Why so few CCIEs going for Wireless cert?

Paycheck

I've been working on the certs for a few years, got one a while back. I've been thinking about which I want to do next, wireless or data center. DC is probably more useful, but I find the wireless to be interesting.

I looked on the cciehof site, and it says there's only 213 CCIE Wireless people, far less than any other cert.

I was wondering why this is? Seems that a good wireless person could be working for AT&T, Verizon, or another cellular provider, or work for Cisco in some way.

I'm sure wireless is a part of many networking jobs, but far from being the only thing in most cases.

I doubt I'd be ready for CCIE any time soon, but maybe CCNP in a year or two, I'd just like to figure out what are my most likely sources of employment as a Wireless person first.

Burns82

A lot people probably are not interest in it to be honest. there is plenty of work out there as a wireless engineer. before you embark on the cisco wireless trek, get a copy of the cwna book by CWNP this will give you an excellent foundation about wireless much better than the Cisco material

JustFred

The Cisco material for wireless can put one to sleep.

Fadakartel

other than the ones mentioned above, Cisco is not the only wireless vendor a lot of places seem to use Rukus, Aruba,ubiquiti, Fortinet etc.

neRForNothing

I personally think it's the hardest track out there, maybe second to security. Wireless takes more time to really understand the fundamentals opposed to other tracks. People probably see this and say they will just pick a different track (I'm not saying the others are easy either). I also second Fadarkartel, the company I work for, we just did a huge deployment of new Cisco gear but for smaller deployments all the companies use either Ruckus, Aruba or Aerohive so there are a lot of players out there. This also makes you as a wireless engineer have to know more systems.

packetphilter

My guess is it's a combination of two things.

1) While wireless technology is in demand, very few companies feel they need a CCIE Wireless person to handle it. So instead they get a networking person with a lot of wireless experience, and maybe he/she has a CCIE R&S, but they don't really care as long as the person can do the job.

2) The less popular a cert is, the less training material will be available for it. While CCIE R&S is hard and a lot of work, there's a ton of material out there for it, tons of boot camps, etc. So people are more likely to go that route. It's like having two paths in the woods, one is cut and clear because a lot of people have gone down it, and the other is just a bunch of thorns and briars.

But hey, I think you should go for CCIE Wireless. Go help cut that path clear for the rest of us

Welly_59

That site lists only people with CCIE who have sent their credentials to that sites webmaster.

I personally know 3 CCIE's not listed on there

NOC-Ninja

go to indeed.com type ccie wireless. tons of opening in hospitals, dod, and vars. wwt, presidio and wwt were posting too. the only thing i dont like is that i have to travel 70-90%. i doubt that ccie count is correct. our count is up there but there are more dc's.

rtid

Making something artificially difficult, doesn't make it difficult. For instance, if you have difficult hardware requirements for the average person, that doesn't mean the material is difficult.

I'd like to see Cisco invest more time and effort into two things: Ensuring availability of hardware, virtualized in many cases, to anyone for free (or cheap for an individual). More robust materials for training, especially for newer tracks.

I viewed the CCIE Wireless as an internal sales certification. I'm glad if that isn't the case, because it means the track may have value and is not artificially difficult to attain.

To be honest, my eyes start to glaze over when I think about what materials I would need for some of these tracks.