A lot happened – Updates are in order!

Hello everyone

I have been away for some time (sorry about it) and i’m trying to get back on track to blog more. Gotta say I had my plate full with couple of exams in my queue and a huge workload. Things are moving forward and I promised myself i would do my best to get back on blogging here (as I mostly blog at Cisco Learning Network) 🙂

A lot happened since my last blog, let me resume here briefly:

• Got selected Cisco Champion for 2017 and 2018
• Got selected Cisco Designated VIP for 2017 and 2018
• Attempted (3 times) and passed CCDE written exam
• Attempted (waiting for results) CCDE Practical exam back on May 30th
• Attempted and passed CCIE R&S exam at Cisco Live US 2018 (can’t believe it yet)
• Met a lot of personalities of the networking/twitter world at CLUS and CLEUR this year
• Won a cape at CLUS and wore it like a superhero the whole time! 😀
• Recorded podcasts at CLEUR and CLUS (Cisco Champion Radio – https://blogs.cisco.com/tag/ciscochampionradio – will be published in some weeks)
• Recorded an episode of Engineering Deathmatch at CLUS (blog about it is coming)
• Blogged some new stuff at Cisco Learning Network (In English and Spanish!)
• Made incredible friendships over the months 🙂

Took me 3 attempts to pass the CCDE written exam back in August 2017, a beast of exam, wide scope to cover, many topics, and of course, tricky questions. Funny thing: failed second attempt by 9 points! (life is quite sarcastic sometimes). Had some awesome counseling by Daniel Dib, Mark Holm and Juan Garcia during my preparations!

Recently also attempted CCDE Practical Exam on May 30th 2018 at Madrid. I have to say it was an awesome experience, the closest you can be to a real life situation in an exam. I am still waiting for results, and, regardless of the outcome – passing or failing, that exam has been, by far, the best one I have ever taken. Kudos to Elaine Lopes!

During my preparation I had help from many sources, certified CCDE guys in a study group, like Jeremy Filiben (comprehensive CCDE training), Daniel Dib (he was an awesome guidance for me), Kim Pedersen, Malcolm Booden, Nick Russo, Andre Azevedo, Michael “Zig” Zsiga (and many others – sorry if i did not mention you, my memory sucks) and study partners like Mike Mcphee, Jason Beltrane, Juan Garcia, and of course, my dear friend Peter Paluch (to whom I hold my utmost gratitude for his time, patience and disposition with me and my minced meat brain).

Speaking of CCDE: Juan Garcia and me are writing and translating content for Cisco Learning Network related to that certification and Unleashing CCDE blog posts in Spanish! (oh yeah!). Elaine was a key supporter of this idea (another kudos for her!)

You can find the content in Spanish for Cisco Learning Network here

For the other topics, I will be writing blog posts to talk specifically about them (like the Engineering Deathmatch episode at CLUS) or a summary of CLUS itself. There is a lot to write! 😀

More updates are coming, thanks for reading! 🙂

Twitter profiles of people/groups mentioned in this post:

Daniel Dib, Jeremy Filiben, Elaine Lopes, Peter Paluch, Nick Russo, Kim Pedersen, Mark Holm, Andre Azevedo, Michael Zsiga, Juan Garcia, Malcolm Booden, Mike Mcphee Jason Beltrane, Engineering Deathmatch, Cisco Champion, Learning@Cisco