Yours truly has been keeping track of the monthly growth in new Cisco CCIE counts worldwide and according to Cisco's just released update for Feb. 2009, the growth in the count of new CCIEs has hit a monthly record!
Could we actually be witnessing the "beginning roots" of a new tech boom?
How so you may ask?
Well, according to Robert X. Cringely - the famous Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) weekly columnist, the worldwide CCIE count is an emerging measure of global power.
So let's read the tea leaves ourselves...
Growth in Worldwide CCIE Count per month:
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Source: George Morton, Ph. D.
Growth in USA CCIE Count per month:
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Source: George Morton, Ph. D.
| February 2009 Ranking Percentage of new CCIEs by Area |
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Source: George Morton, Ph. D.
"An interesting event took place this month, the number of CCIEs grew at a greater pace than any other time over the last five months. The five month average had been running around 203 a month, this month the number jumped to 460. Now, we know that we are not counting an exact month to month, but the sudden spike is certainly refreshing."
| February 2009 Top Nine Ranking of new CCIEs by Country |
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Source: George Morton, Ph. D.
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Source: George Morton, Ph. D.
January 2009 vs. February 2009 Worldwide CCIE Count Comparison:
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Source: George Morton, Ph. D.
Don't be shy, what's your take on the record growth in the count of new CCIEs worldwide?
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just means it's an employer's market
one obvious explanation: there are a hell of a lot of router engineers out of work, and some of these hope adding ccie certification will improve their hiring prospects
A telling statistic on the demise of the industry
Clearly the Depression has given many network engineers the free time, and desperation, to pass their CCIE labs.
A telling statistic on the demise of the industry
Clearly the Depression has given many network engineers the free time, and desperation, to pass their CCIE labs.
Interviews Played a Role in this Spike
I know several CCIE candidates who pushed ahead their studies to take their labs ahead of the new interview requirement. Basically, it's the same kind of rush we see every time an older version of an exam is about to be retired. People think they might have a better chance with the devil they know rather than the unknown, newer version, so they time their studies to take the exam, or in this case the CCIE lab, before the cutoff date. The candidates I spoke to didn't necessarily think they would fail a personal interview, but just didn't want to deal with the added stress and pressure, so they planned accordingly.
I Agree....Open-Ended Questions Could Explain It
I think we could attribute this to Cisco implementing the open-ended questions to the R&S lab exam which went into effect Feb 1. The most interesting count will be in March, April and beyond to see if the open-ended questions show any measurable impact to the overall pass rate.
CCIE Count
I have another take on this. The economy has gone south and many systems integrators have network engineers on the bench so they have the time to study and go to class to get the CCIE.
Economy vs Lab changes
Although the economy can not be excluded I doubt it has such a big factor since the big numbers are coming from the East. The two big factors: the rush before the RS opened ended questions and the huge jump in Security numbers before the blueprint, software and hardware changes that take effect 20 April. 1 + 1 + 1 = 3
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