Total Beginner!!! HELP!

chrissyd11

My employer is very supportive in expanding my skills within my job and has insisted that i attend university to study for my CCENT and then eventually move onto my CCNA through time.

I have no previous knowledge of what is involved in these courses although i do have confidence that i can learn.

would anyone be able to enlighten me to weather or not the CCENT course is suitable to go and learn the basics and develop an understanding or should i be looking into something even more basic before this level?

albinorhino187

It's hard to say without knowing the school, course, syllabus, source materials, etc. But there should be enough info in Cisco's official cert guide to get you going. There are also numerous video courses on places like Udemy, or CBTNuggets/INE if you can afford those or job pay's for them.

CCNA is absolutely something that can be self-taught with decent study materials.

Jon_Cisco

When I did my associates degree I took the Cisco NetAcad classes. They ran Saturday mornings for a full year. If your new to this stuff I think it is probably a good pace to learn. Don't try to rush it unless you need to.

Jon

psheehan5

If you just want to know how well you're going to do in this new venture, I would create an account at Cybrary.it and take the CCNA course they have. It's approximately 15 hours and it's free! From there you can branch out and see what other resources you might need.

TechGromit

If your a total beginner, You can benefit from getting your Network+ first. I'm not sure about the university route, generally if you take a course in CCENT, it can be taught in a week long course, 8 hours a day for 5 days from someplace like Global Knowledge for around $3,600, or you can just get a book and study for it on your own. You can also take the full CCNA in one shot for 4k, but then your talking 12 hours days for 5 days, I've heard it's a pretty growling experience.

Phileeeeeeep651

I agree with TechGromit. If you're coming at the CCENT from no networking experience I would probably go the Network+ route first. I definitely think the Cisco certifications are beneficial but I wouldn't discount learning the basics of networking from a purely vendor neutral point of view.

Seadgs

I don't know, to me it all comes down to who is going to pay for that course. If you are a total beginner the pacing at the school will probably be a good fit for you. That's why it exists, if you were someone who was familiar with networking and trying to document your skills or build on them via certification then a formal course that long is completely unnecessary. Although I would recommend that if you are going to spend a lot of money then check your options first.

Second is the vendor neutral question of CCNA vs. Net+... I feel that the networking fundamentals are covered thoroughly enough in the CCNA route and while there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Net+ route, that's just not I have been seeing recruiters outright ask for most of your time. The choice is yours but weigh it wisely.

Good luck, Ill be giving the CCNA a shot next week myself.