Congratulations on the job, your degree, and your CCIE.
As far as the job, my advice is to give it time. Your co-workers will
hopefully come around, but it takes time. You have to earn your credibility
and you don't do that with a degree or cert. You do it by showing over and
over again that you have what it takes.
You should try being a woman in this field! :-) It's even harder for us to
gain credibility, but we can do it if we apply perseverence. Prejudices of
all sorts can get in the way for people who are different: younger than the
norm, endowed with different body parts, of a different race, etc. Think
about what prejudice means. It means "pre judge." Unfortunately, many people
pre-judge, but with time, most decent people let go of their prejudices and
judge a co-worker or boss on technical, management, and communications skills.
Firing your workers is a really bad idea. Giving them time to get to know
you as a decent and competent person is a much better idea.
Good luck to you. It sounds like you're off to a great start.
Priscilla
michael lee wrote:
>
> I've actually survived the first two weeks on the jobs
>
> considering all the BS I got from all the "senior"
>
> network engineers who have neither a degree or
>
> CCIE certified and who resented the fact that I am
>
> their boss. Here is my story.
>
>
>
> I am 22 years old and recently graduated from
>
> Cornell University with a master degree in
>
> Computer Science. After graduation, I decided
>
> to pursue a career in networking and looked for
>
> a job so that I can start paying off my school
>
> debt. The job market was very weak six months
>
> ago even for someone who has an advanced
>
> degree from one of the most prestige Universities
>
> in the country. After 2 weeks of looking for work,
>
> I decided it's time to pursue the CCIE certfications.
>
>
>
> I borrowed 10k from my parents to purchase all
>
> the necessary cisco gears and started my
>
> preparation for the lab. Six weeks ago, I finally
>
> passed the CCIE R&S lab on my first try and
>
> received my CCIE #. Finally, it's time to look
>
> for real work.
>
>
>
> I've gone through about 20 interviews. Each time,
>
> I've been turned down for positions because I have
>
> no "hand-on" experiences. In about 90% of the
>
> interviews that I had been to, the people who
>
> interviewed me have neither a degree nor CCIE
>
> cert, but yet they wouldn't hire me because
>
> they said that the CCIE lab is a joke and it has
>
> no resembling on the "real world" applications.
>
> Some even referred as "lab rats". After 3 weeks
>
> of searching, I just gave up looking for work.
>
>
>
> Three weeks ago, I received a call from a college
>
> roomate of mine. He was also my mentor. He was
>
> doing his Ph.D in Chemistry and Physics
>
> at Cornell while I was still an undergrad. He told
>
> me that he is looking for a technical lead person in his
>
> networking group to replace himself now that he has
>
> been promoted to a director position. He would like
>
> to know if I am interested in the job. Finally I was
>
> hired for the position as a technical lead for the
>
> networking engineering group. I am sure that my
>
> mentor has a lot to do with me being hired. It also
>
> helped that his boss is also another Cornell graduate.
>
> My salary is 110k which is a lot for a 22 years old.
>
> I've been told that the salary has to do with my CCIE
>
> cert in addition to my degree as well.
>
>
>
> I started the job two weeks ago and trouble started
>
> immediately. Rumours flied in the office that I was
>
> hired for the position because I am a friend of the
>
> director. "Senior" network engineers in the group
>
> also referrred to me as "lab rat". I can not believe
>
> the level of anynomousity they had toward me because
>
> I am their boss. The talk among themselves is that
>
> I have no business being here let alone be their boss.
>
> None of these guys is neither CCIE certified or have
>
> a formal education but yet they feel that "experience"
>
> trumped everything else.
>
>
>
> After the first week, I felt really depressed and just
>
> wanted to quit. However, my mentor pursuaded me
>
> to stay and he taught me everything I need to know
>
> about the network that he designed and maintained.
>
> I learned everything needed to do the job in 3 days.
>
> This past thursday, we had an incident where the
>
> network went down for an hour. None of the "senior"
>
> network engineers know how to fix the problem. It
>
> seems like they couldn't "critically" think and apply
>
> an engineering approach to solve the problem. I was
>
> able to solve the problem in 45 mins by applying
>
> the engineering approach to solve a problem when
> I was in college. Needless to say, the network was
>
> up and running in an hour.
>
>
>
> After the new year, I am going to recommend to my
>
> director to get rid of these "senior" network engineers
>
> guys and replace the whole group except myself
>
> of course.
>
>
>
> What I don't understand throughout the whole ordeal
>
> is that why do they have to feel threaten by me?
>
> What could I have done differently to avoid this?
>
> Are they upset at me because I get this job by
>
> Knowing the director? Granted that I know the
>
> director but he wouldnt hire me in the first place
>
> if he knows that I am not capable of doing the job.
>
> Its not like I am not willing to do the dirty work like
>
> running cables and router configurations.
>
>
>
> The other thing I dont' understand is that if the CCIE
>
> lab is so easy then why didn't many of them pass
>
> the lab? Our company does pay for the lab and I've
>
> heard that many of them did take the lab, in some
>
> cases, three or four times, but they still failed. It is
>
> always interesting that those that didnt pass the lab
>
> or didnt even attempt the lab are usually the one
>
> with the biggest mouth denouncing the lab. I
>
> confronted one the engineers and told him that if
>
> he thinks that I am a lab rat and the CCIE is
>
> overrated, then perhaps he should not have failed
>
> 3 times.
>
>
>
> Thanks for letting me blow of the steam.
>
>
>
> Michael "lab rat" Lee
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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>
>
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