From programmer to CCIE network engineering, my story of preparing for the CCIE at WOLF-LAB!

Before joining WOLF-LAB, I worked as a programmer at an internet company. After a period of time, I found that software development was not suitable for me. I particularly disliked the rapid iteration speed of the software industry and the unique insights of programmers into the most elegant solutions. This personal obsession, I think, is more like a bias, often leading work to become meaningless and endless arguments.

Once, I came into contact with network equipment in the production environment during a project to assist the network engineering department in automation, and in an instant, I decided that this was the industry I loved. So, I decided to switch careers and study network technology.

When I was young, I had been exposed to Cisco, Juniper, and H3C, and the students who studied networks recommended WOLF-LAB. I enrolled without any hesitation.

The deepest impression I got from studying at WOLF-LAB was the deep integration of theoretical knowledge and experiments. This allowed me to easily internalize knowledge by following along with the experiments myself. The lecturers have rich experience and a profound technical foundation, and they can always configure the simulator to answer the students' on-site questions, then smoothly provide multiple solutions and evaluate them. It is terrifying, truly terrifying. Especially during the lectures, the teachers would use packet capture software to demonstrate the details of network protocol interactions, which is the best teaching method I have ever seen, going to the root of things.

After completing most of the theoretical courses for CCNA, CCNP, and CCIE, I started preparing for the exam. The racks at WOLF-LAB, except for the faster internet speed than the exam venue, were exactly the same. This gave me a lot of confidence, making me walk into the exam hall as if it were a leisurely stroll. The atmosphere in the preparation group was very harmonious, giving me a sense of the Millennium Discuz! game forum. I also gained a lot of fun emojis. Both teachers and students who have taken the exam are in the group, and technical questions are answered without fail. Sometimes, when faced with difficult problems, students would help debug on the racks. In summary, in terms of interaction between teachers and students, it is perfect.

The boss of Virgin Atlantic wrote in a letter to his grandchildren: "When you embark on a challenging and important adventure, excellent people will step forward to join your journey." This description is very fitting for the teachers and students I met at WOLF-LAB.

I will continue to be active in the preparation group, discussing technology and chatting.

I was happy for a few minutes after getting the CCIE number (it's even a nice number), but since I heard it takes a long time for the crystal card to arrive, I didn't celebrate too much and continued to study for the CCIE in the security direction. I am very happy that I made a decisive move to leave software engineering and take this step, and I am very happy that this step has reached here.