Will I over-certify myself with CCNP for future employment?

1MeanAdmin

I was laid off last week due to lack of work (last month was dead silent). I have about 5 years of Windows/Mac server and 2 years of light Cisco (and others) network engineering + some disaster recovery experience. I'll have my MCSE by September. I do have experience that validates my MCSE %100 and CCNA - about %50.
I have a chance to receive a state unemployment grant towards CCNP classes led by a CCIE instructor at a small reputable school. My out-of-pocket expenses - $0. They also offer Oracle DBA, but I saw a couple of job postings: if there's a job for an Oracle DBA, it is senior and %100 Oracle - there's no room for any other technology (well, except for some MS SQL DBA).

What do you think, when I pass CCNP, will I run into the well-known problem of "over-certifying" myself with CCNP, when I only have %50 experience of a typical CCNA-level job? Keep in mind, I won't be looking at Cisco only jobs, because I want to use my MCSE level experience as well.

I'm also looking into Citrix training, but that school doesn't provide it. I'm hesitant to go to an unfamiliar school because there are too many horrible ones in NYC.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

JDMurray

You are not ethically-bound to list on your resume any certification(s) that you have. If you are applying for a more junior position, you can simply omit your more senior certifications if you think that a hiring manager will not higher someone who appears to have too much education/certification/experience for a position. However, in doing so, you may also miss out on other opportunities that the hiring manager might have for a more senior person. It's your call.

1MeanAdmin

Thanks for the quick response, JDMurray.

Now that I think about it, I'll probably go for CCNP. If the time comes, I may not be strong enough to erase the cert from my resume though

Mishra

Most of the time if you have 2+ years of experience in administration then no cert will hurt you. Once employers see that you have a healthy amount of good experience then they are just going to be impressed by your certifications instead of turned off by them. Thats just my opinion.

Netstudent

Mishra wrote:

Most of the time if you have 2+ years of experience in administration then no cert will hurt you. Once employers see that you have a healthy amount of good experience then they are just going to be impressed by your certifications instead of turned off by them. Thats just my opinion.

I agree.

You have some experience, list those certs and get another job.

Daniel333

Just stay honest during the future interviews about your level of knowledge and you won't have any problems with CCNP on your resume. It can only help.

LifelongLearner

JDMurray wrote:

You are not ethically-bound to list on your resume any certification(s) that you have. If you are applying for a more junior position, you can simply omit your more senior certifications if you think that a hiring manager will not higher someone who appears to have too much education/certification/experience for a position. However, in doing so, you may also miss out on other opportunities that the hiring manager might have for a more senior person. It's your call.

Totally agree with this. I've studied for certs just because I wanted to learn more about a subject and didn't list them on my resume (at the time) because my experience wasn't in tune with my certs.