Cisco certification job search analysis.

msteinhilber · February 2009

I've been messing around with the idea to regularly query various job search resources and put together some detailed information on various certifications that employers are looking for, regions they are located, and so on. I had some free time and I performed a relatively simple analysis on Cisco certifications using just Monster.com as the single resource. I was mostly looking to get an idea of what various Cisco certifications were the most listed in job postings. This was my first run at this so I'm sure there are areas in which the queries could be improved upon, and I do have further plans for something much more advanced - that just requires a lot more coding to help automate as this set of results on it's own was 459 searches.

I also thought the idea would be a decent idea for a post on my new blog I'm hopefully going to have time to stick into here and there. So here it is, just a basic look at what Cisco certifications are posted in listings as of today's listings on Monster.com broken down by state.

Cisco certification job analysis. | 3dub dot net

If anybody has any suggestions on what you would like to see in possible future projects like this, let me know - I'd love to hear some feedback.

dynamik · February 2009

Cool project; nice job

msteinhilber · February 2009

dynamik wrote: »

Cool project; nice job

Thanks, as tedious as it was (I did all the searches manually), it was quite fun just to get an idea of what's out there. Also served as a bit more motivation to finish up the CCNA and move forward. Next time around I'm going to go for more data to provide some more meaningful results, once I dust off my PHP books and have it do the bulk of the work

dynamik · February 2009

Wow

I know PHP pretty well, so let me know if you need help with anything or just want to bounce ideas around.

Paul Boz · February 2009

Good work. Your trend data backs up what people generally consider to be the correct value or demand for Cisco certs.

JDMurray · February 2009

I'd like to see the same thing run for dice.com. I've always assumed that dice.com has the most IT jobs, but I really don't know.

Paul Boz · February 2009

JDMurray wrote: »

I'd like to see the same thing run for dice.com. I've always assumed that dice.com has the most IT jobs, but I really don't know.

Good deal. I have never heard of this site until now. I'm not shopping at the moment but its always good to know its out there

Heck, I'll throw out Telecom & Wireless Jobs: Telecommunications, IT, IP, VOIP, Unified Communications, Mobile & Cellular Careers- TelecomCareers.net for anyone that works in the telco industry or wants to.

EvilGenius007 · February 2009

msteinhilber wrote: »

If anybody has any suggestions on what you would like to see in possible future projects like this, let me know - I'd love to hear some feedback.

Wow, that's really great information. I'm currently doing a job search and just recently started thinking about certifications. An expanded version of results like these would be a tremendous resource.

FYI, I've been using 3 major portals for my job search beyond Monster.com:
CareerBuilder.com
Dice.com (as previously mentioned) and
HigherEdJobs.com (obviously, a specialized area of interest)

Since you asked for suggestions, I'll throw out the following in a rough of order of utility+coolness:
1) A more comprehensive table including other certifications (CompTIA, MS, etc.)
2) Results for additional search engines and/or beyond state results, information about the demand for certifications by industry
3) A web-applet to customize the results. In addition to seeing the demand for certifications in Ohio, I'd love to add in neighboring states (Indiana, Pennsylvania) to get a regional perspective

impelse · February 2009

Good analisys. Make it automatic and let us put the certification and the site can give us a result of job posting, include some google ads to let you pay the hosting.

nel · February 2009

Then you can extend it to the UK

Good idea though mate!

BigTex71 · February 2009

Nice work. It would be cool to add in other job board data like others suggested.

msteinhilber · February 2009

Many of the suggestions are in the works. I unfortunately had to take a break from it for a little bit while focusing on finals which are now thankfully over with and my co-worker is back from a lengthy vacation so things are much more relaxed at the office. Should have time to implement new stuff soon

unx777 · March 2009

There is a job search engine that has done some work in this area: Job Search | one search. all jobs. Indeed. Using their Job Trends feature, you can plot the popularity of keywords in employer job postings.