Cisco Academy lab experience on resume?

xxhieixx

In December I finished with the Cisco Academy. I haven't scheduled for my CCNA yet but plan to soon. My teacher is able to get most of his students interviews despite this (he has a lot of connections) but my resume is kind of plain with no experience.
I have seen other threads like this but they were all talking about home, do it yourself labs and in my case this was done at the Cisco Academy. I did receive 4 letters for completion from Cisco and in each letter it describes what I learned and am able to do. Should I include all this in my resume?

danny069

I did the 2nd module (skipped the 1st) of the Cisco NetAcad at my University, next semester I'm doing the 3rd. Is this the same case for you? If so you can list it as a major, or relevant coursework under your University/Training Center in the education section.

xxhieixx

This is the same, I've completed all four classes. I do have it listed under my education, my school has it as " Certificate of Achievement Computer Networking Academy – CCNA Certificate" so that's how I have it.
Is this enough, should I just leave it at that then?

danny069

That sounds good, or you could also put completed Cisco Networking Academy, just so 'CCNA Certificate' doesn't seem to be misleading unless you do have your CCNA certification.

aftereffector

Speaking as someone who has evaluated candidate resumes, if I run into a resume that says "CCNA Certificate" on it but the candidate does not have their CCNA, I will put that resume in the "do not call" pile. I've seen a lot of people from New Horizons and similar programs take a course that includes a well-known certification in the course title, such as Security+ or CCNA - and then try to pass it off as equivalent. It doesn't work, and it doesn't exactly endear the candidate to the reviewer, for that matter.

I'd just leave it at "Certificate of Achievement, Computer Networking Academy" or write it like I've seen at least one college present it:

Certificate of Accomplishment, Network Topologies/Cisco Academy Semester 1
Certificate of Accomplishment, Basic Router Config./Cisco Academy Semester 2
Certificate of Accomplishment, Local Area Network Management/Cisco Academy Semester 3
Certificate of Accomplishment, Wide Area Network (WAN) Management/Cisco Academy Semester 4

That's from Central New Mexico Community College's Cisco track, though I'm not sure if they call it a certificate of completion, accomplishment, achievement, or something else.

ImYourOnlyDJ

aftereffector wrote: »

Speaking as someone who has evaluated candidate resumes, if I run into a resume that says "CCNA Certificate" on it but the candidate does not have their CCNA, I will put that resume in the "do not call" pile. I've seen a lot of people from New Horizons and similar programs take a course that includes a well-known certification in the course title, such as Security+ or CCNA - and then try to pass it off as equivalent. It doesn't work, and it doesn't exactly endear the candidate to the reviewer, for that matter.

I'd just leave it at "Certificate of Achievement, Computer Networking Academy" or write it like I've seen at least one college present it:

I agree with this. If its misleading in any way the resume is likely going to the trash. I definitely say put it on and include the estimated number of hours you experienced hands on as you definitely have an advantage over someone that has never touched real equipment. I personally used the following in my qualifications section:

Cisco Network Academy: 4.0 GPA – Completed CCNA training with 150+ hours of hands-on experience.

ImYourOnlyDJ

Also I have a theory that just having CCNA anywhere on your resume may help you get through the HR filter. As for your lack of experience you can make some pretty easy. Buy a cheap used Cisco router and set it up at home. Install linux on a old computer or buy a Raspberry pi and build it into a web server. Below are some things I listed on my resume when I was newer and all of which you can do/learn at home.

· Experience with network utilities including Ping, Traceroute, RDP, MSRA, Psexec, and WireShark
· Knowledge of VPN technologies to include PPTP, OpenVPN, and IPsec
· Manage home web and file server running Debian/Apache
· Experience in web design and web hosting with HTML, CSS, MySQL, and Apache
· Virtualization experience to include Microsoft Virtual Pc, VirtualBox, and VMware
· Knowledge in programming and scripting to include Visual Basic, PowerShell, and batch files

· Cisco Network Academy: 4.0 GPA – Completed CCNA training with 150+ hours of hands-on experience.
· Currently administering two Cisco 881w routers at multiple locations supporting 20+ devices

As you can see these kinds of things make great resume boosters and you learn a lot by doing it. The last entry about administering two Cisco 881w routers, those were running at my parents place and my apartment.

Verities

xxhieixx wrote: »

In December I finished with the Cisco Academy. I haven't scheduled for my CCNA yet but plan to soon. My teacher is able to get most of his students interviews despite this (he has a lot of connections) but my resume is kind of plain with no experience.
I have seen other threads like this but they were all talking about home, do it yourself labs and in my case this was done at the Cisco Academy. I did receive 4 letters for completion from Cisco and in each letter it describes what I learned and am able to do. Should I include all this in my resume?

Technically you have experience due to the amount of time you invested in the hands on portion of the Cisco Academy. You should do what the others have said in this thread and populate your resume with the information you learned while attending the Cisco courses. However, keep on track towards getting your certification so if you do end up getting an interview you can say you have it planned for date x/x/xxxx.

I've toyed with the idea of doing the Cisco Academy since its free, just to get hands on experience with networking equipment since my job is purely systems administration and then put it on my resume. I would pursue the certification of course but in the absence of networking experience in a production environment, the lab is a great starting point.

xxhieixx

Thanks for the responses everyone! For the "Certificate of Achievement Computer Networking Academy – CCNA Certificate" part I actually have it like that because career services told me to put it that way. I came on here to ask about it because they're not in right now and every time I go to see one of them they keep telling me to do different things on my resume ><
I'll go ahead and remove the CCNA Certificate part and add in some stuff ImYourOnlyDJ said, which by the way was extremely helpful. I can use most of those points in my resume and it gave me a few other ideas