DevNet Expert Journey: Intensive Study Period - Part 2

This article is a part of my DevNet Expert Journey blog series

• Part 1: Decision
• Part 2: Intensive Study Period - Part 1
• Part 3: This post
• Part 4: 1st Exam Attempt
• Part 5: 2nd Exam Attempt
• Part 6: 3rd Exam Attempt

Intro

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In the previous episode, I discussed the first three months of preparing for my first lab exam attempt. It was a tough period that required a lot of discipline. Little did I know, the worst was yet to come. Despite the challenging moments, I feel a sense of nostalgia whenever I recall those times.

Now it’s time to share the rest of the story :saluting_face:

March

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Disappearance

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My friends began to notice that I had disappeared. I remember a time when my dear friend H. asked me to go out for a party and as usual, I declined. Then he said something that really touched me:

Yeah, nothing new. You ALWAYS study.

I understood this as a warning, said unconsciously, something like “Dude, maybe it’s too much?”

Nevertheless, all my friends, including H., supported me (and still do!) along the way. I can’t even express my gratitude for each time they asked, “What’s up? How are your preparations going? All good?”

I planned to put all my efforts into this project and finish it. I promised myself that once this was done, I would take a solid amount of time to rest and catch up with family and friends. Before that - no parties and other not-needed activities, just to be purely focused on a study only. Is this approach good or not? I’ll let you draw your own conclusions from this.

Containers

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In March my focus was on Containerization. I was fortunate to work with Docker and Compose daily, but I still needed to dive into advanced topics to deepen my understanding. The book that helped me was The Docker Workshop, by Vincent Sesto, Onur Yılmaz, Sathsara Sarathchandra, Aric Renzo and Engy Fouda.

First contact with Kubernetes

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Four years ago when I was deploying ACI to the infrastructure, the SysOps/Linux Team was building a private cloud based on Kubernetes. ACI can integrate with Kubernetes, but at that time, it was a mystery to me. As an ACI specialist and pure network engineer, trying to understand Docker and Kubernetes felt overwhelming.

A., who worked on the K8s project, recommended a good resource for learning Kubernetes: Mumshad Mannambeth’s course - Kubernetes for begineers on Udemy. Additionally, Mumshad has an excellent course that prepares candidates for the CKAD (Certified Kubernetes Application Developer) certificate, which contained everything I needed and even more.

I spent around two weeks playing around with Kubernetes, making notes and understanding how it works. In a blink of an eye I reached the end of March.

April

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Documentation only

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It turned out I was about two months away from the exam, with only 60 days remaining to prepare.

On the lab exam, documentation for the tools is provided for use. I decided to start using the documentation only and stop using Google to find how to use every tool described in the blueprint. The worst thing I could do during the lab exam would be to waste an hour searching for the proper syntax for a specific command with no success. I knew that if I would spend more than 10 minutes on a task trying to find the answer in the documentation, I would be in big trouble.

Even though you have five hours, you need to know how to solve problems with minimal help from the docs, not spending the majority of your time searching for solutions in the documentation.

REAL trouble

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At the beginning of April, I wanted to start using the resources I got from Andreas as part of my class membership. I’ve mentioned that Andreas prepared an exercise tool that generates tasks for you.

I wanted to verify my knowledge. I generated a task to see how proficient I was with Terraform. The task was to create multiple EPGs and BDs using a for_each loop and have them associated together.

“Well, It shouldn’t be hard, let’s do this!”. I logged to CWS, created main.tf file and prepared the basic Terraform block and provider details. Then I prepared resource code blocks for the Tenant and Application Profile. “Damn it, I’m good at this!” I thought.

Now, as I write this, I realize how wrong I was at that time…

The next step was to create EPGs and BDs using a loop mechanism. I created a list of maps as my input data and then tried to iterate over them. I remember typing for_each = in an EPG resource block and then… I got stuck. I couldn’t recall how to do that. Immediately, I got stressed because it meant one thing - I couldn’t retrieve the knowledge I gained in January.

I went back to my notes and also to a very nice article about Terraform, that Andreas prepared and eventually I solved the task, but it took me more than an hour, because most of the time I spent reading the docs, articles and my notes.

That was a yellow flag, like a warning. The next day, as always, I woke up at 4:00 AM, got a coffee and spun up the lab environment. I generated a task for Ansible this time. The result was the same - I couldn’t remember how to create a role or how to build an inventory file. Damn it!

I did the same for topics I covered at the very beginning of my journey. It turned out that I couldn’t recall around 70% of the things I had learned.

I’m not good enough

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I realized I was in trouble. Did that mean I just wasted three months of studying, because most of the things I forgot?

Imposter syndrome slapped me in the face.

I’m not gonna make it. It’s too hard for me.

I’m not good enough to learn everyhing that is required to pass.

It’s impossible for me. I’m not skilled enough to manage my time wisely.

I’ll never get that number.

Imposter syndrome hit me hard, It also reminded me that in March, I wanted to publish my article called “DevNet Expert Journey after 3 Months of Study”, but I didn’t. I kept telling myself - “I’ll start tomorrow.” Does it mean I can’t finish any project, even the smallest ones?

It was too much. I had to take some time off the study. I needed to calm down a bit.

After one day, I got my notepad and I collected key facts:

1. I always wanted to become CCIE certified. Does it mean now I’m going to give up for the third time?
2. My family and friends were supporting me. They keep asking me how preps are going. What would I tell them next time? “You know, I gave up”?
3. I have undertaken to take up this challenge - my management team knew about it. I would be weird to say them I just gave up.
4. I spent quite a lot of my time and money. Is it worth just abandoning this project and being frustrated that I’ll never take this to the end?
5. I created a post on LinkedIn saying that I created my blog which is dedicated to document my DevNet Expert journey. If somebody would ask me “How’s your blog going?”, what would I tell them?

Marcin, my English teacher, who is a big fan of personal growth, said:

If you feel resigned - give yourself ANOTHER chance. Try again. Did you fail again? That’s fine - try again. You’ve had enough? Ok, try again tomorrow. Try again and don’t give up.

I was resigned, but I woke up next day and I just tried again. I believe this is the key to success - you just need to keep trying, even if you fail five times in a row. Thanks to the whole journey I also learned about how to accept failure and not to be demotivated.

In the warriors code there’s no surrender
Though his body says “stop”, his spirit cries “never”
Deep in our soul a quiet ember, knows it’s you against you
It’s the paradox that drives us on, It’s a battle of wills
In the heat of attack, It’s the passion that kills
That victory is yours alone¹

Strategy adjustments

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Because of the difficulty in recalling information, I had to act quickly and find a solution. I started using Andreas’ Exercise Tool every day, randomly choosing topics to ensure I could solve tasks that covered specific items from the blueprint. This helped me strengthen my knowledge and retain it for a longer period of time. Daily practice is important.

I also decided to pay more attention to the notes I was taking so I could use them to review the topics quickly. I had a big problem with reviewing the notes, because I hated to come back to them since they were not structured at all. After a few adjustments, I started building my own wiki using Logseq, where each concept’s description is short and written in my own words.

Please don’t copy/rewrite a book to your notes. It doesn’t work, trust me.

DevNet Expert Masterclass

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Together with a few individuals, I joined the DevNet Expert Masterclass in the last week of April. It was a very intensive week - the agenda was daunting, with lots of topics to cover every single day. However, I calmed down after the first hour of training. The way Andreas explained every topic was impressive. I had participated in a few instructor-led trainings before, but Andreas’ class was far ahead of them. He was extremely well-prepared. For every topic, we had lectures, quizzes and exercises. Andreas wanted to ensure that we retained the knowledge. I felt I was in good hands.

I left a review after the bootcamp that better describes my experience:

I’m someone who sets the bar high when looking for training and products. This is the first time I’ve had nothing to complain about.

Sometimes I experienced difficulties with the lab environment or found small typos and discrepancies in the workbook. However, I felt that Andreas took his students’ opinions very seriously and continuously improved the content. As long as I was right, things like this were corrected immediately.

At some point, I was playing around with a mock lab and Nexus Switch crashed. I asked Andreas for help and he just fixed it within minutes, even though it was early morning. This allowed me to finish the mock lab with no issues. This is the quality you pay for. If you respect your own time and don’t want it to be wasted, you’ll understand my point.

With no doubt - this is the training for those who take their preparations seriously.²

After the bootcamp, I felt a lot more confident. It was obvious that I still had a lot to do before my first attempt, but I knew what to do next. The plan was simple: mock labs, reading the workbook I received and using documentation only during exercises. I committed to doing labs every day, with no excuses.

First mock lab

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We finished the masterclass on Friday. I remember Andreas’ words, saying that we should be able to complete FOUR mock labs in around 5 hours to be comfortable with the pace required for the exam. I was shocked. Is it even possible?! Around 30 tasks in 5 hours?

I couldn’t wait any longer and challenged myself by taking mock lab #1 the next day, which consisted of several tasks across different topics. It took me around 5 hours to finish just ONE mock lab! That’s because I spent a lot of time going through the documentation. Andreas graded my mock lab so I could draw conclusions about what needed improvement.

May

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One week off

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It’s essential to take a rest during your studies. I spent the first week of May with my friends, trying to zone out from Terraform, Ansible, pyATS and other topics that had been occupying my mind for the last four months. I wanted to forget about it for a while so I could actively recall it once I was back home.

Active recalling is a good method to strengthen your knowledge by forcing your brain to recall specific topics and retrieve them from memory actively. This helps your brain retain the information for a longer time.

I need to be FASTER!

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Right after my week off, I went back to my studies. I planned to finish the remaining three mock labs as soon as possible so I could get them graded by Andreas. Then, I could delve even deeper into specific topics to reduce the time spent going through the documentation. I needed to be highly effective at finding the information I needed in the documentation. It’s not about memorizing the docs but about being proficient at navigating through them.

The last three weeks I spent improving my execution speed and continued practicing the mock labs. In some cases, I was able to reduce execution time by around 400% compared to my first attempt. Yes, I measured how much time I needed to finish each task.

Don’t get stuck!

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I got tricked in one of the mock labs where one of the tasks was particularly difficult. I spent more than an hour trying to figure out how to solve it. This task was meant to be an eye-opener to show the consequences of being stuck. I lost one hour and made no progress. On a lab exam, there are no points for task solutions that don’t meet ALL requirements. Thanks to this exercise, it became clear to me that I need to skip a task as soon as I see it’s too hard and move on to the next one.

I remember Hank saying in one of his DevNet Expert presentations: “If you are reading the documentation for more than 15 minutes and still have no solution, then you have a problem” and I agree with this. Five hours for Module 2 is NOT that much time.

Week before the exam

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One week before the exam, I had two meetings with Andreas to discuss my exam strategy and clarify any doubts. In addition, I was labbing intensively. My assumptions were fulfilled - I was able to complete around 30 tasks from the mock labs in less than 5 hours (yes, I measured execution time). I felt ready. I spent the last three days before the exam resting.

Andreas played a significant role in my preparations. I built my confidence thanks to him. I felt ready because of the enormous effort he put into the Masterclass, mentorship and lab environment with mock labs and exercises. The feedback I received on each mock lab was crucial.

I felt a mix of excitement and stress because I was going to be in Brussels in the next few days, trying to earn the number I had always dreamed of.

Wrap up

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Thank you for reading my insights from this exciting journey. The end of May was just halfway through my journey. In the next episodes, I’ll talk about my lab exam attempts and give you an idea of what the lab exam is like.³ Don’t forget to read the previous posts if you haven’t done so already! I’m looking forward to hearing from you. Please let me know if you plan to join me and start your own journey toward this prestigious certification, or share the challenges you’ve faced if you have already started!

See you!