Will a CCNA bring better job opportunities, with no network experience?

Hello everyone.

My name is Ryan, I am 26 years old, and currently a Field Service Tech, making $17/hr in San Diego. I install/troubleshoot issues with PCs, Network Connectivity, Commercial grade printers, etc. I want to get into a more serious role in IT. 70% of my work now days in tearing apart a printer and installing a new motor, clutch, gear, etc. I did not get into IT to work on printers.

Question:
I just received books to study for the CCENT :study

Odom, and Lammle), Once finished with the CCENT, I am going for the CCNA. Once I receive my CCNA, with my experience, would I qualify to apply for more advanced jobs? What kind of job should I then apply for? What amount of pay would these jobs pay?

Has anyone gotten a better job, shortly after obtaining a CCNA?

I current don’t have any real networking experience.

My job experience:
1^st IT job as field deployment (Installing PCs, Printers, NAS devices, etc), second job as Help desk tech for small ISP, now currently I am a Field Service Tech. I am going to sites like Walmart, Home Depot, Wells Fargo and troubleshoot their printers, PCs, and sometimes network connectivity issues. I have over 3 years’ experience in IT now.

School/Certifications:
I have about 10 community college course completed, towards an AS in Computer Networking, but I don't plan on finishing that this year.
CompTIA A+
CompTIA Security +
Obtained all certifications required to be an authorized service technician for Dell, HP, Lenovo and Lexmark.

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Comments

Russell77

If nothing else it will get you a lot more interviews. If you get an offer or not depends on who you are up against for that particular job. With your background it is very worth while. It may take awhile to find a better job after getting a CCNA but sooner or later you will be in the right place at the right time.

ramrunner800

I think a hugely important factor people don't think enough about when assessing the impact of a certification on their job prospects is the amount of jobs in their location. If you live in an area with lots of technology jobs, I think the CCNA will definitely improve your prospects. If you live in an area where there aren't many jobs, it doesn't matter how much you improve your qualifications for jobs that don't exist. I think this leads to alot of the posts we see about underwhelming career improvement from some users on this board. You list San Diego as your location, and the last time I looked I remember seeing lots and lots of work being available in SoCal, so I would think you'd see good return on your investment.

gadav478

A good idea would be to find a gig with opportunities that you can grow into where CCNA knowledge would be useful, required even. Then work your way up while grabbing the CCNA. If you can't do that right away, get the cert anyway. Someone will be willing to take a chance on you if can show them you are serious about getting in the field. Grabbing the cert is a good way to convey that.

devils_haircut

It hasn't really done much for me. I got my CCNA about a year ago, and I still get pestered by recruiters for Helpdesk and Desktop Support gigs making $12-15 hourly on contract. That's pretty much it.

goldenlight

It got me a job at the cable company in tech support. Did I mention I have 2 B.S degrees, 2 A.S degree, and a CCNA. Guest the only other thing to try is meditation.

Hondabuff

CCNA with no experience makes you qualified for Desktop support type jobs or NOC tier 1. But, with that being said its a fast track to higher paying jobs. I was making $32k when I passed my CCNA as a Network Admin at a school and 4 years later and now mid $70's and I'm the lowest paid Engineer on the team. Its not an easy road but it changed my life and my family's for sure.

hurricane1091

It will help to get interviews (you'll be turned down a ton still) and it'll be up to you to show them what you know. Takes time but it's out there.

bugzy3188

While the CCNA is geared toward networking (obviously) it is very much a helpdesk level certification, with that said, it will really give you an edge in that realm. I have had my CCNA for about a year now and have been struggling to break in to the networking side of things, I did however land a helpdesk role at a fairly large company and have been given access to the routers and switches to handle minor tasks. As others have said, it will get you noticed and get you interviews for sure, just don't set your sights too high with this one certification alone.

Deathmage

ryanw4130 wrote: »

Hello everyone.
My name is Ryan, I am 26 years old, and currently a Field Service Tech, making $17/hr in San Diego. I install/troubleshoot issues with PCs, Network Connectivity, Commercial grade printers, etc. I want to get into a more serious role in IT. 70% of my work now days in tearing apart a printer and installing a new motor, clutch, gear, etc. I did not get into IT to work on printers.

Question:
I just received books to study for the CCENT :studyOdom, and Lammle), Once finished with the CCENT, I am going for the CCNA. Once I receive my CCNA, with my experience, would I qualify to apply for more advanced jobs? What kind of job should I then apply for? What amount of pay would these jobs pay?

Has anyone gotten a better job, shortly after obtaining a CCNA?

I current don’t have any real networking experience.

My job experience:
1^st IT job as field deployment (Installing PCs, Printers, NAS devices, etc), second job as Help desk tech for small ISP, now currently I am a Field Service Tech. I am going to sites like Walmart, Home Depot, Wells Fargo and troubleshoot their printers, PCs, and sometimes network connectivity issues. I have over 3 years’ experience in IT now.

School/Certifications:
I have about 10 community college course completed, towards an AS in Computer Networking, but I don't plan on finishing that this year.
CompTIA A+
CompTIA Security +
Obtained all certifications required to be an authorized service technician for Dell, HP, Lenovo and Lexmark.

I was in the same boat as you two years ago and I took it upon myself after guidance of this forums lovely people and that has been a cornerstone of my success the past two years....

Recommendation:

Get a home-lab of Cisco equipment like a 1841 router with a Cisco 3550/3750 and like say two Cisco 2950's, a server or two, a decent firewall, a Skeletek rack, VMware 5.5 (you can use free-mode perfectly fine or get a VMUG Advantage), and some eval version of Windows Server 2008 R2/2013 R2 (if you run the eval to non-genuine you can still use the OS), lastly order some Cat5e cables like 15 or 20 10-footers and make a near-close-to-production network and tinker around. You will be able to make the network at your leisure and when it's all done you will have a better understanding of how the networking aspect of a network works. You will only get that 'experience' by tinkering.

Plus if you make it look presentable you can take that to a interview and if you can walk-the-walk in the interview instead of talk-the-talk you will be able to make up for the shortfall of no experience.

It will be a small investment but they way I see it, if you can't invest in learning you can't invest in your future.

If you want idea's your more than welcome to check out my blog: My Home-Lab

By-the-way: I had little working experience in networking prior to my last job but I built a home-lab a little over a year and a half ago ago and it was a paramount building block to me building out a VMware ESXi 5.5 cluster with 6 hosts on a Dell N3048 iSCSI/vMotion fabric connected two twin Equalogic 6500s SAN's with a 288 port N3048 Layer 3/2 Super stack networking fabric with 12 vlans (mostly /25 subnets and two /23's) on a Dual Sonicwall NSA 250 M IPS security blanket all servicing 45 VM's for roughly 1500 users in hub-spoke corporate topology with 3 geographically distance locations. This was also before I got my VCP5-DCV but that deployment at my last job sure as hell help me get the VCP. That whole experience has followed me to my current job and my recent deployment here that I'm working currently.

Morale of the story, that home-lab was the building blocks to my success. Hence why recently I upgrade my whole home-network to a Cisco 3750G stack cause if I had a price point I'd get Cisco over anything any day.

One thing also to note: Networking is really at it's heart framework of a IT infrastructure. I'm a firm believer that networking while important shouldn't be your only focus. What I mean by this is a CCNA is good is coupled with say a MCSA/MCSE and/or a VCP-DCV. See having working knowledge of how networking integrated into the application layer is essential and where the mulla is at.

Hope this helps.

hixantum

bugzy3188 wrote: »

While the CCNA is geared toward networking (obviously) it is very much a helpdesk level certification, with that said, it will really give you an edge in that realm. I have had my CCNA for about a year now and have been struggling to break in to the networking side of things, I did however land a helpdesk role at a fairly large company and have been given access to the routers and switches to handle minor tasks. As others have said, it will get you noticed and get you interviews for sure, just don't set your sights too high with this one certification alone.

Quoted for truth. For me getting a CCNP is a huge no no, unless I have 2 years experience of working with Cisco or a employer will pay for certs and lab equipment(s) after 1 years of employment.

It seems wiser for me now, to delve into software oriented certs such as MySQL database.

ryanw4130

Thank you all for the advise!

ryanw4130

I just started to read into the my study book for 100-101 ICND1. So do you think I would need the Cisco lab now, or would it be for 200-101 ICND2 material?

kurosaki00

It will certainly not bring less to the table vs not having it. Go for it.

Kinet1c

You don't need a cisco lab, you can use packet tracer or GNS3.

I got the CCNA with the hope of working in networking/NOC based stuff. I've done very little direct work with Cisco equipment but the knowledge gained has been put to use and has definitely helped me get interviews/jobs. Go for it.

markulous

Kinet1c wrote: »

You don't need a cisco lab, you can use packet tracer or GNS3.

I got the CCNA with the hope of working in networking/NOC based stuff. I've done very little direct work with Cisco equipment but the knowledge gained has been put to use and has definitely helped me get interviews/jobs. Go for it.

Agreed with Packet Tracer. That program really helped me quite a bit to get the basics down.

Mike-Mike

Hondabuff wrote: »

Its not an easy road but it changed my life and my family's for sure.

Same here.

I think my first job after the CCNA was only 40k, but it was in a NOC and my first real networking job. From there it's been mentioned in every single interview/recruiter call ever. Last year I made more than double what I made in the NOC, and I only see it going up from here.

nakreejohn

For CCNA and CCNP we are having big opportunities all over the world. It is the best course to do after completion of B.tech. For CCNA and CCNP asit is the best training institute.

hurricane1091

I mainly used packet tracer to get the CCNA. I do have real equipment though. I landed my current role as a Network Engineer after being in the field for a little over a year and having two CCNAs, but going back to WGU for my B.S. got me past HR check box. I can see why no one hires CCNAs without experience. It just isn't enough knowledge. I was lucky though and really did well in the interview because of what I learned in the CCNA. I've opened the CCNP book but not that far into it, but have set up legit labs with real equipment. The only thing hard about real equipment is not visually seeing port numbers like in packet tracer and having to draw out and plan what you are doing.

pitviper

devils_haircut wrote: »

It hasn't really done much for me. I got my CCNA about a year ago, and I still get pestered by recruiters for Helpdesk and Desktop Support gigs making $12-15 hourly on contract. That's pretty much it.

The bad recruiters contact me for the same jobs... I politely ask them to stop wasting time my time

kurosaki00

hurricane1091 wrote: »

The only thing hard about real equipment is not visually seeing port numbers like in packet tracer and having to draw out and plan what you are doing.

Great time to learn Visio and network diagrams! Very useful skill.

mjnk77

I used Packet Tracer in the classroom and at home, but also got experience on the actual equipment while working on some jobs. But packet tracer helped a great deal. You can find the labs online and if you start from the beginning, it will work up your skillset. In the beginning it shows you what you did right and wrong, but later on, you don't have that. I'm going to PM you.

ryanw4130

nakreejohn wrote: »

For CCNA and CCNP we are having big opportunities all over the world. It is the best course to do after completion of B.tech. For CCNA and CCNP asit is the best training institute.

B.Tech??

mjnk77

I'm thinking B.tech means Bachelors in some IT/CIS/MIS?

slee335

i would have to say no. i thought the same too i got my ccna i couldn't find a network job. takes some luck. but it doesn't hurt only helps a little.