What a CCVP knows

Just curious --

If you had two people - one a CCNP and one a CCVP - what would the CCNP have learned that the CCVP wouldn't have? I know it might be a hard question to quantify, but I'm curious as to what I might *not* learn by skipping CCNP and going straight to CCVP. I know the best choice is to do CCNP, then CCVP, but I won't be able to go that route, unfortunately.

Thanks.

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GT-Rob

Well you can take a look at the exam objectives for each test in each program, and compare it that way.

I am going to guess there is a lot of routing and switching that you may not have an depth knowledge of.

dtlokee

You're right, it is a tough question to quantify. The easy approach would be to take the outlines for the exams and compare them. Some of the more obvious pieces would be the routing and switching parts of the CCNP and the security portion (VPNs, IOS firewall..)

This doesn't mean that a CCVP won't know them but they aren't covered in the exams.

There is no prerequsite of taking CCNP before CCVP, it is helpful when you look at a router config with QoS layered on top and are able to know what the router config is doing, but it's not absolutely necessary to earn a CCVP. Really the QoS part will give you the most trouble without a good understandign of routing and switching.

Turgon

I think CCVP is a worth endeavour. With the CCNA covered the holder should be handy with basic switching and routing. I think without CCNP they may struggle on detailed switching work, complex routing and remote access activities.

CCVP is something I wanted to do for a long time, in fact just the specialism of CVoice years back before the CCVP took off. But I just couldn't spare the necessary time with my work commitments to cover the track properly. Im my prior CCIE prep days I got a taste of Voice on the old lab, dial peers and IP precidence etc, but just a taste. CCVP would go beyond that.

But it depends on the CCVP holder really. There are many holders of professional certs NP/DP/VP etc who are just paper Im afraid. It's one of the problems a CCIE I know has encountered on the job with many NP/DP/SP/IP/VP people. There is a procession of hires and fires in his company for folks certified at that level because so many have shortcircuited the learning and do not know what the CCVP says they should know. Dodgy testprep software has accentuated that problem with folks knocking out professional certs in record time.

I would expect a CCVP to have spent many months buried in the nuances of VoIP, QoS and the Cvoice components, Call Manager and much more besides. A CCVP hard earned should furnish you with very valuable knowledge applied hands on and enable you to take a lead in cisco voice solutions.

Crunchyhippo

Turgon wrote:

I think CCVP is a worth endeavour. With the CCNA covered the holder should be handy with basic switching and routing. I think without CCNP they may struggle on detailed switching work, complex routing and remote access activities.

CCVP is something I wanted to do for a long time, in fact just the specialism of CVoice years back before the CCVP took off. But I just couldn't spare the necessary time with my work commitments to cover the track properly. Im my prior CCIE prep days I got a taste of Voice on the old lab, dial peers and IP precidence etc, but just a taste. CCVP would go beyond that.

But it depends on the CCVP holder really. There are many holders of professional certs NP/DP/VP etc who are just paper Im afraid. It's one of the problems a CCIE I know has encountered on the job with many NP/DP/SP/IP/VP people. There is a procession of hires and fires in his company for folks certified at that level because so many have shortcircuited the learning and do not know what the CCVP says they should know. Dodgy testprep software has accentuated that problem with folks knocking out professional certs in record time.

I would expect a CCVP to have spent many months buried in the nuances of VoIP, QoS and the Cvoice components, Call Manager and much more besides. A CCVP hard earned should furnish you with very valuable knowledge applied hands on and enable you to take a lead in cisco voice solutions.

Succinctly put. Regarding VoIP, I feel like it's the year 1984 and I've just bought my first personal computer well ahead of everyone else, and a promising future is laid out ahead of me. All of next year for me will be devoted solely to pursuing CCVP and learning VoIP applications and configurations. I think the market at the end of 2008 will still be short on VoIP folks who know their stuff. At least, that's what I'm betting on.

networker050184

Its not that dire of a situation. I and a lot of other people have been working with VoIP for years. There may not be as many VoIP pros as R&S, but its not like a company is going to grab a guy off the street to be their voice engineer. I think you are looking for a quick certification to garuntee you a job and lots of money. It doesn't work that way. People on this forum have tried to tell you to go out and get some experience. You should take that advice rather than running after certifications on technologies you know knothing about.

mikej412

networker050184 wrote:

I think you are looking for a quick certification to garuntee you a job and lots of money. It doesn't work that way. People on this forum have tried to tell you to go out and get some experience. You should take that advice rather than running after certifications on technologies you know knothing about.

Hallelujah

Check out this oldie but goodie thread: CCVP without CCNP

crumbaughs wrote:

You may not need the routing/switching knowledge to pass the exams, but in the real world you will need it unless you are focused on the SMB market. Small businesses with one site are relatively simple. When you add in routing, VLANs, VTP, routing protocols, multi-site clusters, and inter-cluster trunking, it is another world. The real money is in the medium to large business environment where things get tricky and the staff talent does not extend to VoIP or IPT. You have to be able to assure the client that you have the S/R skills as well as the IPT cert.

I recommend you make sure your routing and switching skills are at a CCNP level, even if you don't get the paper. And of course having both certs makes you more marketable.

Crunchyhippo

networker050184 wrote:

Its not that dire of a situation. I and a lot of other people have been working with VoIP for years. There may not be as many VoIP pros as R&S, but its not like a company is going to grab a guy off the street to be their voice engineer. I think you are looking for a quick certification to garuntee you a job and lots of money. It doesn't work that way. People on this forum have tried to tell you to go out and get some experience. You should take that advice rather than running after certifications on technologies you know knothing about.

Believe me, I'm trying to get experience. I certainly don't think a paper cert is going to pave the way to bliss for me. Problem is getting experience when you don't have experience to get a job to begin with.

networker050184

If you are trying to get jobs that require experience then you are trying to get the wrong jobs. Entry level jobs are jobs that don't require experience. Those may not be the jobs you want but with out experience you are not qualified for anything other than entry level.