To be frank, the CCIE is no longer just about expert knowledge, it's more about being able to create a strategy to complete an obscene number of tasks within an 8 hour period of time. It's important to understand that the tasks asked within that period would never be asked of anyone deploying a project or solution in the real world. i.e. tasks in a SoW.

In the past, the CCIE was proctored and graded by other experts observing and grading candidates. Today, the CCIE grading is scripted. While there are multiple ways to perform some tasks, Cisco is looking for the answer that runs against their script or is based on their SRND or CVD documentation or a caveat as it related to protocol interoperability. The CCIE is not a best practices or real world exam by any means, so why is it so important?

It was/is important because partners need a certain number of CCIE's to sell certain product lines, but like the previous person contributed...

"A Cisco Gold VAR only needs four CCIEs, so again, not so many CCIEs are needed once you make Gold. As a matter of fact, once a VAR has four CCIEs, why look for more or train them?"

As any candidate that has taken the lab in the last 5-7 years can attest, it's 33.3% expert knowledge, 33.3% strategy & 33.3% speed. It's true, you do need to be able to answer the questions and understand the technology, but I guarantee that most candidates fail because they run out of time as a result of strategy and speed. Some engineers in Cisco say, "the R&S is a typing test" I know some folks even at Cisco that have taken the same lab 4 to 6 times before passing and they all say the same thing.

"It wasn't the tasks that made it difficult, it was finding a way to complete the work in an efficient manner to complete it within the time requirement."

Having obtained my CCIE at Cisco and then leaving the company, I earned almost 50k a year more outside the company. Cisco places a great deal of emphasis on the CCIE within their Cisco TAC (Joe Pinto), but outside the TAC it's not a requirement for most.

For the record, Cisco does not adhere to their own NDA regarding CCIE content on the lab exam.

This was something that Sarah DeMark (CCIE Program Manager) was well known for doing to promote engineer participation inside Cisco.

Let me ask you, What do you think is more valuable, a Cisco CCIE or someone who obtained it outside the company? I'll let you be the judge.