course I reaffirmed that I have weaknesses that I have to work on, and that ther eare certain areas I need to focus on for the next couple of months.

I also learned something else even more important I need to attack the test like a composer does a score rather than a musician playing their small piece.  What I mean by that is I have bright points where I am very good and can breeze through tasks much like a Flutist or a Cellist playing their part.  What I need to get good at though is being the Composer and knowing each and every person’s part and knowing when to bring them in and when to use what technology.

This was a good week for me, it helped me to build confidence in that I was actually learning the information and that I had a chance of being ready to tackle the test in May.  Hopefully I can keep moving forward and solidify my knowledge in the tasks where I am lacking and become the well rounded composer that I need to.

The way I had this worked out was that my lab fee is due next week and I wanted to make sure that I was somewhat before I paid the $1500 and started making travel arrangements for the test.

To all my fellow composers out there, I wish you the best of luck in your studies.

If anyone cares about my experience with CCBOOTCAMP or anything else associated with it let me know and I will tell you.