Fruits of passing CCNA exam

Hey guys, just wanted to share, and give some encouragement to those studying for this test by telling what has happened to me since passing the test on November 6th. I went home that day and updated my resume online for a large web hosting company here in town and applied for 2 new jobs that I saw open. I got called the next day for those positions, answered some questions and was setup for a phone interview. Today I had the phone interview and was asked allot of CCNA material questions and did well, I will have a face to face interview next week and may interview for another position soon that I applied for. Just passing the CCNA with some real world experience got me the call, I had applied for other positions that wanted you to get a CCNA within 3 months of employment and never heard from them but when I passed the test I get the call. Either of these jobs will be a nice raise for me, one will be a very nice raise, if these fail then a former co-worker said his work will be needing a CCNA in the next few months so worst case is I may get on there with a raise in pay. Bottom line is CCNA can open doors for you, especially with some experience behind it, just wanted to share and hopefully encourage those studying for this hard and respectable test.

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Comments

mobri09

First off congrats - Many employers are impressed with the CCNA certification. I know it's just a low cert in the Cisco world but it's not a bad cert to have in the IT field as a beginner. Not many people have it at my corporation and its well talked about. I know it's a good way to obtain knowledge and spark your career if you don't have the option to gain the experience.

mikej412

borumas wrote:

one will be a very nice raise

Good luck on all the interviews -- but the best luck on this one

12beatechie

Congrats, I hope you nail the in-person interview and get the job, let us know how it goes.

borumas

Thanks guys, frankly I was really shocked at being called the next day after putting in for the jobs, especially after experiencing the high from passing the CCNA. I'm also pretty suprised that I nailed nearly all of the interview questions, although I did get DHCP and DNS confused as to using TCP and UDP, DNS uses both but DHCP only uses TCP (I said it uses both). I guess I was intimidated because a Microsoft engineer I work with had interviewed with them and said he was grilled pretty bad when they interviewed him awhile back (he didn't get that job though).

sprkymrk

borumas wrote:

but DHCP only uses TCP (I said it uses both).

Sorry, wrong again! DHCP uses UDP port 67 (destination) and UDP 68 (source).

But congrats on passing and all those lucrative job offers! Best of luck to you.

georgemc

TechNet seems to say otherwise.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/cnet/cnfc_por_simw.mspx?mfr=true

George

sprkymrk

That looks wrong George, RFC 2131 states:

http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2131.html

4.1 Constructing and sending DHCP messages

DHCP clients and servers both construct DHCP messages by filling in
fields in the fixed format section of the message and appending
tagged data items in the variable length option area. The options
area includes first a four-octet 'magic cookie' (which was described
in section 3), followed by the options. The last option must always
be the 'end' option.

DHCP uses UDP as its transport protocol. DHCP messages from a client
to a server are sent to the 'DHCP server' port (67), and DHCP
messages from a server to a client are sent to the 'DHCP client' port
(6. A server with multiple network address (e.g., a multi-homed
host) MAY use any of its network addresses in outgoing DHCP messages.

Here's a MS link on setting up an ISA firwall for DHCP that states UDP port 67:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/isa/2004/plan/isadhcprelay.mspx

6. In the New/Edit Protocol Connection dialog box, do the following:

1. In Protocol Type, select UDP.

2. In Direction, select Send Receive.

3. In Port Range, in From, type 67. In To, type 67.

Here's a few more sample links (from MS) that state UDP:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/winntas/plan/capacityplanning/a04_dhcp.mspx

The details of the eight byte UDP portion of the frame are:

• Source Port is BOOTP Client (UDP port 6. DHCP is an extension of the BOOTP protocol that is used to assign IP addresses to intermediate devices, such as routers and bridges.

• Destination Port is BOOTP Server (UDP port 67).

http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/8e75e9f0-72e0-4b06-b6dd-abf88e652d3a1033.mspx

Both BOOTP and DHCP use the same reserved protocol ports for sending and receiving messages between servers and clients. Both BOOTP and DHCP servers use UDP port 67 to listen for and receive client request messages. BOOTP and DHCP clients typically reserve UDP port 68 for accepting message replies from either a BOOTP server or DHCP server.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/network/dhcp/dhcpfaq.mspx

Q. What protocols and ports does DHCP traffic use?

A. All DHCP traffic uses the User Datagram Protocol (UDP). Messages from the DHCP client to the DHCP server use UDP source port 68 and UDP destination port 67. Messages from the DHCP server to the DHCP client use UDP source port 67 and UDP destination port 68.

Looks to me like you may have pulled the one link with incorrect information. AFAIK DHCP always has used UDP whether it be MS, Cisco, or whatever.

I can watch DHCP packets using wireshark and see that they are UDP. I have a rule on my Symantec firewall (along with a DHCP Proxy) allowing UDP 67 for clients in a guest network to get an IP from my W2K3 DHCP server.

georgemc

Thanks for the clarification Mark. Looks like I was a little to quick on the draw there, I should have known/remembered that.

George

sprkymrk

No problem, you had me do a

when I read your link.

I left a comment at the bottom of that technet link rating the post as poor and stating the reason. If enough people do that it might get corrected.

borumas

I guess the book was wrong on the DHCP info then, I could swear it only said TCP for it, I even wrote that in my notes. I will have to dig that back up and verify, it wouldn't be the first time the books have been wrong though so I don't doubt it.

Thanks for the info. My interview is on Monday, wish me luck.

Mikdilly

Maybe my resume sucks or I'm not getting the experience i need but after passing the CCNA I haven't received any response from jobs I've applied for. At least not yet or as quickly as you did.

networker050184

How much experience do you have Mkdilly? Not only with networking, but IT in general. It will be pretty hard to find a networking job with no experience regardless of the certification. If you have some solid IT experience, CCNA and a good resume you should have a shot.

borumas

Yeah I guess my nearly 3 years of experience working with 2900, 3500, and 3700 switches, plus experience with 4500 and 6500 core switches helped allot on the resume, but the cert is what I believe to have been the icing on the cake which got them to interview me.

KGhaleon

Did you pass the new exam or the old one? There seem to be a lot of people passing lately.

networker050184

borumas wrote:

Yeah I guess my nearly 3 years of experience working with 2900, 3500, and 3700 switches, plus experience with 4500 and 6500 core switches helped allot on the resume, but the cert is what I believe to have been the icing on the cake which got them to interview me.

Yes I'm sure the experience was the "cake" and the CCNA was the "icing on the cake." Some people try to use the CCNA as the cake not realizing its only icing. Most employers like a big fat cake with plenty icing on top

Crunchyhippo

borumas wrote:

Hey guys, just wanted to share, and give some encouragement to those studying for this test by telling what has happened to me since passing the test on November 6th. I went home that day and updated my resume online for a large web hosting company here in town and applied for 2 new jobs that I saw open. I got called the next day for those positions, answered some questions and was setup for a phone interview. Today I had the phone interview and was asked allot of CCNA material questions and did well, I will have a face to face interview next week and may interview for another position soon that I applied for. Just passing the CCNA with some real world experience got me the call, I had applied for other positions that wanted you to get a CCNA within 3 months of employment and never heard from them but when I passed the test I get the call. Either of these jobs will be a nice raise for me, one will be a very nice raise, if these fail then a former co-worker said his work will be needing a CCNA in the next few months so worst case is I may get on there with a raise in pay. Bottom line is CCNA can open doors for you, especially with some experience behind it, just wanted to share and hopefully encourage those studying for this hard and respectable test.

Congratulations on your job search! I hope you get a great one.

Key words you mentioned here are "with some real world experience." Without that, job calls are few and far between, if at all.

Mikdilly

networker050184 wrote:

How much experience do you have Mkdilly? Not only with networking, but IT in general. It will be pretty hard to find a networking job with no experience regardless of the certification. If you have some solid IT experience, CCNA and a good resume you should have a shot.

I've been in a IT support role for like 9 years, started out with helpdesk and now do combination of helpdesk and desktop support. It's all end user support, was hoping to switch into networking but it seems like without hands on experience you don't get any call backs. I did just apply for a part time noc support job 2nd shift on weekends that might be promising, anything to break into the field. Is it still customary to follow up with a company after sending your resume?

networker050184

I would follow up with a call. In your years of support have you not done low level network troubleshooting? Even if its making sure the computer is plugged into a switch or checking if a switchport is open, its a start and you should put it on your resume. Have some one look over your resume as well. An extra set of eyes always helps. You could probably make your resume more apealling with a little work.

mikej412

Mikdilly wrote:

I've been in a IT support role for like 9 years

Your lack of networking experience may be hurting you, but your 9 years should help.

I'd guess maybe your resume does suck -- find a person who does resumes and have them punch it up.

I've known some people who eat frosting out of a can and skip the cake.... so you'd want to make the CCNA and your desire to do networking sound like a super double fudge triple chocolate icing in your resume (and find an employer who like icing

)

Do you have an MCSA? You might have to consider going through the servers to get into networking.

And you might consider a "sideways move" to a better environment where you would have a chance for career growth. Keep doing what you're doing, but find a place where they give you chance to help out with the servers or network and possibly shift positions later.

Sometimes it's a bit of luck, being in the right place at the right time, but most of the time it's just knocking on doors until one opens.

Mikdilly

Thanks for the advice, i'd definitely like to punch up the resume in terms of networking, i've done the low level networking support Networker described, if I post my resume in the other forum, could you guys give me a quick critique of it?

borumas

KGhaleon wrote:

Did you pass the new exam or the old one? There seem to be a lot of people passing lately.

I passed the 801 on the last day it was offered.

mikej412

borumas wrote:

I passed the 801 on the last day it was offered.

A.K.A. CCNA - Old School

geezer

Logically DHCP couldn't use TCP (connnection-oriented) as the host doesn't have an IP address to start with to reply to and would thus have to use a 'best effort' delivery of UDP. Just my thoughts.

Hope there was a positive outcome to those jobs you applied for.

r_durant

...a 'best effort' delivery of UDP

I like that...

borumas

Thanks again guys, I have a face to face interview tomorrow.

rogers42

For the original poster,

not to pry in your personal finances, but if you won't mind sharing the salary range that you are being considered for ?

Thanks in advance

rogers42

borumas

rogers42 wrote:

For the original poster,

not to pry in your personal finances, but if you won't mind sharing the salary range that you are being considered for ?

Thanks in advance

rogers42

I was told one position was in the 40's, the other in the 50's, I believe I'm being interviewed for the 40's position.

bohra_ajay

Congrats and Best Luck for Face to Face. As ur Story mine is also the same.

The Real World Experience does help u, have as many certs as u can ut the Real World Experience is always required. I have MCP ( 4 PApers on Win2K track), but not a smart job, then i changed the location and landed to Metro City Mumbai (India). I got a good oppurtunity n i started off as Desktop Support Engineer on site. The Site was big Enough with 1000 Plus Desktops and more than 30 HP Servers. That gave me Good hands on experience of Servers, network and Desktops too. Before this job i was into Desktop Support Field end users (mostly domestic, very few Corporates).

This Corporate job helped me n then i went for CCNA, passed CCNA, talked to my employer he have switched me to NOC of the ISP, where i m getting more of the Experience on networks and a smart Raise too

.

so thats true that First have the Cake n then decorate it with a lot of Icing

. Currently i have got Icing ready and i m baking the cake...

rogers42

Hi borumas,

Thanks for sharing the numbers.

I hope your interview had gone well today.

Thanks

rogers42

borumas

Thanks guys, the interview went very well I believe and I was interviewed by both directors for both positions. I think I will like the NOC job best and from small talk with the recruiter I found that if I get the NOC job and do well that there may be some advancement within 6-9 months. I should find out by the end of next week if I will get one of the positions, I'm pretty confident I had a good interview so I hope to get a call with good news soon.