Roger Perkin, CCIE #50038

I started my CCIE journey way back in 2008 when I passed the CCIE written exam. Not much happened after that and I picked up the studies again when that had expired in 2011. I passed the written exam again and got my employer to purchase the INE workbook and ATC class. The resources were amazing and I have watched the ATC class many times over and continued to refer to it up until I passed the exam. I have also attended the 10 day bootcamp with Brian Dennis (twice - amazing service to be able to re-take a bootcamp if there is space available) and I also attended the 5 day TS bootcamp again with Brian Dennis. It has not been an easy journey as I have been through both V4 and V5 and it has taken it out of me both financially and with time away from family and sacrifices on holiday and weekend time. I made my first attempt at the lab in 2013 in V4 in Brussels and then again in December 2013 at the mobile lab in London. To be honest I was not fully prepared and although I had the theory behind me thanks to INE I was not exam ready and just ran out of time in both the TS and config sections both times. I made one more attempt at V4 days before the version change but did not make it. So I took stock and realized what I had to learn. Thanks to INE the V5 material had been updated and thanks to their investment protection program I was able to access all the updated V5 videos and workbooks which filled in all the gaps - mainly for me around DMVPN. I am pleased to say that I made my final attempt last week in Brussels and am now CCIE# 50038 My thanks go out to Brian Dennis and Brian McGahan for the bootcamps and the workbooks as these were an essential element to me passing. However as they always have said "learn the technology" It comes down to you knowing everything and how to configure everything, then the exam is easy. In my final attempt, everything just came together because I knew what I was doing, I had labbed everything so many times that technologies that caught me out in the early attempts were just not a problem anymore. The journey has taken me many years and countless hours / weekends and late nights, but I am so glad that I continued with the journey despite failing the earlier attempts. It can be done you just have to dedicate yourself to the task in hand. My new motto is "Relentless Pursuit!"