Acquired CCNA R&S, no networking experince, what now?

pujan96

Hi all.

After a bit of a struggle I have managed to attain my CCNA cert.

My question is what do I move onto to try and pave the steps for a successful network engineering career.

Unfortunately my previous years of employment are not IT related let alone anything to do with networking as I used to be a vehicle technician.

At this moment in time however I have my CCNA along with two months experience in IT ( working for an apple store diagnosing and repairing macs). I'm also 20 at the moment if that helps, hence the career change as I thought I might as well look for something better whilst I'm still young.

I know a CCNA alone is pretty much useless without the relevant hands on industry experience but what I don't know is how to get it and what to do from here. I plan on working my way up through the CCNP and hopefully To CCIE but I don't want to start it till I have relevant hands on experience.

Now that I have a CCNA should I start to apply for jobs? And if so what kind?
Should I stay at apple in hardware repair for a year to get at least a years IT experience?
Are there any goals I should set for the next couple of years to set me on my network engineer path?.

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Pujan

capwap

Sounds like you're on the right path. Just stay at the Apple store until you find something else. In the mean time, put out applications for help desk jobs where you'd be troubleshooting things more related to networking, junior NOC positions, anything more related to networking than what you're doing now. And just baby step your way up the ladder.

kohr-ah

Apply apply apply apply apply apply

NOC roles. Junior network engineer. Network engineer. Just see what they as for in requirements.

But most of all keep practicing networking. Don't let your skills slip.

aatconcept

Bro, weldon u ve indeed tried...is a good starting...what I will advice you on now is to get a lot of field experience, like that Apple store is a place to develop yourself get information on there customers that involve in industry networking and develop urself personally as well on switches and routers , but of it all, start frm some where...you will need the experience for upgrading...

bermovick

Pretty much what the previous replies said. Add a big dollop of patience though.

I got my CCNA in ... July of either 2010 or 2011 (has it been that long already?), and pretty much reached out to every recruiting agency I could find to get in their systems, started checking the online job sites, and posted my resume on them as well. I didn't have anything on my resume IT-related as my last IT-ish job had been over a decade before. I also lived in a very small town without any city large enough to have a good IT market for over an hour drive so my opportunities for direct searching were a bit limited, but if you live in more of a metro area you'll have additional resources available in your search.

Anyway, back to my original point, I didn't land my first networking gig (in a NOC) until February of the next year, so ya gotta be patient.

CiscoWayne

bermovick wrote: »

Pretty much what the previous replies said. Add a big dollop of patience though.

I got my CCNA in ... July of either 2010 or 2011 (has it been that long already?), and pretty much reached out to every recruiting agency I could find to get in their systems, started checking the online job sites, and posted my resume on them as well. I didn't have anything on my resume IT-related as my last IT-ish job had been over a decade before. I also lived in a very small town without any city large enough to have a good IT market for over an hour drive so my opportunities for direct searching were a bit limited, but if you live in more of a metro area you'll have additional resources available in your search.

Anyway, back to my original point, I didn't land my first networking gig (in a NOC) until February of the next year, so ya gotta be patient.

Thanks for your post mate, I was having a read of this thread because aside from the age of the OP, I'm in the same situation (Got the CCNA, but not any IT experience).

I got my CCNA in November and have been applying for anything and everything I can since then (Service Desk/Help Desk, Network Engineer, Junior Network engineer and NOC) and since then, I've only had one interview (for a NOC job) that unfortunately, I didn't get. We're now marching on to the end of December and I'm starting to worry that it'll never happen.

In fact, I've started working on an MTA in Windows Server, in the hopes that it'll give me more of a chance getting through the CV screening process. But if I'm honest, Microsoft bores the hell out of me lol.

So your post gave me a little faith that I'll land something eventually. I think the thing that's destroying me the most, is, I'm not even getting interviews!

Wish us luck! haha and good luck to Pujan too

Pseudonym

Wayne, the CCNA is not an entry level cert. I'm sorry to say this but you'll really struggle to get a networking position with no experience. You should be aiming to get a helpdesk.. possibly desktop support job for at least a year and move onto networking after you've proven you understand the basics. A+ is a much better starting point for getting into IT.

CiscoWayne

Don't be sorry mate, I'll take all the advice I can get!

I was kind of hoping the CCNA would help at least get my foot in the door of a help desk role somewhere? (and if not, hopefully the MTA would help too).

Do you think this is pointless and I should think about an A+ instead? I'm not sure if you've done your CCNA or A+ but how do they compare? Study time/difficulty wise?

Thanks for your help mate

bermovick

That's one path, but by far not the only path. I always associated a Tier 1 NOC role to networking's version of the helpdesk anyway, and have always felt the CompTIA certs to be too expensive for their worth (but thats only my opinion and I know others have used them to get their 'foot in the door')

Another alternative I've seen posted (and something I did look into with no success: again, very small town) is contacting schools and the like to see if you can "help out" their IT department (sortof like an unpaid internship). It gives you at least some experience; something to put on your resume and probably a couple of professional references to boot.

@Wayne: I hear ya there. I picked up the 3 books for the MCSA 2008 after I got my CCNA and couldn't even get through the first chapter. It was just THAT AWFUL. Interviews were few and far between (I think I ony had about 3 total between the CCNA and when I landed the NOC gig).

CiscoWayne

Again, thanks for your advice bermovick.

Yeah the Microsoft stuff is a bit of a bore. But at least with it being MTA, it's pretty high level. I had a flick through the MCSA book once and thought not a chance! haha.

I'm in the same position as you, I live in a pretty unpopulated area (as far as IT related roles go)

I may try the school route then, see if any of them will allow me to get involved a few hours a week.

Thanks again

pujan96

Thanks for all the information guys what I'll do is focus my job applications on the help desk\desk support side of jobs which might be a bit easier to get into and work my way up to noc, after some basic networking experience.

fmitawaps

CCNA with no job experience?

Network admin is aiming too high, help desk is aiming too low. Go for desktop support jobs. Be the person that is responsible for imaging and deploying a few hundred computers in a company when they buy all new ones. Try to get some time in switch cabinets, working with the network admin if possible. Although in my experience, that's tough to do when you're brought in on a contract assignment for a few months to deploy new PCs.

Jr Network Admin is about the best you can hope for, but with no experience, I wouldn't hold out for it. Start in desktop support.

Help desk roles can be gotten with no certs or an A+.

Pseudonym

CiscoWayne wrote: »

Don't be sorry mate, I'll take all the advice I can get!

I was kind of hoping the CCNA would help at least get my foot in the door of a help desk role somewhere? (and if not, hopefully the MTA would help too).

Do you think this is pointless and I should think about an A+ instead? I'm not sure if you've done your CCNA or A+ but how do they compare? Study time/difficulty wise?

Thanks for your help mate

I've not done CCNA yet. I'm looking at doing it at the beginning of 2017 if I get my other planned certs done by then.

Basically, you need to try to understand from an employers point of view.. Once you've worked in IT for a bit you'll understand that very minor configuration errors can potentially cause hours of troubleshooting, network downtime etc etc. A newbie needs to be put in an environment where the damage they can cause to the infrastructure is minimal. Everyone is bound to make mistakes, but if you put a guy with zero experience in a networking role you are asking for trouble. Experience is basically a case of learning how to effectively troubleshoot and learning how to minimise potential damage.

Study time will differ greatly for everyone, it really depends how much you know already. I would personally try to get experience fixing hardware, whether that's volunteering at a school or a PC repair shop.. or you can buy borken hardware and repair it, and then sell it on. I personally did the latter 2 and along with a couple of certs, that landed me a desktop support job. I wouldn't personally do a helpdesk job (now) because i'd find it boring, but if you get an offer for one you might want to think about taking it short term to give your CV a much needed boost. Just keep going. Your CCNA will benefit you in the long run, definitely. But for now you might be better off aiming a little lower.

Hope that helps.