Is it possible to prepare for CCIE in a year. Project results


    On October 2, 2015, I received a message from the old friend Emil Garipov in a personal message from Habr with a proposal to cover the preparation of him and three other colleagues for the CCIE on our linkmeup site.

    linkmeup open. I very quickly realized that an idea can burn out only if done from the preparation of the show. You know, like "CCIE behind the glass" or "Let them love with Emil Garipov." Spread progress, materials, labs, personal experiences. Invite to joint reflection.

    Otherwise, no one will even read this, and Emil will write on the table.

    It was with such introductory November 12 that the first key meeting of experts took place: Emil Garipov and Natasha Samoilenko.

    This is what the letter looked like ...
    For a long time, there was an idea to prepare for the CCIE, but after your UNL podcast an idea came up that I want to share with you. I don’t know whether you support or not, in general, everything is in order. I have three colleagues who have just recently taken a CCNA course. Moreover, two of them are employees of the IT department, and the third translator, but passionately in love with the IT sector. The idea is to prepare them and yourself for the passage of a written CCIE exam within a year. And then it will be seen. I plan to cover the entire learning process (including the plan and the entire process with the training materials) on your site, unless, of course, you mind. Those. try to show everyone who wants to be able to prepare for CCIE from the lowest level of training for the year. At the very least, several goals will be achieved, firstly, the natural pumping of knowledge, secondly, the level of self-esteem of students will rise, and thirdly, I hope we can pass a written exam. On the other hand, it will be possible to attract everyone to join the process. In addition, you can attract other interested mentors (including UNL developers, we will use their Light version in the learning process) to the process, maybe they will share their points of view. In general, the field for activity is huge. If you do not mind, I can send you the details + description of the methodology. perhaps they will share their views. In general, the field for activity is huge. If you do not mind, I can send you the details + description of the methodology. perhaps they will share their views. In general, the field for activity is huge. If you do not mind, I can send you the details + description of the methodology.

    Suddenly for us it was during these first three hours with the easy presentation of your rebellious servant that the idea was born of becoming mentors of a certain stad group. Emil will train his three colleagues, prepare them a program, tasks, questions and small labs. So that this is not in vain, we will publish it. And in order to expand the audience, we will recruit a stad group that will follow this plan. So the audience will have interest and motivation to follow the project.

    In order to have an incentive to be inside the Main Preparatory Group, we limit its number to 2 ^ 5 and set strict criteria for getting into it.

    Moreover, in the best traditions of linkmeup - everything is open and accessible to anyone. Looking ahead, I’ll say that I know a lot of sympathizers who walked next to the project and took this chance.

    So from the innocent idea of ​​posting progress, a monstrous project was born, which became a test for many.

    And then Emil and Natasha together, first of all, began to draw up a super plan for preparation - the most important part, without which there would be nothing.

    Here, Emil’s interleaving technique was chased both tail and mane, which involved cyclic training, when the topic is studied not at a time, but in portions in the course of preparation.
    I think Emil will still write a book about her - for she rolled it.

    Next, Dima Figol and Ilya V. were involved, with experience in passing CCIE and understanding what a stad group is and what kind of people are needed there.

    The idea ignited us all. We met every week, discussing all the details, savoring every stage and anticipating a grand start. I’m not lying that we enjoyed this mini-conference for 2-3 hours.

    We decided that we are only preparing for a written exam. That participants in the organized crime group will be selected according to three criteria: interest, technical competence, diligence.
    We planned the date of the announcement of the project, the start of preparation, the conditions for its continuation, the roles of participants, parallel activities.

    • So, someone had to prepare the material according to plan, small laboratory and ask questions.
    • Someone checking the labs is a bonus in participating in organized crime groups.
    • Someone conduct periodic webinars on network topics.
    • Someone carry out periodic large labs.

    The whole course was designed to use the UNL emulator (now EVE-NG), therefore, Mikhail Yandulov and Uldis Dzerkals, who themselves had carried out such projects on a paid basis, entered the project with us.

    “Quite unexpectedly” for us they became the sponsors of the project and agreed to pay CCIE RS Written to one participant and we got a competitive component.

    However, whom I am trying to deceive, it was not so. We came up with a program to motivate participants so that they would not want to run away - this is a well-known problem - by the end there is almost no one left to train.

    We decided that the best student who reached the end and completed all tasks would get some kind of bonus ... Which one - xs. Maybe a voucher? And then we decided what if UNL could offer us something. And UNL, understanding the whole background, was ahead of us. And actually, already done .

    So there was a verification of the fact of writing an essay, a partially automated verification of the lab and the rating of participants.

    During the New Year holidays, a timer appeared on the main page of linkmeup.ru, which counts the time until the release of our idea.

    It was in the colors of tsiska, which suggested to many where this timer actually leads.

    On January 16, 2016, we revealed the cards . Post in VKscored almost a record 59 comments, in which people cried, rejoiced and rejoiced, and also sang the praises of bitsukhe Natasha Samoilenko and glorified her Turkish upsurge.

    By this time, everything was ready for launch, including a selection program for candidates.

    We wanted to exclude any possibility of misunderstanding us and give the most accessible representation of our goals and motivation.

    In addition, participants in the organized crime group and sympathizers had to understand very well the time and effort spent on this event.

    So all these pages appeared:


    So this podcast appeared .
    And here is this note .

    For a couple of evenings, a forum was launched that was not directly related to CCIE for the year. Anton Klochkov became his moderator. The forums took place seven years ago. But even this craft still lives, albeit on its last legs.

    On April 1, a slightly humorous podcast about the selection results was released .
    The second of April is another post with rules and instructions .
    And on the fourth, everything happened.
    There was no turning back.



    The selection in the organized crime group was the most important stage after the training plan. The task, after all, was commonplace - to find people who are literate and interested, who will not quit studying after a month, and two and six months.

    We could not take money - the best incentive to invest in doing something - nobody knew what would happen to the project in the future, to take on such responsibility, start an IP, etc. - no one wanted to.

    We have chosen, I believe, the best selection method - in three stages:

    1) The candidate expresses his desire on the site. He must indicate his real name, surname, telephone and electric mail.
    892 people applied.
    This greatly exceeded all our expectations.

    2) The candidate sends an essay with answers to simple questions:

    • Surname and name that were indicated in the previous step.
    • About me briefly.
    • Do the project goals meet my expectations?
    • Why do I need to participate in this project?
    • What is important to me in this project?
    • Will I be able to allocate the necessary resources (time, technical resources, independent finding of the necessary materials) required for training?
    • What help do I expect from experts?
    • What will happen if such assistance is not provided?
    • What is the likelihood of me achieving results after the end of the project, and what will these results be expressed in?
    • If I win, what will I do with the voucher?

    This has become a stumbling block for many. People simply did not understand why this was, and they filled it out, ignored questions, or wrote heresy there. Well, that was their fault. At first, we tried to explain individually to everyone what we are waiting for. But then they realized that this was a natural selection.

    The purpose of this tour was to assess the desire and motivation of a person to be in an organized criminal group and to be engaged in training.

    If he cannot spend 20-30 minutes of his time on these answers, then he does not understand what he wants and cannot spend 15-20 hours a week preparing.

    They sent us 630essay. It was some kind of madness, we cried, we lost faith in humanity. It seemed to us that this would never end. Each of the experts honestly spent several weeks on proofreading each and every one, and put his own subjective assessment.

    Then they were averaged over all experts and “objective” appeared. No one argued with someone else's assessment, so for the same essay could stand 2 in one and 5 in the other. The average score was 2.3 (out of 5).

    3) Technical test prepared by Dima Figol and Ilya. 50 difficult questions from the general pool (about 60). 90 minutes, one try.

    We did our best to eliminate fraud and discomfort from passing the test. There is a reasonable opinion that it was possible.

    Sergey Lunkov helped us transfer all questions and images to the site, verify them and remove flaws.

    Alexander Fatin read everything for the correct English grammar and unambiguous meanings.

    The average score is 51.92 (out of 100). A total of 492 people passed the test .



    All data was entered into a pivot table, where according to a very clever formula for each participant, on the basis of the essay and test, his index was derived.

    And then they just took the very top - they became members of the organized crime group.

    The year and a half that the project actually lasted showed that we were not mistaken in our approach. The survival rate is extremely high: after the first six months, 3 people died. In a year - 10 people. At the time of April 2017, before the long half-year break, there were 18 people left, 60% of the total.

    But the main fear among experts was that everything would be bent in 2-3 months.
    Unfortunately, the sad experience of CCIE over the year has confirmed the common truth - an unmotivated person quickly loses interest in activities. The experts ran the first. Unfortunately, after about three months only Emil and Natasha remained active in the project. When all the automation was over, Natasha, too, didn’t want to stay for any gimmicks.
    For more than a year Emil pulled the project on his shoulders.

    People with burning eyes at first went out very quickly.

    The second obvious conclusion is that this mode is not suitable for everyone. For some, the rhythm is too fast, but for someone slow. There are examples of people leaving the project because self-training is more productive. Although it must be understood that this is still not a minus of the CCIE approach for the year, but plus a person’s expertise.

    In December 2017, despite all the hardships, a lot of difficulties, blows of fate and long pauses, Emil completed the project to prepare for the CCIE.

    Six people went this way with him: The authors of the project consider him a success. We understood how interlining works, how to choose 30 people out of 900 so that they do not merge. We learned the lessons. We created a small community that lived on its own.

    1 Дышлевой Юрий 130 лаб 129 эссе
    2 Гузеев Денис 130 лаб 48 эссе
    3 Сокуров Леонид 128 лаб 114 эссе
    4 Пермяков Александр 127 лаб 89 эссе
    5 Иванченко Виктория 123 лаб 114 эссе
    6 Андреев Павел 122 лаб 114 эссе





    We have helped some great people grow into professionals.

    But all this thanks to one person.


    Will there be any continuation? Surely. Only Emil can answer this.
    And today you can use the materials posted on the site . And here is the slack for the strong in spirit.

    In general, here we recorded a podcast on this topic, hugged, praised ourselves and told us with their mouths how it was:

    Download Podcast File


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