Should I go for my CCNP?

Atmosphere1991

ello everyone!
It's been a while since I have posted here. Since then, I landed my first job at small consulting firm, making 15 an hour in the St. Louis area. I have been here for about 6 months, and I really enjoy it! I passed my CCNA last summer which helped get me this position.My Job is not a typical "help desk", "desktop support", or "network tech" role.
I'm not sure how common what I do is. Since we are such a small team(8 people), I do pretty much everything. I make configuration changes in routers, mainly Sonic Walls almost daily. I work with managed switches. I deal with a little server 2008. I do VOIP stuff, we use cisco phones and freePBX servers. At least 60 percent of my day is spent doing tier 1 stuff, very simple things, answering the phone(Help desk), installing updates, imaging computers, swapping out HDDs, etc.
I'm not sure what to do next, as much as I enjoy my job I do not want to do this forever. I don't see any room for advancement, and our biggest network is about 75 users, I want something more interesting someday. I really enjoy networking, and was thinking about doing a CCNP class at the local community college this spring, and start working towards my NP. Do you guys think this a wise decision for someone in my current position? Do you guys have any advice for me? Does it seem like I'm headed in the right direction? When should I start searching for a new job?

TechGuru80

It sounds like an MCSA would help you more than a CCNP.

stlsmoore

Hey Atmosphere1991, I'm a fellow St. Louisan who just happened to pass my CCNP as of yesterday. You're off to a very good start with your current job. If I was in your situation I would hold off on the CCNP until you've narrowed your job scope a little more. This may take a few years until you know rather or not you're wanting to head more to the networking side or sys admin side of the house.

After I passed my CCNA and landed a NOC Tier I job, I tried to tackle the CCNP right away and it was just too much and lost interest very quickly. For me it was because I didn't need or wanted to know (subconsciously) that level of knowledge yet. Five years later and the CCNP finally made perfect sense for me and has helped me a lot with my day to day duties.

Also if I'm thinking of the same local community colleges in our area, it will take way to long in my opinion to knock out the CCNP in a decent amount of time. The college course I found for the CCNP was 2 years long IIRC. I took my time with self study and finished it in just under a 1 year.

Chitownjedi

Atmosphere1991 wrote: »

ello everyone!
It's been a while since I have posted here. Since then, I landed my first job at small consulting firm, making 15 an hour in the St. Louis area. I have been here for about 6 months, and I really enjoy it! I passed my CCNA last summer which helped get me this position.My Job is not a typical "help desk", "desktop support", or "network tech" role.
I'm not sure how common what I do is. Since we are such a small team(8 people), I do pretty much everything. I make configuration changes in routers, mainly Sonic Walls almost daily. I work with managed switches. I deal with a little server 2008. I do VOIP stuff, we use cisco phones and freePBX servers. At least 60 percent of my day is spent doing tier 1 stuff, very simple things, answering the phone(Help desk), installing updates, imaging computers, swapping out HDDs, etc.
I'm not sure what to do next, as much as I enjoy my job I do not want to do this forever. I don't see any room for advancement, and our biggest network is about 75 users, I want something more interesting someday. I really enjoy networking, and was thinking about doing a CCNP class at the local community college this spring, and start working towards my NP. Do you guys think this a wise decision for someone in my current position? Do you guys have any advice for me? Does it seem like I'm headed in the right direction? When should I start searching for a new job?

Pursuing education is always the right direction. The thing is focusing on what you love to do most and putting in the effort needed to become the best you can, you will be successful. Do you know what you want to focus on and enjoy most yet? Can you list a preference of priorities you give to certain roles you do now that you enjoy from most to least? If you can't then I believe you need to look longer and harder into what it is you may want to do and from there your path should look clearer.

TechGuru80

"At least 60 percent of my day is spent doing tier 1 stuff, very simple things, answering the phone(Help desk), installing updates, imaging computers, swapping out HDDs, etc."

That sounds a lot like dealing with systems more than networking equipment.