End of the Rainbow

Every time someone asks me why I decided to leave Dubai and join Cisco based in Singapore, my answer is always: because Middle East is the end of the rainbow. What is the end of the rainbow? When I was young, I always heard people say about the pot of gold laid at the end of the rainbow. They say: If you want to become very rich, just follow the rainbow until you find the end.
There you will find your gold.
Well, I might be small and naïve that time so I wasn’t brave enough to follow the suggestion. Right call, I guess.

I believe Middle East is the end of the rainbow that many people used to tell me about. You can get a very high salary, without tax, so if you make 100 you will bring 100 home. Car price is cheap and everyone can afford to buy car. And the good thing about being networkers in Middle East is the infrastructure is still under heavy development so many technologies that have already had mature in other country may be considered new to many people there. It means if you know a bit more compare to the others than it’s very easy to set yourself apart. The competition is relatively low to reach the top, so if you are able to do so then you will find yourself alone. With lots of $$$ for sure.

So what’s wrong with all of that? Well, if you want to make lots of money and get retired quickly then you should work in Middle East. But if you are like me, who feels like being rich is not enough and always tries to get new challenges all the time then you may not want to go there at all. At least until you get tired with whatever you are doing in life and finally start thinking to chase the money.

Then one friend strikes me with his ultimate question: so what do you expect to see at the end of the rainbow? What would you like to end up?

As per today, my answer is: I don’t know.
I used to think that working for Cisco in Silicon Valley is my ultimate goal. I used to dream about it. Hoping someday I can be one of the guys who build and test the product. And finally, after more than 10 months waiting, I got my H1b visa approved. Now I have a chance to fly to San Jose and try my luck. But I’m not sure if I’m ready for that.

The thing is, I’m already with Cisco now. Even it’s the Advanced Services team and not the business unit who develops product, but it’s still Cisco. And my current skill is fit as part of Advanced Services. I mean I used to do consulting work, make a design, lead the project implementation, allocate resources, discuss with customer and make a plan etc and I’m doing all of those now with Cisco AS.

So I may be best with whatever I’m doing right now.
But if I move to SV, I need to start from beginning since the skill set required is most likely very deep in one particular technology plus I need to know how to automate the process to test the product.

The question is not whether I’m going to survive in SV. But the real question that’s killing my mind now is whether I’m going to like what I will do there. Even if I’m able to join Cisco in SV.

Maybe I’m good with whatever I’m doing now so I should just continue doing it. And actually I really like whatever I'm doing. Or I may just need to work hard and ask for internal transfer one day. That will be the day I have made my decision to switch from Advanced Services to the business unit.

And perhaps you should start asking yourself too: what do you expect to find at the end of your rainbow?

IE Mentor with Dynamips

Just like Internetwork Expert, IE Mentor now has provided Dynamips configuration file to practice their CCIE SP workbook labs. IE Mentor is well known as one of the best training provider for CCIE SP preparation. Their workbook is top of the line and I heard their bootcamp is worth the money too.

All of the information of how to use Dynamips to practice the workbook can be found in this link. The .NET configuration file can be downloaded if you are a registered user with IE Mentor.

Well, actually it's not difficult to make the Dynamips configuration file for any workbooks or any scenarios. But if someone has already made it available, why not to use it? And it's not only the configuration file, this offer also means that even there may not be official technical support available but you know there is someone out there that you can ask when you face a problem setting up the lab. And the priceless forum full of people discussing the setup will come up as well. So I'd say just go for it.

My Promise

One of the TV series that I like the most and watched recently is The Office. It's a unique comedy series offers documentary-style look at the 9-to-5 white collar work at Dunder Mifflin, a paper supply company. The central of the office is the boss, Michael Scott, who's described as "..believes he is the office funnyman and a fountain of business wisdom.. comes off alternately absurb and pathetic, but always hilarious.." There are some other characters like Pam, the office receptionist who bears the brunt of Michael's behavior, Dwight, the annoying assistant to Michael, and Jim the sales rep who together with Pam always finds ways to torment Dwigth.

After watching the full season 1 and 2, and half of season 3 continuously in 4 days, I have just realized how lucky I am that I have never had a chance to have someone like Michael as my boss. He's hilarious indeed, but I don't think I could stand him in real life. Watching Dwigth and all his superb moves must be funny on TV, but I guess it wouldn't be that funny if I had to face him as my co-worker.

(You may ask why on earth I watched The Office continuously in 4 days? Well, that's the only way to do it, isn't it? Same like when I watched Lord of the Ring 1-2-3 continuously, or Star Wars 1 to 6 in a day. Or perhaps it's more like when I watched full season 1 and 2 of Lost in 4 days, or Scrubs full season 1 to 4 in 3 days. That's the only way to see whether it's a good show or not. By the way, I watched Lost and Scrubs when I was jobless for a complete week. And it's obvious that Star Wars 4-5-6 trilogy is much better than the new 1-2-3 trilogy)

When I left my previous company to join Cisco, I made a promise to myself that I will not repeat the same mistakes that I did in the past: keep complaining about my job, whining about my office and bringing all my problems at work into my personal life. In a company like Cisco Systems that kind of promise should be easy to keep, right?

My office in Cisco is much better than Dunder Mifflin. The most thing that I like about it: free food. Anything inside the fridge is free for anyone. And we have a free vending machine. What kind of vending machine that can works without putting the coin? The one in my office. And that's not all, we also have Banana day every Monday. It means someone will come on Monday and drop lots of green bananas to the pantry. I normally take several bananas and put them on my table for few days until their colours turn to yellow. Green banana is no good, yellow banana is good.

I have my own space, an open partition with wireless network connection. My space is close to printer that I like to torture from time to time, close to the restroom, quite close to the pantry. It's more than enough, rite? And the other good thing about my office is: I never have a chance to stay in it for long. I keep traveling to my country for some projects so during my first 2 months in Singapore I spent only less than 10 working days in the office. How about my boss? He's a nice guy. A perfect boss. He always travels from one place to another place even more ofter than me, and all my communication so far has been through email or messaging. So it's quite rare for me to have a meeting with him other than the one through MeetingPlace. And we are actually based in the same office. So he's perfect.

What about the building? Well, can't tell you much. It's called Capital Tower in Robinson Road, Singapore. Next to the train station. This makes me happy since I can take Singapore train system and pop up directly near my office. But I can't take the picture of the building for some unknown reason. Last time I tried it some security personnel asked me to stop without telling me why. Perhaps because the building hosts several American companies. Or perhaps because I heard it hosts an office for some Singapore's VIP. So no pictures. There is a big fish pool on the ground full of.. fishes. This Singapore office perhaps is not as much fun as San Jose office (with all its facilities as I heard), but it's still better than the one in The Office. And it's my office. That's all I can say now.

How about my co-workers? They are all better than me. I'm a double CCIE.. so what? Everyone in my team is a CCIE. The guy sitting next to me is a Triple CCIE. One guy has two CCIE and JNCIE. And one of the sales manager is a double CCIE. They all have better experience than me. Some guys used to work for big organizations such as AT&T or NTT. One guy even used to work in San Jose as testing engineer. Most of them come with extensive experience in Service Provider market. And those guys are only the one I meet in Singapore office, not to mention other teams outside Singapore that may do more interesting stuff. So I'm nobody here. I'm just ordinary.

Well, I guess being ordinary in such wonderful place like Cisco is still awesome. But I need to do something that can make myself as competitive and useful for this organization. I need to show my values. I need to be able to set myself apart from the others. But I need to do it a single step at a time. Like passing my third CCIE in Service Provider track.

So now it’s time to make a new promise: CCIE in SP track within the next 4 months. I must focus on that target. Actually it’s my previous target, I’m a bit behind my schedule. I was supposed to pass it when I was still 30. You know what they say: it's better to be late than not doing it. So I have to start the journey from beginning and finish it this time. This is my promise.

Living My Dream

It all started with a dream. A dream to work in a place where I would be judged by nothing but my skills. A dream to be in a place where there is no limit for my career as technical person. A dream to be a part of true multi-national team. A dream to work in the most influental company in networking world, Cisco Systems.

It has been two weeks since I officially joined Cisco and I still can’t believe it. I still can’t believe that I’m part of Cisco Advanced Services now, a team that I used to dream to join at any cost. Every day is an exciting day. Everybody is so talented. I can really feel to be a part of the team. I can understand the true meaning of team work. Be in touch with any other team members around the globe without boundaries.

So this is the company that has a vision to change the way we live, work, play and learn. Now the question is: how can I contribute?
Joining Cisco is not the end of the journey, it's just the beginning.
It is time to start living my dream.

A Life Without Debt

In my last day in UAE, I was "forced" to close my main account in one of local bank in Dubai. Unfortunately, closing this bank account means I have to close all my credit cards as well! And it also means I have to pay all the balance left in all my credit cards with most of my money in hand. I have been using credit cards since ten years ago and I never bothered to pay my debt completely. It was only several hours before my flight to Singapore so I didn't have a choice. I left the country that day without any credit cards and only some amount of cash in my pocket.

How can I live without credit cards?

So far it's been good. It's almost a week now I have been surviving in the new country without any credit cards. Everything has to be paid with cash. And we live in an era where people carry less and less money in their wallet. Strangely enough, most of places now prefer credit card more than cash. Take my hotel as example. When I informed them that I would like to pay in cash, I had to pay the whole amount of the room rate plus security deposit. If I paid with card, I didn't have to pay the deposit. So I guess people trust me more if I had my credit card.

Actually I was planning to use cash only for emergency purpose but now I don't have any options. This situation makes me plan more carefully in my daily spending. At least until I receive my first month salary :)

From the other point of view, actually this time is the first time in my life since ten years ago that I don't have any debt at all to any credit card companies or the banks. Live freely without any obligation to pay some fees every month. A life without debt.

Leaving Dubai

I’m leaving Dubai in the next couple of hours to join Cisco Systems Advanced Services – Asia Pacific team based in Singapore. I’m so happy and grateful that finally I can get in into the circle, but due to my hectic days until the last minute, I still can’t feel the excitement for now.

In my last moment in Dubai, I have been trying to remember all the good things that happened to me in the past. Things that I like the most about Dubai:

- No-tax, yes if you make 1000 it means you bring 1000 home!
- Safe and Secure environment, crime rate is low
- Anything that you would like to see in the world, may probably exist here: pyramid, indoor ski, white beaches, rock mountain, opera house-like in Sydney, twin towers, 7-star hotel, world's biggest shopping mall and tallest tower will come soon, and they are planning to build something like Great Wall in China.
- Cars price is cheap, even low-skilled labor like me can drive BMW :)
- Girls are pretty, well they may not be available but it's good to see yourself surrounded by pretty girls
- Peaceful Moslem environment, there are so many mosques and I have seen some people even prayed next to the road because they are so keen to pray exactly at prayer time. I'm a moslem so having moslem environment is important for me

On the other hand, things that I hate the most about Dubai:

- Summer time, can reach up to 50 degrees celcius! Even the official never admits it since 50 degrees means public holiday
- Traffic jam, anyone can afford to buy car and there are so many new construction sites in Dubai and most of them disturb the traffic so it’s always jam and unpredictable not only during busy hours
- Apartment Rent is ridiculously high, Dubai is no.25 in the most expensive City in the world and frankly speaking I don't think Dubai deserves it
- To many hypes: for example in my opinion apartment rent price should not go up because there is no big changes in number of people living in Dubai, when the first time UAE stock market was opened the price went very high but now it reaches the bottom of the barrel, etc

Anyway, I really enjoy my time and I may come up with some other like/hate things later on. I have been in Dubai for almost 5 years so even I will go to my dream job but I still can feel that something is missing. Will continue later.

Emulating Internetwork Expert

I read Brian McGahan email in CCIE SP forum yesterday about How to Run Cisco IOS on Your PC. It's nice to know that Internetwork Expert now provides dynagen files for both of their CCIE Routing Switching and Service Provider workbooks.
Download the files with initial config here.
Hopefully they will launch the SP workbook soon.