Stop in cert fever?

Do you think its possible for one to work really hard, and get bunches of certs coupled with like 5-10 years experience and then get a CCIE. Once he gets the CCIE after lots of hard work, can he just kind of relax and stop pursuing certs like crazy? Like can he just keep revising for the CCIE renewal and work at his job regularly. So can he get some peace from cert fever after the initial struggle?

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Comments

dtlokee

You may be able to stop persuing certifications, but you can't stop learning, even as a CCIE. The market changes and you need to adapt to those changes you will end up unemployed evn as a CCIE. Just ans anyone who was a COBOL programmer and didn't learn new skills.

Dingdongbubble

ok learning new stuff and keeping up tech is fine. But how hard would that be? I mean I dont want to waste all my brain cells on my job. I have plans for other more important things as well.

nel

im not too sure what you mean exactly but once someone had there CCIE they would have to pass an CCIE exam again and it would renew that certification ladder for say R+S so you wouldnt have to re-sit a ccna and ccnp exam.

Or do you mean once you have reached those dizzy heights does the cert ladder stop? well i would say it only stops when you want it to stop! IT is always moving and if you dont want to get stuck behind in the times then you've gotta keep up - thats the nature of the beast in this industry

Mishra

Certifications are not a necessity. People get certs for the learning experience as well as to improve themselves.

It is how much you want to better yourself which is completely your decision. You want to stop pursing certs right now? You can and still make it to a good job with experience alone. There are lots of people in IT making 70k they are not good at their job but have 15 years of experience.

It is totally your decision but as a general rule, you should always want to better yourself.

Dingdongbubble

yeah i want the crazy cert ladder to stop. i dont mind studying for like one cert a year to keep myself up.

dynamik

Dingdongbubble wrote:

yeah i want the crazy cert ladder to stop. i dont mind studying for like one cert a year to keep myself up.

What fun would that be? Once you get to the top, go horizontal. Who would be content with just one CCIE?

I think it really depends on which route you go. For example, if you get an R&S CCIE, keeping up with R&S developments might be sufficient. However, if you're an MS guru, you're liking going to need to keep up with a client OS, a server OS, and other things, such as Exchange and Sharepoint. You have to be learning perpetually in order to keep your skills current and relevant. However, once you're up to speed with whatever technologies you're working with, I think you'll find it much easier to maintain and add to that knowledge than originally learning the material.

Megadeth4168

Dingdongbubble wrote:

yeah i want the crazy cert ladder to stop. i dont mind studying for like one cert a year to keep myself up.

I don't want the ride to stop

I actually enjoy going after new certifications... I think I do it more for my own satisfaction now than I do for trying to get ahead in my career.

I think it's rewarding to see achieve a goal after putting in so much effort studying. Just my 2 cents.

Dingdongbubble

Well I can understand what you are all saying and I have a slight fear that I might too get severe cert fever one day

But I have some other things which I think are more important in life than a job. So I will want soem time for thatt too.

shon541

As with anything in your life, you have to have balance.

sthomas

Dingdongbubble wrote:

yeah i want the crazy cert ladder to stop. i dont mind studying for like one cert a year to keep myself up.

You can do as many or as little certifications as you wish. Most of the people I work with or have worked with in the past where/are not working on any certification and have had a fairly sucessful career it IT. Working on one cert a year is certainly better than none and not necessarily a bad goal depending on what cert it is. In my opinion it is better to work on getting certified than not though, I have noticed some that don't really try to get certified and they seem to get in a career "rut" so to speak.

doom969

And also, keep in mind that studying for certs gets easier as time go on. What I mean, is when you have a lots of certs/experience, your previous knowledge will help you and you need to study for only things you need to brush up on or new products/skillsets.

Most certs become irrelevant as time goes by, however your knowledge does not. So its help you get the next gen of certs.

Mishra

Yeah just look at sprkymrk. He has stopped getting certifications!

dynamik

Mishra wrote:

Yeah just look at sprkymrk. He has stopped getting certifications!

Tell me about it. Apparently, you don't even need an MCSE to be able to mod the MS forums. The Cisco forums obviously have much higher requirements.

sthomas

dynamik wrote:

Mishra wrote:

Yeah just look at sprkymrk. He has stopped getting certifications!

Tell me about it. Apparently, you don't even need an MCSE to be able to mod the MS forums. The Cisco forums obviously have much higher requirements.

Ouch!

I have an MCSE so I could be the mod for the MS forums, however sprkymrk IS smarter than I am.

Megadeth4168

I believe sprkymrk is smarter than I am as well. I think he is a prime example showing that certifications do not mean better or smarter. I'm sure he has more experience than I do.

sprkymrk

sthomas wrote:

dynamik wrote:

Mishra wrote:

Yeah just look at sprkymrk. He has stopped getting certifications!

Tell me about it. Apparently, you don't even need an MCSE to be able to mod the MS forums. The Cisco forums obviously have much higher requirements.

Ouch!

Wow, I've never had opportunity to ban 3 members all in one fell swoop before!

In all seriousness, I get about 2 certs per year, whether new or renewal. I don't even count the DoD required stuff. And you don't have to be the smartest/most certified to be a moderator any more than you have to have an MCSE to be an administrator. Johan decides who moderates, as this is his website. Your boss or company decides who is the admin because they are in charge and choose whomever they want.

If you ever feel like you get sub-par service from me as a moderator, feel free to paint a big red bullseye on your forehead and try it yourself for a while.

dynamik

sprkymrk wrote:

If you ever feel like you get sub-par service from me as a moderator, feel free to paint a big red bullseye on your forehead and try it yourself for a while.

Aw, c'mon. You know we all worship you

Megadeth4168 wrote:

I believe sprkymrk is smarter than I am as well. I think he is a prime example showing that certifications do not mean better or smarter. I'm sure he has more experience than I do.

That was what I was hinting at

sprkymrk

I know you're all just having some fun, but you're supposed to bring donuts when you do that.

I'll say up front that I (obviously) don't know everything. I usually let royal answer the Exchange questions (he usually beats me to it anyway) and megadeth I know next to nothing about databases like you do.

I could say something nice about dynamic too, but I'd rather let him think I am ignoring him.

Lots of smart people here - that's why it's called a "community". I gave up a long time ago trying to answer every question in the MS forums. You all do a great job helping each other out.

Schluep

sprkymrk wrote:

Wow, I've never had opportunity to ban 3 members all in one fell swoop before!

In all seriousness, I get about 2 certs per year, whether new or renewal. I don't even count the DoD required stuff. And you don't have to be the smartest/most certified to be a moderator any more than you have to have an MCSE to be an administrator. Johan decides who moderates, as this is his website. Your boss or company decides who is the admin because they are in charge and choose whomever they want.

If you ever feel like you get sub-par service from me as a moderator, feel free to paint a big red bullseye on your forehead and try it yourself for a while.

Before I saw you respond with that I immediately thought of the security system thread from December and went looking for it:

sprkymrk wrote:

WooHoo!

Depending on the situation:

Mossberg 500 12 gauge 18" barrell 00 buckshot 3" shells.
Assualt rifle that shall go unnamed.
Various and sundry 1911 45's.
A nice pair of 357 magnums.
My 1 year old husky/sheperd mix.
My wife who can shoot straighter than me.

Just in case anyone missed it

.

In all seriousness though I looked at several certification forums before coming here and chose not to join any of them because they did not remove posts of people trying to **** on exams and most people did not honestly take the time to help each other and were only looking out for themselves. The reason that the highest quality of certification seekers come here is due to the leadership in place and the existing body of excellent people. Mr. Hiemstra and all of the moderators certainly deserve our thanks and appreciation for their effort in creating an environment that allows all of us to grow through the experiences of each other. When a thread pops where someone has 500 employees with no e-mail and needs to find the problem quickly the diagnostic skills from the people replying had to come from similar experiences.

sprkymrk

Schluep wrote:

sprkymrk wrote:

WooHoo!

Depending on the situation:

Mossberg 500 12 gauge 18" barrell 00 buckshot 3" shells.
Assualt rifle that shall go unnamed.
Various and sundry 1911 45's.
A nice pair of 357 magnums.
My 1 year old husky/sheperd mix.
My wife who can shoot straighter than me.

Just in case anyone missed it

You know, I should have added the additional security layer of a mine field that comes from having a 13 year old daughter and 10 year old son who don't pick up their toys.

Mishra

sprkymrk wrote:

sthomas wrote:

dynamik wrote:

Mishra wrote:

Yeah just look at sprkymrk. He has stopped getting certifications!

Tell me about it. Apparently, you don't even need an MCSE to be able to mod the MS forums. The Cisco forums obviously have much higher requirements.

Ouch!

Wow, I've never had opportunity to ban 3 members all in one fell swoop before!

In all seriousness, I get about 2 certs per year, whether new or renewal. I don't even count the DoD required stuff. And you don't have to be the smartest/most certified to be a moderator any more than you have to have an MCSE to be an administrator. Johan decides who moderates, as this is his website. Your boss or company decides who is the admin because they are in charge and choose whomever they want.

If you ever feel like you get sub-par service from me as a moderator, feel free to paint a big red bullseye on your forehead and try it yourself for a while.

O! He is already talking over my head. Someone give me the dunce cap.

snadam

sprkymrk wrote:

I know you're all just having some fun, but you're supposed to bring donuts when you do that.

I'll say up front that I (obviously) don't know everything. I usually let royal answer the Exchange questions (he usually beats me to it anyway) and megadeth I know next to nothing about databases like you do.

I could say something nice about dynamic too, but I'd rather let him think I am ignoring him.

Lots of smart people here - that's why it's called a "community". I gave up a long time ago trying to answer every question in the MS forums. You all do a great job helping each other out.

Here you go!

on the serious side; I have found that I love to learn new things in the past years; weather it be IT, sports (my fav), health, music, or just history; I find that accumulating knowledge is almost like hobby of mine now. I think certs are a good catalyst for me furthering my knowledge in IT. Its like a progression timeline. Ill admit, If there were no such thing as certs, I probably wouldnt have the strong drive as I do now. But I would still be learning. With that new found mentality, I find it easier to study and progress my knowledge overall.

Schluep

And that one picture negated all of the pages in our entire cardio thread with a single post.

snadam

Schluep wrote:

And that one picture negated all of the pages in our entire cardio thread with a single post.

yea, but you don't have to eat them

Nothing like a nice big bear claw after a 1 mile run...

Schluep

snadam wrote:

Schluep wrote:

And that one picture negated all of the pages in our entire cardio thread with a single post.

yea, but you don't have to eat them

Nothing like a nice big bear claw after a 1 mile run...

Haha, I wasn't planning on it. I have only had one in the last 9 years and I was so sick afterwards that I will never make that mistake again.

sprkymrk

Snadam, you're always a favorite, but you just moved a notch higher on the chart.

seuss_ssues

snadam wrote:

Schluep wrote:

And that one picture negated all of the pages in our entire cardio thread with a single post.

yea, but you don't have to eat them

Nothing like a nice big bear claw after a 1 mile run...

You have to reward yourself. Just look at this guy:

http://kansasbob.blogspot.com/2008/03/101-year-old-marathon-runner.html

---excert
Already Britain's oldest employee, 101-year-old Buster Martin (pictured right) now aims to become the world's oldest marathon runner by completing the London Marathon and celebrating with a pint of beer and a cigarette.

Schluep

There are other sweet things worse getting sick over every once in a while. My yearly Pumpkin Pie at Thanksgiving that I suffer for is always worth it. When you don't eat that type of stuff much your body really recognizes the damage it is doing when you do have it.

jbaello

dynamik wrote:

Dingdongbubble wrote:

yeah i want the crazy cert ladder to stop. i dont mind studying for like one cert a year to keep myself up.

What fun would that be? Once you get to the top, go horizontal. Who would be content with just one CCIE?

I think it really depends on which route you go. For example, if you get an R&S CCIE, keeping up with R&S developments might be sufficient. However, if you're an MS guru, you're liking going to need to keep up with a client OS, a server OS, and other things, such as Exchange and Sharepoint. You have to be learning perpetually in order to keep your skills current and relevant. However, once you're up to speed with whatever technologies you're working with, I think you'll find it much easier to maintain and add to that knowledge than originally learning the material.

dynamik

Schluep wrote:

There are other sweet things worse getting sick over every once in a while. My yearly Pumpkin Pie at Thanksgiving that I suffer for is always worth it. When you don't eat that type of stuff much your body really recognizes the damage it is doing when you do have it.

Did you ever watch Supersize Me?

That guy went from a diet that sounds similar to yours to eating McDonald's for a month. He vomited before he could finish his meal.