Hey!

It seems like forever since my last post and I apologize for that but I have been particularly busy. Here’s a quick update on what I’ve been up to over the last month or so.

I was contacted by another organization on base that had some interest in hiring me; they serve as a service provider and network architect team for us. When they first approached me, I was very interested in the position. I would be working with a dual CCIE and a bunch of really smart guys that seemed to enjoy their jobs. I would get to work with a bunch of new technologies and products that I have yet to in my current role which is a definite bonus. However, one critical requirement existed that I did not have. I had to have an MCSE 2012 or MCITP Enterprise Administrator certification to even be considered.

Although this position would be purely networking, the company has a hard-fast requirement for all of its employees since a lot of the contracts they win are based on the #  and level of certs their employees have. For anyone who knows me well, I went straight from working at a help desk to becoming a network admin so my server experience is still very limited at this point. I learn what I can when I can and when I’m not trying to catch up in my own field, networking. So I decided I would try to give it a go and attempt to get my MCITP which is comprised of 5 exams. I knew it wouldnt be easy and it was under a tight deadline but I wanted to give myself a chance at least. I started with the Deploying Windows 7 (70-680) exam. I gave myself a week of study and took the test. Failed… To be very honest, I was knocked back a little at first because I hate to fail but I decided to give myself one more week to study and try again. I passed! But one thing stood out from the 2 weeks I spent studying that wasn’t there before. I am not that interested in server administration and while I would have liked to have that position, it wasn’t worth it to spend a month and a half or more cramming for MS certs that did not interest me. So I gave up on that opportunity. This did help me in another area though.

I decided it was time to get back on my CCNP Security studies full force and make some real progress. My goal was to pass the FIREWALL (642-618) exam by March 1st. I scheduled the exam and went into review mode. I felt pretty confident going into the exam and I passed, but I certainly didn’t score as highly as I thought I would. As most in this industry know and have said, “a pass is a pass”. Now I move on to the next exam, VPN (642-648) and I’m giving myself a soft deadline of May 15th which is approximately 2 months of study time. I know some things are going to come up between now and that time to get in the way of my studies which is why it’s a soft deadline but I won’t push the deadline past June 1st.

I hope to have some technical blogs up throughout the next couple of months that not only cover my VPN studies but some other projects I’m working on at home. Time will tell! As always, thanks for reading and stay posted!