Starter advice

tbbucs40

hey guys,

Im new to this site. The reason is becasue i was never interested in networking. Just recently i decided to take a networking route frm wating tables. Im 28 years old and i have been dealing with computers all my life ( on a NON proffesional enviornment). i have a great understaning of all aspects of a computer......Im reading a study guide to get my CCNT right now and am shooting for a CCNA in about 6 months. All the infformation in this study guide is very understandable to me. I understand the theory and have a decent understanding on how to implement theory into real life scenarios. My question is does anyone have any advice for me that might make my journey through this easier, maybe faster, maybe more understandable??? Any suggestions, i would greatly appreciate advice from some of you guys that would like to tell it. Thanks..


TBBUCS40

nel

Im new to this site. The reason is becasue i was never interested in networking

There's not just networking here, there's tons of IT related forums

does anyone have any advice for me that might make my journey through this easier, maybe faster

Personally, i am studying for this aswell and i would not advise to rush it. make sure you understand and take as much in as possible - even the small details ! for me, i find it good to put the theory into practice that way i understand it better and i am able to remember it better too. So get some hands on practice. if you have never used cisco kit or any networking kit for that matter i would recommend buying some old gear. most people do it from ebay but there are other sites who assemble these as packages and sell them that way in lab sets. Or you could use a simulator. but for what a simulator costs these days i would rather get the real thing.

As for making your journey easier, well only you can do that my friend - with the help of good resources. This website is great for asking about details you do not understand, there are some VERY experianced ppl among us! I Would also suggest using at least 2 books. i have the new todd lammele one and the wendell odom books. i use the odom books as my main read but then re-read things from todd's book. CBT nuggets (these are video's) is also a good way to learn the material but only use these as a second resource because there is not enough info in them to be used as your primary resource.

Finally,(not to be a downer here)but dont think that because you have the ccna you will be walking into a great networking job because it doesnt work like that. you have to have the experiance to go with it aswell! most people start at helpdesk jobs etc to get there foot on the ladder.

cisco_trooper

Start acquiring a lab.

Download dynamips from sourceforge, learn how to configure it, and then use it. This will allow you to do any routing you need for the CCENT and CCNA. You may want to acquire 2 or 3 Cisco 2950s off of ebay or something, so you can practice some switching scenarios and watch it work.

Other than that, don't rush it, don't memorize crap because that isn't learning. Seek to understand everything you read and do and you won't have to MEMORIZE a single thing.

Good Luck!

cisco_trooper

Also, if you have no experience in IT, I'd start looking for a help desk or PC tech job to start getting some experience. Having a CCNA, and only a CCNA is not going to help you out much unfortunately. You may want to knock out a couple Microsoft exams so you can get into a help desk role, and then move on to Cisco if that is what most interests you.

Glynixx

cisco_trooper wrote:

Also, if you have no experience in IT, I'd start looking for a help desk or PC tech job to start getting some experience. Having a CCNA, and only a CCNA is not going to help you out much unfortunately. You may want to knock out a couple Microsoft exams so you can get into a help desk role, and then move on to Cisco if that is what most interests you.

Trooper is absolutely right. Volunteer if you have to, experience is key. I've been doing this for over a dozen years but I think another key is to be humble (and confident). Take your time for certain.

I recommend that you think about getting a lab (as recommend) but also getting some good study materials. I would recommend that (if you can swing it) buy the cbt nugget videos because they typically put out a great product and / or chris bryant's trainsignal videos. This way you can watch at home or listen in the car via ipod, zen or some such.

Books seems to be odom's, lammle's or chris bryant's. I would recommend at least 1 of the first 2 and then bryant's. This way you have a good body of work to sample (or all 3, that's what I did).

Hope this helps!

Claymoore

My recommendation would be to get a job that will provide you experience first, and then work on your certifications. Not only will the experience you gain make the certifcations easier to obtain, it will also make future higher-paying jobs easier to obtain.

This scenario is purely hypothetical , but...

Let's say I work for a mid-sized business in the Tampa Bay area with 400 users and an IT support staff of 6 people. Two of those people were 1st tier helpdesk, but one of them was just promoted to a Windows Admin position (after passing a few exams in the MCSA track thanks in part to techexams) in order to help out the senior systems engineer. Now we are one helpdesk tech short and the systems engineer still needs some help on the Cisco side. We would probably be looking for a candidate with the following qualifications:

Required:
CompTia A+ Certification
Capability and Desire to learn
Customer Service friendly attitude

Preferred, but not required:
CompTia Network+
Microsoft MCDST/MCP/MCTS
Experience in a corporate environment

This would be an entry-level support job with tasks like swapping keyboards, clearing paper jams, and resetting passwords - grunt work. It's not glamorous, but the dress code is casual. Once the candidate learned our processes and demonstrated the ability to think and work unsupervised, the real training would begin. Networking with multilayer switches, multiple locations with MetroEthernet connectivity, Cisco ASA firewall/VPN, and Cisco VOIP.

A CCNA wouldn't be required. In fact, it would probably be seen as a detriment because CCNAs don't swap mice and clear paper jams, and that's really what we need right now. If you look around the boards there are other members with CCNAs and no experience that are having trouble finding a job. Even a little bit of documented experience helps a lot so I would recommend getting a job first.

By the way, the job description is hypothetical because the promotion just happened and we don't have a req open or a timetable in which to fill it. Translation - please don't PM me to apply for a job that doesn't exist yet. Unless there is a rule against actually posting jobs in the Jobs forum, I'll post it there when it opens. Thanks

tbbucs40

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 7:31 pm
Post subject: Thanks everyone

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Well thanks for everyone that responded to my message. In regards to everyone tell me that i should get my own lab in the house, I have all t he equpiment that i need from my buddy that owns his own Network Consulting Firm here in the tampa area. So i guess that is a great thing because i dont have to purchase the equpiment (i dont really know what it costs anyways)

A few of the posts told me not to memorize because cramming all this info wont be any help in a real-time situation. Im acually understanding the theory and processes pretty well without having to memorize them. It just makes sense to me, i guess that is a good thing. But like i said, thanks for everyones eagerness to help me out. Thanks Claymore, the hypithetical situation was a good eye opener to understand how i might be able to get a small job doing help desk stuff

Thanks guy

TBBUCS40

P.S. Please if anyone else would like to add any other informative statement please feel free to respond some more, i will be checking out this post for a few days, Thanks again