Next year I will be flying to India for a few months to gain some certifications.
If you were in my shoes, which certifications would you pursue?
I am currently studying for the CCNA and fingers crossed I will have passed before I go to India.
The CCNA is probably one of the better ones. While there is a lot of Cisco-proprietary stuff to it, it does cover a lot of the general networking topics as well.
Other than that, it would depend on your focus area within networking, as even Cisco has many flavors of certs. I, for example, am focusing a little more on firewalls at my job, so I am working toward CheckPoint CCSA/CCSE certifications.
I guess a better question would be "What certification would you recommend after the CCNA?" I realize there is no easy way to answer that. I will probably have a better idea when have completed the CCNA.
Certifications are pretty low tier, actually. To go anywhere, you'd need to get a degree.
I have a degree, its definitely been helpful. You are going to have to explain why certifications are low tier, you must know something I dont.
To get a certificate, you have to do online research, a little hands on stuff, take a cheap test and boom. you have it. It was discussed in a recent inbox video.
Just like having a masters is better than a bachelors, having a degree of any kind is better than a certification. Any highschool grad can get one of those.
yeah but employers eat that shit up. but i still believe experience is KING.
I disagree with you buddy. Degrees tend to cover a number of subjects in different modules in my experience. They are definitely worth doing but they don't prove you have specific knowledge the way certifications do.
Some certifications are incredibly difficult, there is also paths and levels.
http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/certifications/index.html
I would also recommend you look at recruitment adverts, they ask for certs because its one of the best ways of indicating your knowledge.
yep, experience is definitely important
you wanted Qain's opinion on the,. and he gave it in one of the Inbox videos. They said that if you could get one, great, but that they wouldnt hire you just because you had a ccna cert. I could have gotten that right out of highschool.
I asked which certification path would he recommend, hes does not answer that question in that video. I think they where talking about a compTIA A+ in that video not the CCNA. I think Qain just said he started his certification path during high school (could be one of the reasons he has that office in NY). BTW Why does age you can sit a exam affect the value of it?
You have a point when you said being CCNA certified will not automatically get you a job. I never said it would, but am sure it would help if you where applying for a junior networking position.
Its not the age, its how easily you can get it. I was just stating my opinion that you should go for something more than a cert, if you can, instead of wasting your time with it. (Example: Instead of getting CCNA cert, get a degree in networking) It will take you much further.
As for which certification to do in the meantime, its really dependent on you, I would think. what you wanted to do, what career path you wanted to take, and whatnot.
Well thanks for your opinion, thing is am not convinced you know enough about certifications to be of much help to me. My question is for Qain or anyone in networking, after reading your input I would guess you probably don't work with computer networks so am not sure why you are advising me.
This is all going way off topic. I was hoping to learn from people working in the industry which Cisco certifications are desirable at the moment, security vs voice for example or stop Cisco after the CCNA or CCNP and start on becoming a MCSA. I think my best option is to just cross that bridge when I come to it .
It depends on what country you work in, and if there is a skills shortage.
In Australia there are too many candidates with certification, because you can be a High School dropout and get certified. So, industry experience has a higher value and more relevance when hiring people.
If you plan on a support role (Network/Systems Administrator) "techies" then Cisco Certs are fairly standard prerequisites along with some previous help-desk/ISP support experience. CCNA is obviously entry-level so you'd need to look into CCNP/IE to compete with the million other entry-level job-seekers.
There is only so much room in IT that one can advance without a degree or post-grad studies. (In Australia anyway). That's why the majority of techies get sick of their job and end up in Sales or some other such role than earns them more $$$.
To offer a business something by understanding business or Business/Systems Analysis, fortunately still requires a degree.
There's a common saying in IT;
If you want to work in IT as a job, go for certs.
If you want to work in IT as a profession, go to Uni.
I'm not sure who you think you are, linking my knowledge with networks to knowledge with certifications?
You aren't going to go anywhere decent in life in the field with certifications alone. Especially if you're going to India (Why?) to mass acquire them.
As you your question, "Which is best?" Thats a matter of opinion. for which field you want to go into. If you say that "I want to go into what makes me the most money." Then that's kind of pathetic. You should go into it because of passion, not money.
I was actually considering moving to Australia. My plan is to go back into a support role, hopefully getting some certs will distinguish me from my competition. Fingers crossed I will have two months off next year, seems like a perfect opportunity to get some of these certifications out the way. I have a pretty solid understanding of the concepts of routing and switching I just need to prepare myself for the exam. I am planing to take the CCNA before flying out there.
Its a little worrying to hear so many guys are giving up. Hopefully I wont find myself in that position, I have a degree but its not really convenient for me to start any post-grad studies. It might be worth looking into distance courses if anyone has a recommendation?
I apologize for being a bit patronizing. I am spending my evenings studying for a cert, after a day at work. So when I read a comment like this;
"Certifications are pretty low tier, actually. To go anywhere, you'd need to get a degree."
It rubs me up the wrong way.
Not sure why this became a degree vs cert thread but if that's what you want to know you might find this useful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqiCQAvtvfs
This guys is pretty famous for creating video training for cisco certs, regardless I think his opinion is helpful.