Is it possible to prepare for the CCIE for the year. Project results

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

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

Otherwise, no one will even read this, and Emil will write to the table.
')
It was with such an introduction that the first key expert meeting took place on November 12: Emil Garipov and Natasha Samoylenko.


Suddenly for us it was during these first three hours that the idea of ​​becoming a mentor of a certain stage-group was born with the easy flow of your recalcitrant servant. Emil will train his three colleagues, prepare them a program, tasks, questions and little labs. So that this is not in vain, we will publish it. And in order to expand the audience, we collect a stage-group, which will follow this plan. So the audience will have the 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.

At the same time, in the best traditions of linkmeup, everything is open and accessible to everyone. Looking ahead I will say, I know a lot of people from among sympathizers who went alongside the project and used this chance.

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

And then Emil and Natasha together first and foremost engaged in the preparation of a super-plan for the preparation - the most important part, without which there would be nothing.

Here, both in the tail and in the mane, Emile’s interleading method was being pursued, which involved cyclical learning, when the topic was studied not at once, but in portions during the preparation.
I think Emil will write a book about her - for she has rolled in.

Then Dima Figol and Ilya V. were brought in, with the experience of putting CCIE in and understanding what a stage-group is and what people are needed there.

The idea sparked us all. We met every week, discussing all the details, savoring each stage and anticipating a grand start. I do not lie that we received great pleasure from such mini-conferences for 2-3 hours.

We decided that we are preparing only for the written exam. That in an organized criminal group participants will be selected by three criteria: interest, technical competence, diligence.
We have 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 the plan, small laboratory and ask questions.
• Someone check the labs - this is a bonus to participation in organized crime groups.
• Someone lead periodic webinars on network topics.
• Someone carry out periodic big labs.

The entire course was designed for the use of the UNL emulator (now EVE-NG), so Mikhail Yantulov and Uldis Dzerkals fit into the project with us, who themselves had previously carried out such projects on a fee basis.

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

However, who I'm trying to fool, it was not so. We came up with a program of motivating participants so that they would not want to run up - this is a known problem - by the end of the training, almost no one remains.

We decided that the best student, who reached the end and completed all the tasks, will receive some kind of bonus ... Which one - xs. Maybe a voucher? And here we decided, but what if UNL can offer us something? And UNL, understanding all the background, ahead of us. And actually, already done .

This is how a check of the fact of writing an essay, a partially automated check of the lab and the rating of participants appeared.

On New Year's holidays, a timer appeared on the main page of linkmeup.ru, counting down the time until the release of our idea.

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

On January 16, 2016, we revealed the cards . The post in VK gathered almost record 59 comments, in which people wept, rejoiced and exulted, and also sang the praises of the bitsuha Natasha Samoylenko and glorified her Turkish rise.

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

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

In addition, organized crime groups and sympathizers should have a very good understanding of the time and effort spent on this event.

So all these pages appeared:

• ccie.linkmeup.ru/to-be-or-not-to-be
• ccie.linkmeup.ru/about_project
• ccie.linkmeup.ru/guide
• ccie.linkmeup.ru/plan
• ccie.linkmeup.ru/topologies

So this podcast appeared .
And this note .

For a couple of evenings, a forum was launched that was not directly connected with CCIE for a year. Anton Klochkov became his moderator. The time of the forums was about seven years ago. But even this hand-made article still lives, albeit on the last gasp.

The first of April came out a little humorous podcast about the selection results .
On April 2, another post with the rules and instructions .
And the fourth all spun.
There was no turning back.

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Selection in an organized criminal group was an important stage after the preparation plan. After all, the task was trivial - to find literate and interested people who would not give up in a month, and in two and six months.

We could not take money - the best incentive to do something else - no one knew what would happen to the project in the future, take such responsibility, start an IT, etc. - no one wanted.

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

1) The candidate expresses his desire on the site. He must provide a real first name, last name, telephone number and email.
892 people have applied.
This far exceeded all our expectations.

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

• Name and surname that were specified in the previous step.
• Briefly about me.
• Do 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 the necessary materials) required for training?
• What kind of help do I expect from the experts?
• What happens if such assistance is not provided?
• What is the likelihood of my achieving results after the end of the project and how will these results be expressed?
• 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 filled in to unleash, ignore questions or write a heresy. Well, that was their fault. At first we tried to explain to everyone individually what we were waiting for. But then they realized that it was natural selection.

The task 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 preparation.

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 on preparation.

We received 630 essays. 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 a few weeks in the reading of each and everyone, and put his subjective assessment.

Then they were averaged over all experts and an “objective” appeared. No one argued with someone else's assessment, so for the same essay there could be 2 for one and 5 for another. 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 have done everything possible to eliminate fraud and discomfort from passing the test. There is a reasonable opinion that it was possible.

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

Alexander Fatin read everything on the subject of 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 were entered into a pivot table, where, using a very tricky formula for each participant, based on the essay and test, its index was derived.

And then they just took the topman - they became members of the organized criminal group.

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

But the experts had the main fear that everything would be bent in 2-3 months.
Unfortunately, the sad experience of CCIE for a year has confirmed the truism - an unmotivated person quickly loses interest in activities. The experts ran the first. Unfortunately, after only about three months only Emil and Natasha remained active in the project. When all the automation was finished, Natasha also did not want to stay for any price.
More than a year, Emil pulled the project on his shoulders.

People with burning eyes first went out very quickly.

The second obvious conclusion is that this mode is not suitable for everyone. For someone, the rhythm is too fast, but for someone it is slow. There are examples of the fact that people left the project, because self-training is more productive. Although we must understand that this is still not a minus of the CCIE approach for the year, but plus the examination of the person.

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

Six people went this way with him:

1 130 129
2 130 48
3 128 114
4 127 89
5 123 114
6 122 114

The authors of the project consider it successful.

We understood how interleaving 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.
We have helped some wonderful people grow into professionals.

But all this thanks to one person.


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

In general, we have here recorded a podcast on this topic, embraced, praised ourselves and told with our mouths, as it were:

Download podcast file