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My Career Plan
gorebrush
Member Posts: 2,743 ■■■■■■■□□□
Lifted from another post...
My certification goals are as follows. Now bear with me as I've got the next 4-5 years planned out.
I recently passed the CCNA 640-802. I'm coming up nearly 3 years in Systems Administrator posts, and so far I have worked for small companies being the "jack of all trades". Now is the time to find the real speciality career - having gotten the MCSE and done a range of jobs over the last few years.
However, since moving to my current employer in June, I have developed a taste for Cisco, and I want more! I had always wanted to do the CCNA because MCSE+CCNA are asked for a lot. So, having really got my teeth into the Cisco network at work (Cisco 3550/3560/3750 switches, 2800 Router, Cisco CallManager 4.1, Unity 4.0) I've decided this is what I really want to concentrate on. There's a host of other reasons - I find technical support boring sometimes and things like printer faults really irritate me. Ho hum, that's the life of the "all-in-one" Systems Admin!
So, Cisco...
I would like to do the following: -
CCNP
I am hoping to take the BCMSN before the end of the year, and overall finish the entire CCNP by about May/June of 2009
CCNA Voice/CCVP
Natural choice for me as I am looking after CCM/Unity, and I mean I run the show on this. ATA's, Telephone's, configuring the gateways (2 sites)... I really would like to have this one.
MCTS Exchange 2007
Yes, i'm sitting this next Monday. Why? Well, I was originally going to do the CCNA Voice/CCVP now, but because the CCNA Voice material is nowhere to be seen, I decided to put it on the back burner and do something else until it came out. Ultimately I decided that I wanted the CCNP first anyway, so CCNA/V and CCVP has been back burnered until after CCNP. In the meatnime however, because of Unity and also to keep my Exchange knowledge up to date, I decided to get Exchange 2007 out of the way. Also I think we will want to push out Exchange 2007 in the next year, so I'll be more than prepared for it when we need to install.
Beyond CCNP CCNA Voice CCVP...
I figure that long term, the real dream is CCIE. Definitely R&S, probably go for two of them.
In order to get there, Cisco recommends 5 years in the industry - so, what I decided to do, and I know this sounds rediculous but people do it... Go for the lot.
CCDA/CCDP - only a few more exams on top of the CCNP/CCVP (I believe QoS would count in all three tracks)
CCSP
CCIP
Doing all these over 3-4 years, alongside new jobs in heavily Cisco based roles would give me a solid grounding for the CCIE. If it is still worthwhile, I would go for CCIE Voice too, because I believe I could manage 2 CCIE's or possibly more.
Yes, big claims from someone who none of you really know - but I know I'm capable of these exams and studying, always have been.
I'm playing it long but going for the big ones
Any opinions?
My certification goals are as follows. Now bear with me as I've got the next 4-5 years planned out.
I recently passed the CCNA 640-802. I'm coming up nearly 3 years in Systems Administrator posts, and so far I have worked for small companies being the "jack of all trades". Now is the time to find the real speciality career - having gotten the MCSE and done a range of jobs over the last few years.
However, since moving to my current employer in June, I have developed a taste for Cisco, and I want more! I had always wanted to do the CCNA because MCSE+CCNA are asked for a lot. So, having really got my teeth into the Cisco network at work (Cisco 3550/3560/3750 switches, 2800 Router, Cisco CallManager 4.1, Unity 4.0) I've decided this is what I really want to concentrate on. There's a host of other reasons - I find technical support boring sometimes and things like printer faults really irritate me. Ho hum, that's the life of the "all-in-one" Systems Admin!
So, Cisco...
I would like to do the following: -
CCNP
I am hoping to take the BCMSN before the end of the year, and overall finish the entire CCNP by about May/June of 2009
CCNA Voice/CCVP
Natural choice for me as I am looking after CCM/Unity, and I mean I run the show on this. ATA's, Telephone's, configuring the gateways (2 sites)... I really would like to have this one.
MCTS Exchange 2007
Yes, i'm sitting this next Monday. Why? Well, I was originally going to do the CCNA Voice/CCVP now, but because the CCNA Voice material is nowhere to be seen, I decided to put it on the back burner and do something else until it came out. Ultimately I decided that I wanted the CCNP first anyway, so CCNA/V and CCVP has been back burnered until after CCNP. In the meatnime however, because of Unity and also to keep my Exchange knowledge up to date, I decided to get Exchange 2007 out of the way. Also I think we will want to push out Exchange 2007 in the next year, so I'll be more than prepared for it when we need to install.
Beyond CCNP CCNA Voice CCVP...
I figure that long term, the real dream is CCIE. Definitely R&S, probably go for two of them.
In order to get there, Cisco recommends 5 years in the industry - so, what I decided to do, and I know this sounds rediculous but people do it... Go for the lot.
CCDA/CCDP - only a few more exams on top of the CCNP/CCVP (I believe QoS would count in all three tracks)
CCSP
CCIP
Doing all these over 3-4 years, alongside new jobs in heavily Cisco based roles would give me a solid grounding for the CCIE. If it is still worthwhile, I would go for CCIE Voice too, because I believe I could manage 2 CCIE's or possibly more.
Yes, big claims from someone who none of you really know - but I know I'm capable of these exams and studying, always have been.
I'm playing it long but going for the big ones
Any opinions?
Comments
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networker050184
Mod Posts: 11,962 Mod
That sounds like a great long term plan, but so many things change that you never know what technologies you will be working with in five years. I always thought I would stay doing routing and switching but then a few years ago we moved to VoIP and the rest is history. VoIP caught my attention and now I hardly ever look at a routing table (except for in a lab). My certification plans are now hazy as I don't work with CCM much anymore so CCVP isn't something that interests me and there are not any vendor neutral VoIP certs (that I know of anyway) that seem to be worth my time at this point.
Its good to have a plan, but this is an ever changing industry we are in and you should keep that in mind.An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made. -
Optionsgorebrush
Member Posts: 2,743 ■■■■■■■□□□
Yeah, I forgot to say that I am very quick to adapt.
Cisco I didn't even touch until June when I moved to my new company, then I decided "man, I have to do this!!" and thus my determination for Cisco.
I have seen other potential paths though - such as Virtualisation.
There are a few "backup" plans that I have which I didn't mention above...
VoIP I think is the coolest thing since slice bread, and I hadn't even TOUCHED a VoIP phone until June.... now I can't get enough
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Optionsnetworker050184
Mod Posts: 11,962 Mod
gorebrush wrote:Yeah, I forgot to say that I am very quick to adapt.
Cisco I didn't even touch until June when I moved to my new company, then I decided "man, I have to do this!!" and thus my determination for Cisco.
I have seen other potential paths though - such as Virtualisation.
There are a few "backup" plans that I have which I didn't mention above...
VoIP I think is the coolest thing since slice bread, and I hadn't even TOUCHED a VoIP phone until June.... now I can't get enough
What happens when you find something else that is "the coolest thing" and you leave your current aspirations? I was the same way as you not too long ago and I wanted the Mike Cisco cert list
Now I still love Cisco, but my career in VoIP pulls me farther away all the time..... An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made. -
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MCPWannabe
Member Posts: 194
The guys who get to the top of this field are the ones who expect the most of themselves. Go on with your bad self.. And keep on getting the certs and adding skills. Things will work out very nicely for you.I've escaped call centers and so can you! Certification Trail and mean pay job offers for me: A+ == $14, Net+==$16, MCSA==$20-$22, MCAD==$25-$30, MCSD -- $40, MCT(Development), MCITP Business Intelligence, MCPD Enterprise Applications Developer -- $700 a Day -
Optionsgorebrush
Member Posts: 2,743 ■■■■■■■□□□
networker050184 wrote:gorebrush wrote:Yeah, I forgot to say that I am very quick to adapt.
Cisco I didn't even touch until June when I moved to my new company, then I decided "man, I have to do this!!" and thus my determination for Cisco.
I have seen other potential paths though - such as Virtualisation.
There are a few "backup" plans that I have which I didn't mention above...
VoIP I think is the coolest thing since slice bread, and I hadn't even TOUCHED a VoIP phone until June.... now I can't get enough
What happens when you find something else that is "the coolest thing" and you leave your current aspirations? I was the same way as you not too long ago and I wanted the Mike Cisco cert list Now I still love Cisco, but my career in VoIP pulls me farther away all the time.....
Well I know what you mean. However, having been a Systems Administrator for 3 years now, I can see that becoming a Cisco engineer would be far better for me.
I've got the MCSE done, and feel that Cisco would actually be easier for me...