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[TOC]

:::info
:bulb: *This content is re-posted from my [LinkedIn article](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/value-ccie-terrence-chou/) which posted in March 2020.*
:::

"The Value of CCIE" - this subject has been debated since a long time ago and it is almost refreshed every year after the Top #N certificates of the year were released. I am not trying to make a duplicate place to debate, I just want to share what I think in my mind instead.

I think when people commence planning the entire proposal for the CCIE journey, the primary motivation would treat it as a milestone or an achievement. The reason I exclude the salary is that it does not 100% make sense from my perspective. In order to get there, there are a couple of things that will be taken place.

- Firstly, you have to spend time to be more and more familiar with what you have been and have not been good at. As a result, something needs to be compromised or even sacrificed.
- Secondly (continue with the first point), you have to prepare most of the required materials to ensure that you could be qualified for this title. Therefore, additional expenditures are unavoidable.
- Lastly, it might not be carried out for the first attempt so that you have to go back the entire cycle again.

This goal is not easy to achieve especially you might have to repeat the whole cycle more than one time. <span class="fontColor">It is not just about time and money</span>, the thing is you definitely would feel frustrated then thinking that you let yourself down (how it can be, etc). That is the main reason why you feel so grateful <span class="fontColor">when you get the number</span>. Because you certainly know that you have achieved a significant and meaningful milestone.

In conclusion, whenever you hear or see that someone negatively debates that this certification was not valuable at all, please try to recall yourself that what are the drivers to push you moving forward before you are convinced to disagree with the value you created.

![The value is given by yourself instead of defined by someone else
](https://i.imgur.com/9C8rd89.jpg)

Cheers!

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