Opening Thoughts
Introduction
Assuming someone in the future is reading this to see how someone’s journey to the CCIE would be, I’ll skip all of the fluff about my background and stuff. I’m just an average Network Engineer with experiences that probably aren’t much different than yours. I have the CCNP Enterprise already, but I’ll have to retake ENCOR again in the midst of this journey since mine will expire in Feb. 2026 (at least as far as the lab is concerned). Anyway, the impetus for this is mostly an accountability mechanism for myself. A lot of people will commit to the CCIE yet they do so rather haphazardly and have some reservations. Don’t get me wrong – I have plenty of reservations. There’s a huge mental aspect toward the CCIE. Personally, my mental hurdle is that I put the CCIE on a pedestal. This is for good reason. It usually takes several attempts, a lot of time and money invested, and a sense of seclusion. Truthfully, I already suffer from imposter syndrome. “I’m not as good as X, Y, Z person” is a common thought. Therefore, it’s my estimation that to break that mold is to face it head on. Just commit toward the process. That’s what I’m doing here.
Goal
So, it’s June 15th, 2025 as I’m writing this. I would like to aim for taking my first attempt in a year or so. I should probably have a definitive date, but I’m not sure yet. If things were to change for whatever reason, I’ll probably push it out 18 months or so. This would be approximately Jan. 2027. From all the research I’ve done, people generally take about a year to eighteen months. Some less, some more. People usually study (or perhaps lab) for 1000-1500 hours. Let’s use that as a reference.
Motivation
I think it’s best to write out some reasons why I want to obtain my CCIE numbers.
Become a better engineer – This is the most important one for me. We spend so much time at our jobs. We’ll most likely stick with one profession. Why not be great at it? If we’re spending thousands upon thousands of hours doing something, shouldn’t we be pretty good at it?
Credibility – Who doesn’t want more credibility? We all want our opinions, thoughts, and knowledge to be trusted. Suffice to say, we want to be the go-to person (or at least be a part of whatever decision-making body) within our organizations.
Career Prospects – The more you dive deeper into your profession, the more recession proof you’ll be and yes, you can expect a higher ROI. I’m not sure how true that is in 2025 (Reddit seems to think that the CCIE isn’t worth it anymore with the rise of SDN). Nonetheless, I want the most assurance possible to be able to provide for my family. Pocket money doesn’t hurt either.
Personal Goal – I always want to try to accomplish what few do. I’ll be honest, though. I haven’t really done that in my life thus far. I’d say I haven’t done anything remarkable. To me, the CCIE is a remarkable feat. It holds weight.
Schedule
I don’t have an ungodly amount of time. I have a wife and a son. I don’t have much hobbies so that’s a plus, but I’m human. I’ve read where people would study almost exclusively for every waking minute. In fact, I’ve heard of people going to their office on Saturday and Sunday to lab for 10+ hours. I can’t do that. I’m still going to be present in my family’s lives. Personally, that’s more important than the CCIE. However, I can invest enough time needed to get my CCIE number.
To simplify, I aim to study Monday - Friday for about four hours. I have to be at work at 6:30am so I most likely will need to study from 3:30am to 5:30am. Then, I’ll read whatever books or documentation during some downtime at work. When I’m off of work, I can study a couple of hours in the evening once my son goes to bed. This is roughly 20 hours.
On the weekends, I fully anticipate on using Sunday as an off day. So, on Saturday, I’m thinking I can get about five hours in. If I continue to wake up at 3:30am, I can get about 2-3 hours in the morning and some at night. I’d like to think I’ll have an aggressive schedule, but this one seems rather tame. It’s nothing crazy. I’ve heard of people committing 30-40 hours a week. I don’t think I have that amount of time. However, if you assume about 1500 hours of study divided by 25 hours a week, that’s about 60 weeks. However, life does happen. People get sick, events occur, vacations happen. I think this is why my estimate of January 2027 is more realistic.
Resources
Books
I’m trying to not make this such as extensive list. A common pitfall I’ve read about is people allocating dozens of books and they get overwhelmed. I want to use Brian Mcgahan’s advice and focus on the core protocols. I think these can be accomplished with a few books.
- Routing TCP/IP, Volume I & Volume II (Jeff Doyle).
- Internet Routing Architectures, 2nd Edition (Sam Halabi)
- Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN: Design, Deploy, and Secure your WAN, 2nd Edition (Volkova, Tovar, Mohorea, Schuemann)
- IPv6, 2nd Edition (Peter Loshin)
- MPLS Fundamentals (Luc De Ghein)
- End-to-End QoS Network Design (Szigeti, Hattingh, Barton, Briley Jr.)
- Cisco Software-Defined Access (Vemula, Gooley, Hasan)
- IP Multicast, Volume 1 and 2 (Loveless, Blair, Durai)
I think the aforementioned books will cover a lot of the fundamentals. Again, I don’t want to overwhelm myself with books. It’s already a daunting journey.
VoDs
I’ll go INE here. I don’t currently have a subscription anymore so I haven’t even looked at their CCIE content. They’ve just been a staple in the networking community for so long. Plus, I really enjoyed their ENARSI series. My goal is to somehow work the videos in, maybe during work or something. Nonetheless, I’ll probably have them on repeat during my daily commute. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get the subscription though.
Bootcamps
I hear everyone attends Narbik’s bootcamp. However, this is a non-starter for me unless an employer pays for it. They’re just ridiculously expensive. Never say never, though.
Labbing
I have a CML lab with a Personal license on a Dell server. If I recall, I have 256 Gb RAM, 72 vCPUs, etc. I’m not sure if I’ll need the Personal Plus with forty nodes; only time will tell. As a side note, I watched an older RouterGods video on YouTube where CCIEs in whatever communication channel they were using unanimously agreed that labbing 2-4 hours a day is essential. I’ll be aiming for two hours minimum.
Documentation
These are going to be key. Cisco whitepapers, documentation, Cisco Live videos, RFCs, etc. I’ll probably read as much as I can during some spare time.
Closing Thoughts
I did read the Your CCIE Lab Success Strategy: The Non-Technical Guidebook by Dean Bahizad and Vivek Tiwari. There are a lot of gems in this book. It really does make you believe that the CCIE is as mental as it is technical. I will say, some of their methods appeared to be very extreme. One author had their wife record videos and take pictures of their children so they felt like they weren’t missing out on them growing up. I can’t do that, but all power to them. They are double CCIEs for a reason. Nonetheless, their suggestions on writing out your goals, having a tangible gift in mind to motivate you when you pass, visualize you passing and having your CCIE number, thinking of the CCIE number itself rather than the exam, etc. are golden pieces of advice. I highly suggest someone wanting to take the CCIE to read this book.