Interview with Double CCIE - Steven Dipippo (Hosted by INE) 

You heard it here first, the CCNA is useful! Not toilet paper!! Eli, I'm going to show you that you're wrong. I'm putting down my soldering iron, picking up my voodoo doll, and when I get my CCNA, I will show you!

thank you for you job, Eli!

just bought the book and passed the CCNA certification test that simply?

Excellent point on the bachelor’s degree I say why waste 4 years in college getting one instead just buy an online degree. This is what many police do to up their salary. All is good until the H1-B visa walks in and takes your job

Nice Interview Steve :-)

Gotta hate this guy... got a CCNA then just got a job in IT. Which it was that easy. I took my CCNA and never got a networking job because i had no practical experience in a job in CISCO hardware. Ended up going back to MS stuff, because its what my work experience was in :(

Never plugged in or racked one of those switches. This is interesting.

Who the hell is that young man in yellow and grey shirt?? Where is Eli?!

This was excellent. Two successful, industry experts for free! I'd like to see more of these.

How come this Interview isn't 2 hours plus?

Eli should get a studio. Who agrees with this?

I know you said interviews are the least successful thing to upload to YT, but I really enjoyed this :-)

I wish I had known about the CCNA before racking up thousands of dollars on a college degree

You mentioned in your vlogs that you thought your interview wouldn't be popular, but i really enjoyed this one.

I have 10 years in IT and have put off and put off getting Cisco certified.....I've bought atleast 3 Cisco press books and lost 2...I'm gonna really study and do it this year...

Great Interview Eli!

very good video quality and switching video.

He came matching the pillows. Skillz

This was a great interview. Good audio is key.

Ok so now we know why he have two CCIE... he is so young that he needed them to prove to everyone he wasnt an intern XD

I like this type of content. More please Eli and less about fried nachos

I appreciate Eli for his candor. However, this kid is is only selling Cisco and INE. I would've appreciated a more average employee rather than this poster boy. Also Steven has already noted this interview on his linked in profile.

"passion is becoming a buzz word that I hate with as passion" lol.

Very professional interview, great sound and video quality made it even better. Eli kept his views of CCNA to himself. This is a good thing, it shows that Eli is willing to hear out others opinions even though he may not agree.

Was really great seeing this. Busy with my CCNP @ 21 years old. Gonna definitely shoot for CCIE straight after. I know the feeling of wishing I knew about certifications back in high school :P

For anyone wanting to get ahead in the corporate world, absorb and put into practice the info from 49:30 - 50:35. Some of the best learning you'll get on RU-vid right there.

Brilliant Interview, thanks for the post

I mean the fact that he never touched a router or switch to me is disturbing. I'm 17 years in I'm a Data Center guy. I know wiring, power, cooling, racking, SFP types, etc.. plus Routing and Switching. I just don't know about all this virtualization stuff. But oh well.

The interview is amazing. Also please share some tips for young professionals (i m 22) aspiring to be in their dream job roles at Cisco

Thank you for this interview which is so informative!

I am that guy that's been "working on it". *facepalm*

I really enjoyed this interview, Steven was a really down to earth, informative and humble person.

this was a great idea. I'll watch all of these.

I find this interview to be very interesting. Steve, you really challenged me. I am perpetual procrastinator. I am going to stop working on it and actually do it now. Thank you

Packet Tracer ftl, I think its just a way for educational institutions to save money. Every CCNA should have touched a router by the end...

Aug. 17th, 2016: The computer networking leader said it will slash 5,500 positions, about 7% of its workforce, starting this quarter. Reports had anticipated as many as 14,000 job cuts (about 20% of its workforce). Cisco laid off some 11,000 workers between 2011 and 2014. Looks like there will be a lot of unemployed CCNA and CCIE from Cisco.

Hey brother, I like your videos a lot. I have learnt a lot of things from you. Thanks for making these videos. From Kashmir, India

Excellent content Eli. Very much enjoyed and learned a lot from this. Curious to hear your after-thoughts on it, as you've been a vocal opponent to the CCNA and its kind for awhile now. The situation has changed since he got his of course, but does anything he had to say change what you think of it?

my system was blown away because i spilled coffee over the laptop so i am unable to practise on CISCO VIRL WHICH I PURCHASED. and registered for my v5 security written ccie but visa is denied what should i do i have invested my ; life. this the condition if you are from south asia.

I hate cisco. They and their evangelists are such elitist. We went with Dell for our new 40Gb core and edge, very happy. And you know what? We need to replace our servers, and I'm staring at a Dell and a Cisco quote. Not only does Dell win on cost, but support and service as well. I know that if I'm getting some weird VSAN issue I can ring Dell and they aren't (or won't) be able to blame our networking when they can't figure it out. I know if we went cisco servers, they would blame our switches straight away every time.

I really cant picture this dude being a bartender...

Judging by the comments, people are really enjoying this interview. I wonder how much of that has to do with weeding out what Eli calls the "fourteen year olds" after weeks of 2-hour episodes.

very good talk here! interesting to see that people actually do have the cert, i have ccnp myself but it is very rare that i meet anyone that even knows what it is..

Great interview. I have ccna, ccnp, ccie. But it's too long ago, I passed my ccie 11 years ago......

Perfect! Just under ONE hour long. The way it should be, IMHO.

Very awesome interview! So motivating! I'm currently taking a course on sysadmin/networking (CCNA1-2) and first I thought sysadmin would be more my thing, but I'm enjoying the CCNA classes so much that I'm not sure anymore what to do. The certs I get will be academic but I'm really considering to get my industrial certs and maybe even go for CCNA3-4. In a way I like networks more because it's pure logic, with windows server you encounter bugs and software flaws that you simply can't do anything about and it drives me nuts. Also I like abstract thinking so maybe networking will be more my thing.

Amazing video, thx for doing the interview.

Great video, thanks Eli

That guy might have started with Cisco studies as a chance but he is very, very passionate about Cisco and Cisco certs. It's embarrassing how Eli's enthusiasm was at a lot lower level than Steve's. I came here to watch first 5 minutes, but watched almost entire interview. Steve is pretty inspirational.

I'm taking a Network Administration course. After class I was trying out some simple Python commands in IDLE. My teacher saw me and said "Why are you doing that, that's for programmers!" It was cool to see this guy with two CCIEs starting to learn Python too.

Are these the interviews that he was talking about in the previous videos?

great interview. im so sorry. i been drinking. studying for my a plus. i will study for mcsa Windows 8 to 10 while taking a network cabing course. i will study for cisco ccent & cnna in july 2012. thanks eli & steve.

you are FABOOLOOS

I had enjoyed this! thank you, Eli

Oh man, this was like watching myself get interviewed. I'm a jncie and also very rarely have ever touched a switch. Same type of knowledge, job role and limitations. Only difference is I wanna move into other areas in IT. Nice interview!

Great interview! Nice change of pace from your usual videos!

Really high quality video, love it.

It was very supporting and inspiring to hear this guy... his whole story made me think that I can make it too :) and i don't mean a ccie (i won't say no to one someday).. i mean get a job that i actually wish and pray for.. :) thanks

Good stuff

Holy cow.... CCIE without touching a single switch. this kid is a god.

Fantastic interview and production quality sir. Bravo!

Stopped watching after the 15 minute mark. MAYBE, he finally got around to point-blank answering the question later in the interview, but I got tired of Eli asking the guy WHY double CCIE and never got a real answer. I mean, it might be a big whoop-de-doo if you work for CISCO, but if I work in XYZ's networking department and have my CCIE, why double up? Most companies interpret "CCIE" on your resume as Networking GOD and gladly stack the zeroes on your paycheck. If I have a CCIE in Routing & Switching, then I've already proven that I have the aptitude to learn any aspect of networking that I set my mind to. So.........why? Other than proving you're the biggest know-it-all in the room TWICE. I mean, I know companies pay you for individual certs from multiple vendors, but do multiple CCIEs mean anything (outside of working for CISCO)?

I just joined the program he stated the same week of the video. That program is only the beginning!

Hi Eli, I love the interview format. Keep it up!

Dude...seriously...who doesn't feel great just saying the name "DiPippo?"

"If you only have CCNA and if you don't have experience.. you will not get a networking job"... Even I got the same message from several recruiting firms... sad truth... Doing a helpdesk job as of now...

I'm currently going to school for the 5th year finishing up my IT degree. I'm on my second internship with an IT consulting company who I will pretty much guaranteed be working for when I graduate. Took ICND1 exam today for the 3rd time today and failed with a 795. Man I feel dumb.

You're always going to ceiling out in infrastructure especially as we're eliminating hardware . If I had this kid's I.Q. I would be writing code all day creating software . Even though his 2 C.C.I.E.'s are very impressive . It would take me 6 years with my schedule to get those .

Eli, it would be SO NICE if you had this sound quality on your videos...

Does Cisco really have a team lead or this is something he made up? Also, why is he lying about his motivation of getting a 2nd CCIE? wont this be the fact that cisco give his employees $10,000 for passing any IE Lab? hmmm.

Steven seems like an intelligent and well spoken guy, but I have to wonder how risky his decision to bet the house on Cisco will be in the future. We all see the layoffs that are currently happening at Cisco, and I hope he isn't one of the many that are losing their jobs. It sounds like he has a great position, but it also appears very unique to Cisco. Although a double CCIE would carry a lot of prestige on a resume, his lack of experience with other vendors and basically no hardware experience would likely lead to a massive pay cut if he were forced to jump to another company. I say good for him if his certifications allowed him to bypass a lot of the crappier jobs network engineers usually work to gain experience and advance, but sometimes paying your dues at those kinds of jobs gives you more job stability through diversity once you obtain one of the good positions.

Do more of these interviews Eli, really good!

i played halo with steven back at usf, cool dude.

i use to be a landscaper and I fucking relate to this guy on a deep deep level

A lot of wisdom hidden in casual conversation.

Hi Steven, I am currently studying for CCNA data center (already have CCNA R&S knowledge). Is it ok for me to go directly for CCIE data center WITHOUT any experience in the networking field? Some training schools here in Toronto, Ontario recommend doing this. thanks, (Anyone working in the networking field, please feel free to respond)

Finally the interviews! I will say, it's interesting knowing that CCNA is a minimum barrier of entry, I would have expected CCNP but it makes sense. CCNP probably is already employed. You also need to know where you're going with the job, because many small companies are probably not going to put out an ad for a CCIE, they'll probably be fine with anyone that knows how to manage the AD.

Awesome interview :)

A very honest, down-to-earth interview. Thanks Steven and Eli. One question: I suffer from illness including photo-phobia so I am looking to do consulting work from home. I am currently studying for my CCNP R&S, Do you guys think this is possible with technology today?

Well, this was a very interesting interview!

I want to be this guy, working as RF telecom Engineer for last 8 years, i want to switch career to become cisco expert. This gave me alot of motivation

In China, if you dont get 2 CCIEs before you graduate from college (about age 22-23), you cant call yourself a network engineer, and everyone will laugh at you.

I like this guy, he basically contradicted everything that Eli used to say about CCNA lol

i was told that they do not provide a visa for some "computer exam" they did not mention ccie security exam. is that normal or cisco need to tell what is the value of this exam. anyone ? please help me how should i respond. because my exam is in 25 Aug 2017.

GREAT INTERVIEW - KEEP EM COMING - LOVING IT.

what book is Mr. Dipippo talking about?

Steven said that he can renew both of his CCIE with 1 written test. Does that go for 3+ as well?

l did CCNA,CCNA security And to be honest , if it were something like 15 years ago , it would mean an absolute lot that without doubt, however, in today's world without a bachelors degree, CCNA on its own no worth absolutely nothing

This was a good interview, but there's one piece of terrible advice given: that a Bachelor's degree is important, no matter what it is. Don't waste four years of your life and $40,000 (US) for something that is effectively a litmus test for lazy HR people. If you are going to go to college, study something that will teach marketable skills: Computer Science, Engineering, Accounting, Nursing, etc. Most general "science" degrees are worthless unless you're going to pursue a Masters or PhD. Liberal arts degrees are mostly just worthless.

Talk about lucky though. From help desk straight to cisco! I've got my CCNA as well as some c# programming knowledge and am having trouble even getting an interview for helpdesk. 2 interviews out of 200+ applications over the last several months. You really need a lucky break to get into IT.

First interview I've seen on youtube in a long time that kept my attention 100%. WELL DONE ELI!

damm were was this program for new grands when I finished college. Thanks ELI Your the man once again!!

Can't you just call this a conversation rather than an interview. An interview seems to professional IMO.

what a good guy he was.

this is the kind of eli i like.

Another cool interview.

could you please discuss why we should take the certificates? when the Exams answers are all over the internet, and in some countries the fees are really high compared to the average income, i dont mean this guy cheated i ment many others that i know did, and honestly it makes me think twice about taking them.

AWESOME interview

maybe it's just because I'm european, but that couch is HUGE

These are great!