As 2022 comes to an end, it seems pertinent to conclude the year with a blog post to review the last twelve months.

2022 was a stark contrast when compared with 2020 and 2021. There have not been any lockdowns, and for the most part, normality has resumed.

On a personal level, I have devoted a lot of time and focus on getting up to speed with my new job for the first half of the year during my probation period. This has involved a lot of self-study and personal development. I’ve created a hybrid tracker-planner spreadsheet in an attempt to record where I’ve been spending my time. I’ve been very meticulous with this, at a minimum, this has served a purpose of keeping me accountable when seeing chunks of blank spaces, which typically occurred after passing an exam. Below are some totals taken from the tracker-planner:

Total Value
Study Time 742 hours, 5 minutes
Books Completed 10
Pages Read 4703
Reading Time 107 hours 54 minutes
Video Courses Completed 6
Videos Watched 745
Watching Time 103 hours 47 minutes
Miscellaneous Tasks Completed 28

A lot of my time is recorded in my calendar but has yet to fall into a category due to it being time that is not allocated for a target exam. I will look to improve on this for 2023. Some other focus areas have been:

  • Learning how to learn
  • Setting up EVE-NG and subsequent labbing
  • Researching and setting up my personal blog
  • Researching and setting up Anki
  • Developing my ‘hybrid tracker-planner’

Exams

Description Result Pass Date
JNCIA Juniper Networks Certified Associate 2022-03-05
NSE4 Fortinet Network Security Professional 2022-09-03

Courses

Listed alphabetically:

  • Fortinet - NSE 1 Training Institute
  • Fortinet - NSE 2 Training Institute
  • Fortinet - NSE 3 Training Institute
  • Fortinet - NSE 4 Training Institute
  • INE - Advanced Identity Services Engine (ISE)
  • INE - Cisco SD-Access & DNA Center
  • INE - Engineering Cisco Meraki Solutions (ECMS)
  • INE - Identity Services Engine (ISE)
  • INE - JNCIS-ENT & JNCIP-ENT Videos and Labs Course
  • Juniper Learning - Junos Enterprise Switching (JEX)
  • Juniper Learning - Junos Intermediate Routing (JIR)
  • Juniper Learning - Junos MPLS Fundamentals (JMX)
  • Juniper Learning - Migrating from the Cisco CCNA to the JNCIA-Junos
  • ipSpace - MPLS Talks

My new job is far less stressful and demanding than my previous role. I don’t find myself bringing work home or working unpaid to meet unrealistic deadlines. What I find quite encouraging is the amount of time I could dedicate to studying. 742 hours over the year averages out at a little over 14 hours per week. There is a lot of speculation that in the pursuit of the CCIE Lab exam, 1,000 hours are needed before your first attempt. What provides extra motivation for me is that I know these numbers are loose, meaning I didn’t study 14 hours per week every week. I also didn’t spend my time learning every week of the year. I noticed a few patterns in my behaviour, for example:

  • 3 weeks off after passing JNCIA in March
  • 2 weeks off after a stag-do weekend in April
  • 2 weeks off to focus on applying for University in June
  • 2 weeks off after passing NSE4 in September
  • 2 weeks off for the World Cup
  • 2 weeks off for Christmas and New Year

Total: 13 weeks off

Another trend is that I don’t appear to study on annual leave or on bank holidays (36 days total). Not including days for breaks here and there for social events or rest, the entire days available for study was 274, which equates to 75% of the year in days and 39 weeks of the 52.

With these rough figures in mind, if the weekly hours are recalculated against 39 weeks instead of 52, this would put me at an average of 19 hours per week spent studying.

Failures

On the whole, 2022 has been a success. This may not be a failure, as it turned out to be out of my control. After passing the probation period at work in June, I applied for a post-graduate distance learning degree at Glasgow Caledonian University. The course was titled ‘MSc Advanced Internetwork Engineering’, and from the description, they had partnered with INE to prepare you for the CCIE Lab.

Long story short, after writing my personal statement and gathering references, the course was cancelled with the explanation that it would not run and there would be no intake for September next year.

In hindsight, it would have been an expensive (circa £15,000 over 2 years) journey to obtain the CCIE. While working with like-minded students would have its value, the cost is unjustified as I already have access to the INE materials through work. I think the accountability of paying out of my own pocket would be the push I needed to pursue the CCIE, but I feel like attending a Micronics Bootcamp would be just as, if not more effective.

Best of 2022

  • Game: Chess, FIFA 23
  • Film: Top Gun: Maverick (2022), Sound of Metal (2019)
  • TV: Black Bird, Stranger Things