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Deadmaster200

Hey guys, need some advice.

I may be having an interview with Foundry Networks of Japan. I have heard of them before, but I don't really know too much about them. I looked on their site a bit and it seems they are basically a Cisco competitor. With my current plans of CCNP and CCVP followed up with CCDP and CCIP before pursuing CCIE with an eventual goal of CCIE R/S and Voice and maybe SP, would working at this Foundry Networks as a TAC engineer hurt or help me to achieve my career and personal goals?

I noticed they have their own certification program, but nothing like Cisco I would assume. If hired, I would be required to get their FNCNE cert within 6 months, but it looks to be out the same as CCNA, so I am not worried about that at all. Incidentally, the job requirements have CCIE preferred written at the bottom. Why would they want that if they are a competitor?

mikej412

Deadmaster200 wrote:

the job requirements have CCIE preferred written at the bottom. Why would they want that if they are a competitor?

It makes you more believable when you tell their customers (who may be big Cisco users) how great the Foundry products are

And it does show how well respected the CCIE is in the networking world - even by Cisco competitors.

Same with working at Foundry. It's a well known company. And its great experience, even if their products are vastly inferior to Cisco products. And if they ever come up with something good, then Cisco would probably buy them.

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Deadmaster200

Thanks for the quick reply Mike.

However, this is what I gathered from ur post.

Great experience: +1 for helping me with my goals

Products inferior to Cisco: -1 for helping me with my goals



Hmm...... Difficult decision.

mikej412

Deadmaster200 wrote:

Products inferior to Cisco

I might want to work for a Cisco Business Partner (or Cisco) after I get a couple of CCIEs -- so of course I have to say that.

Darby may have some input. He's mentioned Foundry equipment, and I didn't detect any scorn in his posts.

I'm sure I posted somewhere here that there was a time that Cisco couldn't switch a packet to save their lives..... I was working with Xylan equipment back then.

You could always ask them if they have Cisco equipment in a lab for troubleshooting interoperability issues that could come up (or for finding Cisco bugs).

NightShade1

mikej412 wrote:

And if they ever come up with something good, then Cisco would probably buy them.

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Didnt that happen to linksys? :P

Pash

NightShade1 wrote:

mikej412 wrote:

And if they ever come up with something good, then Cisco would probably buy them.

<removed extra character>

Didnt that happen to linksys? :P

They never came up with anything good, just had access to a market that cisco didnt. Some companies...take ford for example....operate at loses in some regional areas....just to keep market share. Strange are the business ways....ill stick with with tech.

Ferret999

Dead if it was me I would ask myself the following questions

Is it worth it (does it pay more than I am on at the moment)
Is there career progression in the job (no use going for a high slary in the begining to find you are stuck at the same level for years)
Whats the work life balance like? (no use going for slightly more pay for way more stress)

If you answer yes to these questions then I would go for it. Remeber the technology will be the same as Cisco it is just they will have a different way of implementing it or different commands.

As a company I have heard plenty of people swear by their equipment and I seem to remember that they are a big player in really large networks. Large network mean more learning.

Finally I would say never limit yourself to one tech or company always try keep an open mind and maybe you could end up with CCIE and whatever Foundrys top cert is

Mishra

What do YOU want to do? Would you like to continue your Cisco experience and continuing working on their products? Or would you rather dive into something different and find out what foundry is about.

IMO it doesn't look good on a resume when you find another job asking for Cisco experience and all you have accountable at your last job is foundry experience.

Gotta figure out your wants/desires.

optimus

Well, you don't have a CCIE now, so I doubt you have people knocking at your door. If you need the expereience now, I would suggest:

1. Find out if they will support you on your road to CCIE. (this is a big plus)
2. If they will, and the job gives you good experience, take the job.

By the time you are CCIE certified, you can either keep working for Foundry (Hell, you might like it), or you can start looking at working for Cisco again.

- Optimus

Ciscopimpenator

Getting a job with Foundry will help your career!


Any type of job working with Networking equipment will be good because it seems like you have little experience.

If you had 5 years of Cisco networking paid experience maybe you would take a little detour with this job.

Just keep studying for Cisco Certs and along the way learn some Foundry equipment. The aspect of troubleshooting two vendors equipment will give you that much more valuable when you crossover into a full-time Cisco position.

When you get your CCNP and CCVP and have 1-2 years of Foundry experience it will look good.
Obviously and ideal thing would be 1-2 years of Cisco equipment but you gotta take whats available and make the best of it. Its hard to find a Cisco job with only CCNA and CCDA. You usually need some experience before most people will give you the reins on Cisco equipment, even at the lower level. But you never know....I would go for the Foundry job.

Support the little man, and make sure to buy Linksys home networking products so it keeps Cisco in business so are certs don't go for nil....hehehe

Good luck

Turgon

Lots of Foundry bashing going on in this thread. Anyone work with it? I do as well as Cisco, Riverstone and more. Foundry do some very good products, I work with Server Irons and Fast Irons myself. Some of the configuration quirks can be annoying but the uptime and throughput is fine at least on my clients infrastructure. Foundry provides us with hosted virtual ip addresses for loadbalancing on site and global load balancing for colocation resilience for our hosted solaris and oracle environment.

Expect to find Foundry in a mixed environment, companies sometimes spread the love around so they are not locked into one vendor i.e switch fabric and routers Cisco, Foundry for loadbalancing. An opportunity to pick up experience and skills in a network vendor other than cisco is good for you!

buulam

I've worked with the HP boxes that are just OEM'd Foundry Big Iron's. Haven't come across enough of them yet to form a real opinion on their quality. Parts availability becomes a bit of a pain up here in Canada, though. (which is why I'm replacing one this week)

Working direct for a vendor can't be a bad move. Core fundamentals aren't really different, only CLI's and config quirks. I think it's a great opportunity and that you should seriously consider it

You might not like the product at first but you could come to love it and you might really enjoy working for the company which I think is equally as important.

Deadmaster200

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the feedback. At any rate, it really isn't up to me at this point. I am not even sure if I am going to get the interview or not. While I am waiting for them to decide, so many other companies are calling me up, so I have no idea what may happen over the next few weeks. Incidentally, I didn't even want to look for a new job until I AT LEAST finished CCNP, but they keep calling me!

Paul Boz

What sort of offers are you getting?