Cisco Voice Guru

I was a little jealous because my friend Roger won a hat from the “Ask the Expert” forum on Cisco’s site.  So I wrote Ben Ng a note on the forum – not asking for a hat, but running some strategy questions by him.

This is what I asked:

Ben,

In your opinion, when do you “know” that you’re ready to take the lab?  There’s a plethora of Cisco documents to review, hands-on training to get, etc.  For someone like me who is having to shell out the money myself (going on $10k without booking the lab), how do you know?  What can a candidate use to gauge his confidence level?

I know some guys have the mindset that they’ll take it once, expecting to fail.  Most of those guys are probably getting it paid for by their employer.  For guys like me, who want to take the lab (and actually have a chance of passing the first time), what would you say?  Any sagely words of wisdom?

Ben responded with the following insight.  I think he did a pretty good job of summarizing what it will take to pass:

I’d say you’re ready to pass if you can do these:

1. Configure most of the UC routing and features listed on the blueprint
2. Be able to troubleshoot any of the blueprint items: knows where, what, and how to gather and then understand debugs and traces.

Yes, I don’t advise one to come in the lab just to take a look – you prepare as if you only have one shot at it. But if you did not make it, take advantage of the experience learnt from the failed attempt and do better on the next.

Let’s say there are three people who need to lose 30 lbs to meet the physical requirement to become a fire-fighter, each took a different route:

• One started exercising daily and watched his diet, and which eventually become part of his daily life,
• The other started to reduce food intake to the minimum for an extended period of time;
• The third one went to a surgeon and requested removal of excessive body weight

In the end all three lost the weight and became fire-fighters, I am sure each route was not an easy one for the individual who took it, as each required sacrifices in his own circumstances. I do think one might have a better chance of becoming a confident firefighter with a long lasting career, but only time will tell.