{"id":92,"date":"2012-05-04T19:09:02","date_gmt":"2012-05-05T02:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raykain.com\/?p=92"},"modified":"2013-05-15T15:29:08","modified_gmt":"2013-05-15T15:29:08","slug":"road-to-ccee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raykain.com\/?p=92","title":{"rendered":"My Road to CCEE"},"content":{"rendered":"

So… Its been a really long time since I wrote on here but I figured I would update the world on what I have been doing since my first passing certification<\/a> post back in 2010. Wow its been that long since I started taking exams. \u00a0Anyway back to the the issue at hand. \u00a0Since I started my Certification journey I feel that I have come a long way and wanted to make sure that people just starting out down a\u00a0certification\u00a0route have something to read and or just something to fall asleep too. First before going on to my path and views I would like to point out to articles that really changed my view on my career.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The first article I would like to share is By Brandon Carroll entitled You Might Not Belong in I.T.<\/a>\u00a0Now I do not know Brandon but love his message. \u00a0If you work in IT your job doesn’t end at 5 when you leave. \u00a0I have been in meetings and discussions with people on this\u00a0exact\u00a0topic and people dont understand that in I.T. you only get out of your carrer what you put in.<\/li>\n
  2. The second article is a three part article By Carl Webster entitled.\u00a0Preparing for Citrix Certification (Part 1<\/a>, Part 2<\/a>, Part 3<\/a>). Again I do not know Carl but I feel that he touched on very good points and you can take Citrix out of the title and put just about any other vendor in and will still have most most of his points\u00a0valid.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So after you read those couple of post I am going to try and not put you to sleep with the rest of my article. \u00a0My Citrix journey started right after I came back from my first Citrix Item Development Session. \u00a0After I helped write \u00a0the XenServer 5.6 exam I decided to take it in beta.<\/p>\n

    Citrix A24:\u00a0Citrix XenServer 5.6 Administration<\/strong><\/p>\n

    One great thing about taking and exam in Beta is the cost or lack there of. Yes you guessed it they are free. \u00a0Now on to the first bad part of them, they usually have double the questions of a normal exam. Also you might get two of the same questions and my problem with that is that I then start to double guess myself. \u00a0So just way I am wired. Prior to this exam I have only taken Microsoft exams and if your reading this and have sat for both you know what a\u00a0difference\u00a0they both are. So my studying for the Exam began. \u00a0I download the admin guide and figured I would start there. \u00a0Since most of my work was learning by doing and then fixing things after I broke stuff. \u00a0So I figured it would be the best place to start. \u00a0Also Citrix makes a study guide that lays out the exam very well. If you have used this for a Citrix Exam I would highly suggest you do so. After sitting for this test for four hours it was over. \u00a0After I got up from my seat and turned in my\u00a0scratch\u00a0board and said to myself “Never Again”. Now Citrix will do two different kinds of beta exams. \u00a0They have beta not scored after you end and beta scored after you end.. \u00a0This was a not scored and I had to wait 2 months to get my scores. \u00a0What a long two months to wait to know if you passed or not. \u00a0Well Good news is I Passed. Results: Pass<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Citrix A19:\u00a0Citrix XenDesktop 5 Administration<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Next up on my CCEE journey was the XenDesktop 5 Administration. Now this one took longer to sit for as I got married and took some time away from studying for exams. \u00a0This was written after I helped out writing the A26 XenServer 6 exam. \u00a0I dont know what it is but writing exams get me in the mood to start studying again. \u00a0So for this exam I used the the same study\u00a0method as I did for my A24 exam with the\u00a0addition\u00a0of using CirtixXperience.com<\/a>. I have met the owner Jeff Rohrer while working on the A26 exam and very cool guy.\u00a0Anyone that has not used his site to help prepare (it will not help with real world experience) please pay him a visit as it will help prepare you for the type of questions you will see on the exam. \u00a0So when I felt that I was prepared for the exam I headed down to my testing center and took my exam. \u00a0Two hours later I walked out with another CCA certification. Then it was off to Red Lobster for all you can eat shrimp. (I think the\u00a0official\u00a0count was 110) Result: Pass<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Citrix A20:\u00a0Citrix XenApp 6.5 Administration<\/strong><\/p>\n

    So back to the grid of becoming a CCEE. So after I finished my A19 exam I found out they were offering the A20 exam in beta. \u00a0So me the sucker that I for the cheaper things in life I have now signed up for my second Citrix beta exam. \u00a0As much as I thought I knew XenApp I realized that I didn’t know enough about the new 6 and 6.5 products. \u00a0So I hit the Admin guide. Yes I really need something with a little more\u00a0excitement\u00a0cause yes I did find my self falling\u00a0asleep\u00a0reading it more than once. This is by no way a knock to the admin guide writers its more the nature of the beast. \u00a0After reading most of the Admin guide I started going over the console and reading up on as much as I can on the new features. \u00a0As most of my\u00a0experience\u00a0at this point was on PS4 PS4.5 and XA5 all on 2003. Anyway I headed back to the testing center to sit and look at a computer screen for 4 hours with an exam in front of me. I finished the exam with about 40 minutes left and had to wait for my score to come in the mail. \u00a0As I was turning in my stuff to the proctor I said to myself why did I do this to myself again! And thinking in two weeks I would be back down the testing center again. (I will explain this in more detail in the next section) After about a month and half I got my score back and found out I passed and also finished up all of my CCA requirements for my CCEE. Result: Pass<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Citrix A22:\u00a0Citrix XenApp 6.5 Advanced Administration<\/strong><\/p>\n

    So as I said in my last post in two weeks I will be down here again. \u00a0Well if you havent guessed it by now I was a sucker for another Citrix beta exam. \u00a0Two weeks after I just took the XenApp 6.5 Administration exam. \u00a0Well the good news is my studying was not over looked and I just continued \u00a0looking over more advanced aspects of XenApp 6.5. \u00a0This time a couple other guys around the office were looking at taking exams that weekend too and I talked them into taking at the same time. \u00a0I dont know if this was the best idea I have ever had. \u00a0Well we\u00a0decided\u00a0to grab breakfast\/lunch before we went and sat for our exams. \u00a0After lunch we got to the testing center about 30 mins before the first person was going to start. \u00a0Since this exam was scored on site everyone was going to know scores before they left. \u00a0Well we went 2\/3 at the office and I was in the losing column. \u00a0I want everyone to know that yes it does suck when you dont pass an exam. I have learned while in High School and also in college that tests are not my thing in life. \u00a0So I have learned that your not going to pass each exam you take but you have to just figured out where you went wrong and study more and next time will be better. \u00a0Result: Fail<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Citrix A25:\u00a0Engineering a Citrix Virtualization Solution<\/strong><\/p>\n

    So Citrix offered this exam in beta. \u00a0When I scheduled this exam I did not expect myself to pass it. And figured that if I was going to pass I was going to need to setup a lab. \u00a0Looked to work and there was nothing that I could build out a good lab without touching production hardware. \u00a0So I did what any other person would do I bought myself a home lab. \u00a0After all the parts came in I built up the lab up and got everything I needed setup. \u00a0Maybe I will do another post on what I used to build my home lab. During the setup of my lab I felt that even though I have built servers at work I felt that I learned things I didnt learn in the past. After spending 2 weeks really using my lab to study it was day before test day. \u00a0I was studying with a friend that was taking the exam also a day before we were taking it. We went to his house and started discussing and white boarding out everything we could think of and use the admin guides if we were unsure about anything. After about 10 hours we called it a day. \u00a0The next day we met up for breakfast and drove to the testing center. This test took me all of the 4 hours\u00a0allotted. Wow as much as I thought that this test was probably one of the one I felt the best going into, I did not want to hit the end exam button. \u00a0After ending it the message popped up that I had passed. \u00a0After not expecting to pass I felt that I did very good. \u00a0Result: Pass<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Citrix A22:\u00a0Citrix XenApp 6.5 Advanced Administration (Take 2)<\/strong><\/p>\n

    So yes this is the only test I did not pass the first time. \u00a0No one is perfect. \u00a0After passing the CCEE exam I did not want to let all my studying go to waste to I picked back up and started looking stuff over. \u00a0Well that was the plan. \u00a0Some things came up at work and at home that I couldn’t get study time in. \u00a0So as the day got closer to my exam I started looking some things over at night. \u00a0The day of the exam came and I worked from at home while\u00a0looking\u00a0our production servers over to help me on the exam. \u00a0After I finished up at work I drove to the testing center. \u00a0Sat for the test and started my exam. \u00a0Most of the questions looked the same or simliar from what I remember from the last time I took the exam. \u00a0Anyway as I was watching the sun go down my time was winding down and I ended the exam. Low and behold I passed. Result: Pass<\/strong><\/p>\n

    So now I have passed all the requirements and I hope that my\u00a0experiences\u00a0will help you in your journey. \u00a0And maybe I will do this again when I need to renew my certifications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    So… Its been a really long time since I wrote on here but I figured I would update the world on what I have been doing since my first passing certification post back in 2010. Wow its been that long since I started taking exams. \u00a0Anyway back to the the issue at hand. \u00a0Since I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8,16],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","tag-exam","tag-training"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p16FBG-1u","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raykain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raykain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raykain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raykain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raykain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.raykain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":188,"href":"https:\/\/www.raykain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions\/188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.raykain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raykain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.raykain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}