Is the CCNA worth it? What is CCNA salary in American

ThadPVillani

I have just graduated from university for 2 years, and I have a computer degree in school. I don’t know what I want to do. My friend told me that network engineers are very popular now but need a CCNA certificate.  How much is the salary in the U.S. with CCNA

DFTK13

It really depends upon how much experience you have before the cert itself. Yes there are CCNA holders who make 60k-100k, but they have years of experience in networking as well as other fields. A lot of times you will be expected to know different technologies on top of networking itself, virtualization, scripting, to name some. Besides, a lot of organizations that have just pure networking roles will likely ask for CCNP at the minimum, this is not a rule, just what I’ve seem and experienced. If you yourself have zero experience whatsoever, then my suggestion would be to apply for jobs in helpdesk or an entry-level NOC technician role to build up experience, meanwhile pursuing your CCNA, then apply for the networking roles. 

MHamim

As DFTK13 mentioned, it depends on experience and other skill sets added to your CCNA. I came in USA 2 years ago and did CCNA back in September 2019 but in my current job I don't have to do anything with Cisco devices, it's more of a desktop support role and I am making around 70K at the moment. My future goal is to work in AWS/Linux domain and therefore I won't go further beyond CCNA but knowledge I gained from CCNA will be helpful for sure.

Hawk321

ThadPVillani said:

I have just graduated from university for 2 years, and I have a computer degree in school. I don’t know what I want to do. My friend told me that network engineers are very popular now but need a CCNA certificate.  How much is the salary in the U.S. with CCNA

No one will hire you JUST because you got a CCNA ... you get hired for experience PLUS certifications.

The CISCO world shows how bad colleges can be... CCNA has an ~ workload of 320 hours while college has around 240h plus some extra hours in other modules. And you know what ? Even the CCNA is surface scratching. CCNP has so many topics that are not even mentioned at university (MASTER) ...

So...you get experience ...than you figure out what you like ...do certificates (the legal way !!!) to testify your experience and to learn new stuff. Oh ...and prepare to spend some serious $$$ books, videos, exams, hardware ....

Experience + Certificates + non dumped knowledge == money

Certificates without experience == no money

dumped knowledge == get kicked out everywhere, no money and no honey

AnneBrown

If you want to know the salary level in US, you can try Payscale. It will show detailed data to you for different jobs and companys.

LordQarlyn

"The average CCNA salary in USA is $72,500 per year or $37.18 per hour. Entry level positions start at $50,000 per year while most experienced workers make up to $123,250 per year."

Pulled from salary.com. Of course, your mileage will vary according to experience, hiring organization, economic conditions, job market conditions, and your negotiation skills.

beads

Search for 'Comp Table IT role here' and take your choice. Salary.com, Payscale.com and Glassdoor.com are all free but tend to overstate their results due to the inputs from people reporting their salaries themselves. ADP.com and other payroll processors use internally reported data but are also paid resources making the best data just out of reach.

Never trust someone selling training, education or placement services with comp data due to obvious bias. Do your own research based on your local geographical market, i.e. do not compare Silicon Valley market rates to Cleveland Ohio and expect the same level of compensation.

Good luck with the research.

- b/eads

DFTK13

@beads

Exactly, every time I get asked how much does X position make, my answer is always “it depends” or a range of salary based on my own research and experience...never an exact figure. Too many variables. 

ThadPVillani

thanks for ur answers, I will check the payscale