Is CCNA recommended if you want to pursue MCSA/E 2012?

I am planning on achieving MCSA/E 2012 in the near future, but I am wondering if it's at all beneficial to get the CCNA beforehand, or should I wait until afterwards.

I currently have CCENT, but I postponed my CCNA studying because of my current job. I'm in a helpdesk position for an app development company. The IT department is a 2 man job with my boss and I. We run two physical OS X servers which host a few Ubuntu and OS X VMs through Parallels. We are also transitioning to Cisco Meraki hardware (which doesn't really use Cisco CLI).

Ideally, I don't want to be in a Mac environment because I fear it will hurt my career path and experience gain.

Basically, I have 3 plans, and I'd like your guys' opinion.

Finish CCNA, get MCSA, look for new job
Finish CCNA, look for new job, get MCSA
Get MCSA, look for new job, finish CCNA

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Comments

iBrokeIT

You are already half way to the CCNA so you might as well finish it. The CCNA would be a huge benefit to your job search. There is minimal overlap between the CCNA and MCSA/E. It never hurts to start looking at job postings now to see what is out there.

joelsfood

Your CCNA will not really help you towards mcsa/mcse TESTs. but the knowledge will absolutely be useful when you go to actually use those certifications at a job. I've been at this for years, and I know I absolutely find my networking experience useful in my systems/storage job. My boss likes having someone with networking knowledge/experience around too.