Does a school diploma help that much when finding a job?

dr_jared88

I have a question for you all. In your opinion if you have a diploma from passing Cisco CCNP courses at school help at all with getting a job verses just having your CCNP? I personally don't need schooling to pass my CCNP, however if it is that beneficial to have a diploma from school I am considering it.

What do you all think?

Thanks

jdayala

Diplomas and certifications get you an interview. You get the job. Make sure you know your stuff going into the interview. A certification nor will a diploma answer the questions for you.

dr_jared88

So you're basically saying, it will help me get an interview and thats about it then? Do you think it's that much more likely to be chosen for an interview if I was to have a diploma and certifications rather then just certifications?

I understand that it would help the employer make the final decision between two people that applied. So I guess basically my question is how hard is it to find a job? Is it that likely that an employer would have to go to that kind of detail to choose who they hire? And do you believe it's worth the time and money just to increase your chances of getting an interview?

Thanks

jdayala

When an employer gets your Resume they see CCNP MCSE NET+ ect. they are most definitely going interview you. Now you have another guy that has just a IT degree they will probably interview him as well. They real determining choice on who they hire is who can better answer their questions and who precents themselves better.

To a person that has these Certs and Degrees knows that their are loop holes and you can scam your way on getting certs and a degree.

Bottom line is if you can do what the job requires and you impress the interviewer with your knowledge you will not have a problem getting a job.


on your other question about getting a degree if IT doesnt work for you or you want to do something else. Most jobs just require you to have a degree doesnt matter in what. So a degree kinda opens a few more doors else where.

dr_jared88

Ya, but this is a diploma im going for, not a degree so it doesn't really help me there. Basically from what you've said is there isn't much of a benefit besides maybe having a better understanding then i might have if I study on my own. But if i know my stuff, i should be fine from what I have interpreted.

mikej412

dr_jared88 wrote:

In your opinion if you have a diploma from passing Cisco CCNP courses at school help at all with getting a job verses just having your CCNP?

No. A "Certificate of Attendance" or "Certificate of Completion" doesn't replace taking and PASSING the exams and getting the CCNP Certification.

I have seen people trying to pass off that "Networking Certificate" as the real CCNA/CCNP Certifications. All it means is that they took the classes and passed. When they try to pass it off as the real CCNA/CCNP I then assume they barely passed the classes and didn't learn enough to pass the real CCNA/CCNP exams.

If you take the course and apply them towards an Associates Degree, or later transfer them to a 4 year college and get a Degree -- then that's fine.

dr_jared88

mikej412 wrote:

dr_jared88 wrote:

In your opinion if you have a diploma from passing Cisco CCNP courses at school help at all with getting a job verses just having your CCNP?

No. A "Certificate of Attendance" or "Certificate of Completion" doesn't replace taking and PASSING the exams and getting the CCNP Certification.

I have seen people trying to pass off that "Networking Certificate" as the real CCNA/CCNP Certifications. All it means is that they took the classes and passed. When they try to pass it off as the real CCNA/CCNP I then assume they barely passed the classes and didn't learn enough to pass the real CCNA/CCNP exams.

If you take the course and apply them towards an Associates Degree, or later transfer them to a 4 year college and get a Degree -- then that's fine.

I don't think you quite understand my question. I never meant replace the certifications with school. I meant have school with addition to the certifications.

networker050184

Once you have the certifications the classes aren't of much value. It's like putting you have a degree than trying to use the individual classes as well. They all go towards the end goal of certification.

mikej412

Ah... I just focused on that sentence I quoted

As long as you studied and learned the material, it doesn't matter whether you did it self-study, through the Cisco Network Academy, the official courses at a Cisco Training Partner, or even bootcamps (as long as they aren't cheating and teaching from ****).

Taking the courses may help you network with other students who are already working in IT, and that could be helpful with finding a job. If you're one of the top students in class, the Instructor may have industry contacts and be able to get you into an interview and job. Plus you'll have access to the schools lab and equipment if you don't have a work or home lab to practice with.

Taking the classes at a community college Network Academy also gives you access to their resources like job fairs, placement office (if you Instructor didn't already hook you up), resume writing workshops and resume critiques.

dr_jared88 wrote:

I personally don't need schooling to pass my CCNP, however if it is that beneficial to have a diploma from school I am considering it.

If you have the motivation, yeah -- save the money and go self-study. A lot of people here do it that way. It can also be faster if you've already got a networking background.

Slowhand

I took an algebra class last summer with a very cool teacher. He told us that he didn't care if we came on time to class, or to come at all, if we didn't want. The only thing that would count would be the final, and we could earn extra points towards the final by scoring well on the weekly quizzes. You didn't lose any points for not taking the quizzes or not doing homework. About halfway through the first day of class, someone shot up their hand and asked the same question he'd just answered, "Are we graded on attendance?" The following was his answer:

Someday, most of you will get your degrees. This class is probably a prerequisite to other math classes you need, or it satisfies a general education graduation requirement. If you go into an interview and say "I showed up everyday for algebra class", the manager will say "So what? Do you have your degree?"

The people who didn't quite understand what he meant still showed up for class every day at 6am, Monday through Thursday, all summer long. The rest of us showed up on the days we were covering things we needed, and for the final exam. We did the homework we needed to do in order to practice, skipped what we already knew. A lot of people got good grades in the class, (I got a B+, myself,) and others didn't. I learned what I needed to learn in order to advance to calculus, the way I needed to learn it, and now I'm moving forward.

Like Mike said, employers will really only care if you passed the test when it comes to certs, and that you have the necessary skills when it comes to working. You can tell them "I took a Cisco Network Academy course", "I took a college course", or "I learned it all on my own with just books and my own lab equipment", and their answer will be, "So what? Do you have your certification?" It won't matter how you got there, so long as you gained the knowledge and experience and have been able to apply them in some quantifiable way, such as passing exams and getting a cert.

tmlerdal

I totally agree with the statements of diploma and certs will help get you the interview, but you get the job. The one thing I would add though, is you have to also sell yourself with the resume or application. We had a person apply for a networking job, and never listed any sort of experience in the field. We might have taken a second look if somewhere in there the person would have included the word computer or network in some form of experience. The last job was that of a tray line aid. Needless to say the application ended up in the circular file.

If you are fresh out of a tech program, typically, you can list that as some level of experience. The programs I've been around, the students are responsible for maintaining the systems in labs and other repairs. To me it all counts as experience, paid or un-paid.

I guess for me, if I'm looking at applications, I might make note of any degrees or certifications, but it doesn't usually weigh that much on my decision if I want the team to bring someone in. I'm going to look for some level of experience.

just my $.02