passed ccna

topstar

Hi
I took the icnd today and bar 1 sim that took me about 20 minutes (my own fault I made a simple mistake and it took me a while to figure out what I had done wrong ). But the rest in my opinion was not a good representation of all the work I put in reading all the books and going through all the lab manuals it was pretty straight forward, the real test was time management. You could probably get by on the sybex book by Todd lammle.

I personally think they should add more Sims and more complex ones at that , and add more time I feel that would be a far better test if you had to configure a network with say 4-6 routers with different wan encapsulation, set up vlans maybe dhcp and nat. that would be a far better test ( as long as they give you a reasonable amount of time ).As it is if someone wanted to pass the test by brain dumping it the only real problem would be the Sims, the questions were not that hard at all it was just the time pushing you.

Sorry about the rant but I put a lot of work into this and was expecting a better test, still glad to have passed


Stephen

Netstudent

Ya when you study hard, it's really not a hard test. I wouldn't go so far as to say a SIM should include 4 routers, with encap, dhcp, vlan, and NAT, but it's not really mindboggling at all. The fact that you excelled past CCNA difficulty shows that you should do fine with Pro level topics. Good job!

mikearama

Congrats Steve, nice work.

Remember, it is an entry level cert... you're not a ccie now. And as you pointed out, the sims do at least make it tough to **** through.

Nonetheless, good to have you with us. On to the CCNP track?

topstar

Hi
Thanks for the replies
Ccnp next that’s a good question, I am not working in the computing industry at the minute but am going to start looking next summer and just want to get enough to have a good chance of getting a job then, I have A+ and N+ and now Ccna and was thinking of starting on a mcsa although I have thought of starting a ccnp and its something I would really like to do but the only jobs I am likely to get are entry level jobs and I thought a mcsa would help me better. Although I am open to opinions

Thanks
Stephen

mikej412

Congratulations!

topstar wrote:

I thought a mcsa would help me better.

Yep -- the MCSA combined with the CCNA you should give you more entry level possibilities.

12beatechie

Congrats!!!

Now you can change your certifications to:

"Certifications: A+ Net+ CCNA"

sbl

mikearama wrote:

Congrats Steve, nice work.

Remember, it is an entry level cert... you're not a ccie now. And as you pointed out, the sims do at least make it tough to **** through.

Nonetheless, good to have you with us. On to the CCNP track?

Yes CCNA is still "foundational" (CCENT is now the entry-level cert) but that is all relative. Where I work management has decided all 1st tier NOC employees should pass ICND1 (just CCENT not CCNA) else be barred from promotion.

Since network is a big mostly Cisco MAN/WAN that is certainly fair to have a Cisco cert among minimum NOC credentials. I agree with the decision except IMO tier 2 should be at least CCNA and/or additional relevant certs. However, some employess with years of experience have heard so many "horror stories" about difficulty of Cisco tests and are so in fear of them they have resigned to stay where they are and not even try (employer will even pay up to 2 exam fees). Sad.

You are right to give congrats to Steve for his "entry level" achievement and I do as well.

r_durant

Congrats topstar!!

freetech

Unless you have an inside contact, unless you have EXACTLY what they are looking for, unless you are lucky, it is VERY difficult to get anything other than an entry-level first job in IT. A rule of thumb that I've heard is that you must work in IT for three years before you start making money. My advice would be to get a job that looks like it has potential and then prove to your bosses that you can do more. Be patient, work hard. Experience oftens trumps certs.
Good luck and congrats.

shednik

congrats on passing the icnd i as well did not find the exam as difficult as anticipated but it make me feel good to know my studying paid off

jdayala

Congratulations on the pass

Netwurk

Congrats! Nice work.

7255carl

congrats

sbl

freetech wrote:

Unless you have an inside contact, unless you have EXACTLY what they are looking for, unless you are lucky, it is VERY difficult to get anything other than an entry-level first job in IT. A rule of thumb that I've heard is that you must work in IT for three years before you start making money. My advice would be to get a job that looks like it has potential and then prove to your bosses that you can do more. Be patient, work hard. Experience oftens trumps certs.
Good luck and congrats.

Oh, and don't forget a perfect resume. Had a network guy who weeds lots of resumes tell me he pitches 4 out of 5 applications within a few seconds because the resume is sloppy and has grammatical errors. Anybody who's like that on their resume will be like that on the network, no matter how much "knowledge" they have. That's his opinion anyway. A word to the wise.

jahman182

Congrats to you.