Lateral Vs. Ascend

MrPuzzlez

Hello, my fellow Cisco Champs! I come with good news and a question. My good news is that I aced the CCNA: R&S handily with a score of 907/1000! I used CBTNuggets and Udemy.com's Chris Bryant Bulldog Bootcamp. I also utilized GNS3 and Packet Tracer for labs as well as a remotely connected equipment with CramMaster Online. And to supplement, I used Google(of course), Todd Lammle books and a project manager who is a CCNP himself!

Now my somewhat dilemma. I want to keep studying to keep things fresh(or because I ain't getting any younger), and I am trying to decide what to do next. I was looking at 4 options and have now reduced them to 2: Take the lateral route with CCNA: Security or ascend with CCNP: R&S. The reason I'm looking at the CCNA: Security is because I see no harm in knowing how to not only build a network, but keep it secure. I'm looking at the CCNP: R&S because typically it's the way to go, but I feel that I need a little more experience to help the topics stick.

Another question... Does anybody know any details on the CISSP? I heard it's a primo title, but have not talked to too many people about it.

Brain-D

Congrats!!!

d4nz1g

I recommend acquiring some experience prior to tackling CCNP. A year or two before taking the tests should be enough.

But it does not hurt to read the books and work on some skills.

Congrats on your pass

MrPuzzlez

Thanks, guys! I really appreciate it!

joshmadakor

The CISSP is a weird cert. People seem to think it's the holy grail of security or some badass credential, but it's really not that cool. It has its place, don't get me wrong, I was just kinda disappointed with it.

I'm in the same boat as you. I heard CCNP has a good chunk of CCNA:S mixed into IT, so that's something to think about..

MrPuzzlez

Hey, Josh. Does it quiz you on how protocols and security works, or is it one of those exams with funky situations that have a low probability of happening? From the looks of the webpages and the exam description, it seems like a monster with 6 hours to take it and 250 questions! Not to mention that it will put you $600 in the hole for an attempt!

joshmadakor

It's a really high level exam, and by high level I mean it barely scratches the surface on a WIDE array of topics. There is not really anything technical about it and it certainly doesn't get into any technical protocols. It mostly covers different Information Security/Management frameworks and access control models like Bell-LaPadula, Biba, etc. It also covers general information about biometrics and other security topics on a very shallow level.

To put it in perspective, I don't recall there being a single question about encryption on my version of the test I took in 2015. I will maintain my credential, just because it looks good on a resume and impresses managers, but after passing CISSP, i didn't really feel anything special

If you are interested in studying for it and taking it, I did a write-up on my study and exam experience here: http://www.techexams.net/forums/isc-sscp-cissp/111483-passed-cissp-morning-lots-details-inside.html

Dakinggamer87

Congrats!!

TechGuru80

It also depends on your experience as far as tackling the CISSP. I would not attempt the CISSP without at least a few years experience as it is fairly challenging. Many people have opinions about the CISSP, but either way you don't want to be going for high level jobs without it because your competition will have it.

JoJoCal19

Congrats on the pass! I would definitely go for the CCNA Security as there is some overlap and the knowledge will only help if you were thinking of moving into network security. As for the CISSP, it's not what it used to be, even 5-6 years ago sadly. I know I had wanted to go for it back in like 2011 but I couldn't due to being in school and not having time to study. A lot less people had it and it's reputation was much better to everyone outside of HR. I put it off and then got it in 2013. It helped me propel my career forward. But it was starting to lose its luster and now everyone and their kid is getting theirs it seems. It's basically the defacto key to the HR gate when it comes to job listings. Seems most security job listings require or prefer it, and HR uses it to search for resumes and to filter out candidates.

Simrid

I would recommend going for CCNP:R&S to be honest. It has a lot more topics and you learn about security features especially in SWITCH.

It would give you a better understanding of a network before you **** a firewall in the middle and break certain things like traceroutes :P

mistabrumley89

I would go with CCNP if I were you. I haven't really looked at the CCNA: Security since it has changed, but it wasn't very beneficial to me. I think the CCNP will take you further for both career progression and knowledge progression. Unless you are going to specialize in some sort of Security role, or government work, I believe the CISSP is a waste. I spent 2 weeks studying and passed the exam. You also need 5 years of related experience, or 4 years if you can manage to get a year waived. I haven't seen anyone really take 6 hours for the exam. Most people can complete it in about 2-3 hours. The people that take 6 hours are generally the people who review, review, review, and review some more. I think doing that just makes you overthink the questions.

To each his/her own, though. Only you really know what would be best for you to tackle first.

pinkiaiii

congrats on such score,this question came up recently-it depends really what you are doing atm,are you in some sort networking job or IT in general,since sounds like not-best bet would be to do some work experience if its possible,just to be in environment where you could at least see same skills applied daily,If your working then work towards your goal since dont imagine people take such courses up just for fun-that way just work towards sys admin,databases or whatever might be connected to networking,to land yourself into job you want,and most likely many of ccna skills will come in handy.

I see also many mentioning ccna security-well im still new to cisco,but amount of security topics that comes up leaves me riddled how someone still manages to do major hacks with amount of security just from ccna alone you can implement,be it vlans,switchports,acls,then securing everything with hard encryption and leaving few options to gain access to terminal is beyond my scope.