NSE8/FCX Certification

Monday – back to work. Yesterday I fit a good 3 or so hours of studying in between the coffee shop and common area on the first floor of our apartment building. Later in the day, after finishing the Study Guide for Fortinet Azure Cloud and beginning to pull up the newly released SD-WAN Core 7.6 guide, I realized I’m at the point where I’m going to begin reading material I’ve already studied. Time for my first pivot (there’s going to be a lot of these, it’s part of my personality).

I’ve decided to take a break from reading and taking notes on the study guides, and instead do the same for the FortiGate 7.2.11 Admin Guide. There’s a couple of reasons for this:

First, this better aligns with my current project at work, which is building out branch FortiGate configs from scratch while implementing Fortinet best practices. At the same time I plan on using this knowledge as a baseline for the MOPs (Method of Procedures) I will create a bit later in my process. I will create MOPs to both assist in my studying process (learning via teaching) and aid our help desk in support of the enterprise network at work.

Second, I don’t want to go and study the Study Guides for technologies such as FortiMail, FortiADC, FortiSandbox, or any of the software that I don’t currently have experience in, until I get closer to having a lab fully set up for these. The timing of the lab setup is going to be a big limiting factor in regard to progress in these, and many other, areas of study. I only expect to receive complimentary lab licenses for many of these products for a span of 3-8 months, so I want to make the absolute most of my time with them and time it right in terms of when I take both the written and practical exams.

This all leads to a more overarching point that I’ve realized. I should focus on what I’m using now at work (and what I have access to at in my homelab) before I move to the technologies I need trial licenses for. What does this mean practically? I will be spending at least the next 2-4 months focusing primarily on the FortiGate, FortiSwitch, FortiAP, FortiManager, and FortiAnalyzer platforms. Narrowing my focus will allow me to do deep learning on subjects such as best practices implementation, SD-WAN design, routing, and advanced troubleshooting. These are all skills that I can always get better at and will directly improve my quality of work. Once I’ve exhausted these base products, I will begin to shift in the direction of the products I haven’t, or don’t often, work with.

I’ll end with what’s been on my mind. Reading about peoples’ FCX/CCIE/JNCIE study experiences, I understand that it’s necessary to complete anywhere from 1000-3000 hours of studying. How does the math work out to completion in roughly 2 years, as many report? That averages to somewhere around 20 hours a week, or 3 hours a day. How will I rearrange my life to allow for 3 hours of studying a day? Will I do 90 minutes a day on weeknights and 6+ hours on both Saturday and Sunday? Or will I start doing an hour in the morning as well as the usual 90 minutes a weeknight? Lots to consider, but certainly the most important thing is keeping up with my current routine of studying every single day.