What to do?

nutsatchelnutsatchel Member Posts: 4 ■□□□□□□□□□
in General Certification
I am currently unemployed and am tired of sitting around idle waiting for calls on my resume. I have a CCNA (which I know are a dime a dozen these days). I would like to focus my career path on network operations, adminstration, engineering and design. In the fall I will be going to get my masters, but I would like to know which certifications I can get in the mean time that will help reinforce what I currently know (I'd like to keep up to date on the tech even though I am not working directly with it) as well as offer new knowledge (expand my knowledge base so I can offer more than just a working knowledge of Cisco).

I love to learn, so no certification is unobtainable to me. I appreciate all your suggestions as I'm sure there are quite a few threads about "what to do?"
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  • Ricka182Ricka182 Member Posts: 3,359
    You could get your A+, and Net+, MCSA, MCSE, CCNP, CWNA. Most employers look for experience more than certs. To stay networking without Cisco, theres also CNA and it's line up. The more you know, the better.
    i remain, he who remains to be....
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  • janmikejanmike Member Posts: 3,076
    nutsatchel,

    Looks like you have your career path in sight.

    I say the following assuming that you have a minimum amount of hands-on experience.

    On Ops, go for Server+. This is Advanced server hardware. The knowledge that you gain concerning RAID, Nas, San, backups, NOSs is wonderful intro to navigating around a data center. I currently have a job in a fairly large data center. We even get to restart a service on a server
    every once in a while. But, Server+ permitted me to enter this atmosphere with the knowledge of what I was seeing and what these monsters were up to.

    On Admin, I'd say go on to CCNP. Most nuts-and-bots network admin is keep the hubs, switches and routers going and the media connected in all the jacks. You'll spend some time under desks and tables. With CCNA I'm not sure Network+ is going to give you anything more. Also you may want to go to http://www.cwne.com/ and check out CWNE for wireless network certs.

    Design is MCSE I guess.

    Go to web sites for these certs and view the exam objectives. Probably better, borrow an exam guide for them and skim through to see exactly what knowledge/ability is required.

    Well, best of luck on your decision.
    "It doesn't matter, it's in the past!"--Rafiki
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  • mikiemovmikiemov Member Posts: 182
    IMO id say a mix of Cisco certs (which you have) and something like MCSE would be a great combination.

    In fact, im considering doing CCNA myself !
    A woman drove me to drink, and I didnt have the decency to thank her.
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  • nutsatchelnutsatchel Member Posts: 4 ■□□□□□□□□□
    Thanks everyone for the insight.

    I'm going to have to look into this Server + cert, don't really know much about it but it seems that would surely help me down the career path I'm walking down. I'm interested in going through to a CCNP, yet I feel like I need to diversify my skills for now, and then work towards that after I get some other certs and (hopefully) some more hands-on experience after I get a job :)
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