CCDE Bootcamp - MBN Network Review

I just came back yesterday from my trip to Edinburgh, Scotland, where I was allowed to attend the CCDE Bootcamp offered by Malcolm Booden. He holds this 5-day course 2 times a year with a very limited amount of students (up to 6).

I met Malcolm at Cisco Live Amsterdam 2024 and we had a very open talk. After that, I decided to book one of the course seats for the May 2024 course. Lucky for me my company was very supportive about that.

Concerns

Before going there I had 2 main concerns:

• Will I be able to follow the course?
  It is said that Scottish is very hard for non-native speakers
  
  
• Since I´m at the starting point of the CCDE track it might be too early to attend the Bootcamp and I might not be able to follow the content

Before I answer these 2 questions let me do a short wrap-up of the week.

Week in a glance 

The preparation and information Malcolm has given us to prepare and book everything was perfect. He gave us everything needed so I was able to travel to Edinburgh very well prepared. The MNB Networks office (Malcolm´s company) is not in Edinburgh directly, but instead in a small town/part next to Edinburgh. It was easily reachable via public transportation (bus line).

On the first day, we did a small introduction round with all the participants (from Australia, Kanada, Spain, UK, and Germany) and we discussed the scope for the week. 

To summarize I would say the topics for the week were more focused on giving us an idea how what the CCDE exam looks like and about the mindset it needs to pass it. Also, the approach to solve design-based scenarios was a very big focus of the course.

For a very technical person, it is hard to not get lost in technical details, so this might be a very big challenge for me.  I tend to instantly think about configuration and not about the "overall picture".

We did a lot of practical exercises and lots of discussions. I have the feeling that they already sharpened my mind a little bit for the exam, but there is way to go. 

Also Daniel Dib (@danieldibswe) - a very active Twitter/X and Cisco community member -  visited us via Zoom call and gave us very useful insights about his experience and his exam preparation.

A key point that came up was "team building". It is very hard to pass the exam as a "lone wolf" since you always need to be challenged to pass the final exam. There are some books and scenarios out there but it is not the same as studying in a group and challenging each other. 

So we are trying to keep the group together after the course and try to push and motivate each other. Malcolm will also mentor us for 12 months which is part of the course offering.

Besides the course, we also did a quick tour through Edinburgh and had dinner together. It was a wonderful experience. The weather was as to be expected in Scottland but that was part of the experience. I would have been disappointed otherwise ;-)

I need to say that Edinburgh is worth a visit. Once the course was done I explored the city a second time on Saturday (with better weather) and did a "Harry Potter" themed tour via an app, which was very interesting and I can highly recommend it.

Summary

For me, the course was 100% worth the time. Malcolm tries to give you a good understanding of what matters if you want to pass the CCDE exam. You can only profit from his experience and input. It´s also a benefit to meet people with the same plans and that the group stays together after the course ends (at least that is the plan).

About the 2 concerns I had

Language:
Malcolm tried to be understandable for us and the language barrier was not a problem at all for me. It was easy to follow him and the content. So if you are fluent in English that is not a reason to not attend

Timing:

Since the focus of the course is more about approach and mindset it is not a problem if you are not already 100% deep dive into the blueprint topics. I still have a pretty good knowledge from my CCIE studies, so I was able to follow the technical background of the scenarios very easily. 

I would say you need to have your base setup (like routing protocols, WAN technology, etc..) but you don´t need to have all the blueprint details already.

Needless to say: for me, it was the absolute right moment to take the course because I now feel very motivated and equipped with the correct toolkit to prepare for the exam.

All in all, I can highly recommend the course if you plan to prepare for the CCDE exam.

Just reach out to Malcolm (via https://mnbnetworks.tech/) if you are interested.