What should I do in this situation..

Hello,

I acquired my CCENT in my Sophomore year of High School, and then my CCNA in my Junior Year (currently). Now I'm going into summer and I have the option to work here and there for a networking company in the area and go to school for with only 5 classes my senior year and self-study CCNP.

Coming out of high school I would have CCENT, CCNA, CCNP and a little over year of work experience under my belt.

Now the question is (I have been debating with teachers and such) they said I should take advantage of the free school while I can and take another course at a tech course where I got my CCENT/CCNA at. Which would provide me with Network + cert (basically CCNA again so it would only take a week or two to study for) and it would also provide me a certification in Windows Server 2008. The disadvantages of this is I may not have time to work at the networking company and/or get my CCNP.

But I would come out with CCENT/CCNA/Network+/Microsoft Windows 2008 Cert.

Those of you who went off to college, what would you do in my situation? I should stress I'm leaning towards the schedule which allows me to get my CCNP as I enjoy networking and it would be nice to have a easy schedule for my senior year. However it may be good thing to be well rounded with a Microsoft certification. (Not that I couldn't self teach myself Network+, A+ and some Windows server things with all my senior year spare time).

Last note summer just started and I'm already starting to prepare for the CCNP track with CBT Nuggets.

Thanks I would appreciate anyone's opinions!

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Comments

networker050184

My advice would be forget the certs for now and enjoy your life. You will have plenty of time to chase certs when you get older.

I know, probably not what you want to hear.

astorrs

Hands down I say take the work experience.

LarryDaMan

astorrs wrote: »

Hands down I say take the work experience.

+1

Certs are much easier to get than your first IT work experience.

Tryntotechit

If you don't have any work experience in IT, then go with the work. Experience is the key. Since you are young, you have plenty of time for certs later. Certs are great. I'm not knocking them, but certs HELP get your foot in the door. Work experience WILL get your foot in the door. Good luck.

Element926

haha I respect the decision to enjoy my life, which is one reason why the choice of just going for the CCNP and getting out early each day of school for my senior year. And in that situation I would also enjoy my life and get some work experience down.

If anyone has any more opinions on the matter feel free to post. I'm kind of basing my decision on the ideas of other tech professionals.

RobertKaucher

I must agree with all of those who say work experience. This will enhance your resume greatly. I recall when I was making the transition into more of an admin role than a support role and the issues I had even getting my resume looked at. It was not until I volunteered time to do some AD/Small Business Server work for local companies that I could put on my resume that people took more notice.

mikej412

Get the work experience when ever you can!!!!

Save the Microsoft (and Linux) Certifications for while you're in college

unsupported

First off, if you have your CCNA getting your Network+ is ass-backwards. Net+ is a simple entry level networking exam. I got mine just because I couldn't stand my networking class in college that I was taking as an elective.

You are well on your way to a promising career. At this point in your live since you love networking I would recommend going with the work experience and gracefully get into the Microsoft certs as you have time.

Definitely stay in school, take your vitamins, and pray. Be a good little cert-a-maniac!

jryantech

The only certifications you should get in High School are life time. Period.

Anything else youre wasting your time. You should be enjoying yourself not piling information about routers and switches in your brain. Especially information that will probably be useless for you when you get out of college because of advancements.

thomas130

I would probably get some work experience and start cert after the only reason I stay if you get all get certs and no experience you just going to look like a paper ccnp etc which you won't deserved

Just my opinion but good luck in whatever choice you make

dynamik

jryantech wrote: »

The only certifications you should get in High School are life time. Period.

Anything else youre wasting your time. You should be enjoying yourself not piling information about routers and switches in your brain. Especially information that will probably be useless for you when you get out of college because of advancements.

I disagree. I don't see any reason to not casually work towards other certifications. Future technologies always build on previous technologies, so having a good foundation will put you in a good position when it comes time to focus on pursuing them. I wouldn't make any enormous sacrifices for them, but I wouldn't avoid them all together either.

rsutton

Up until now all the IT jobs I have had I got because of previous work experience and good interviewing skills. Now I am going for the certs. In my opinion, and in the opinion of my previous bosses, work experience trumps all. I'm not saying certs are invalid, but that work exerience holds more value. Certs could also be the deciding factor between you getting a job and someone else.

Slowhand

I'm going to go against the current of advice to forget the certs and enjoy your life as a teenager for a while longer and say this: go look for a summer job, or even an internship, with what you've got while you're working towards that CCNP. Being as young as you are, most companies are going to find it impressive that you've got the initiative to work towards goals like the CCNA and CCNP. The focus shouldn't be what work you're doing, as long as it's IT work that gives you some experience to back up the certs.

With a little bit of work-experience, your certs, and the training you've gotten so far, you just might find college to be less financially draining and intimidating than others. The cert/work combo will look GREAT on your college applications, and being able to apply to work-study programs while you're attending is a huge advantage in getting money for tuition and the cost of living, (they'll pay you less than one of us out here in the "real world", but it'll be a lot more than your friends will be making at Starbucks or working the counter at the school bookstore.) Then there's the fact that, if you've grown accustomed to doing professional-level IT work, finishing projects for school might not seem so daunting.

Enjoying your life is important, don't let all your nights and weekends go by without seeing some fun and relaxation. You can balance it much better when you're younger, and putting in all that work now will ensure you have much more time to enjoy when you're older and you're not working a dead-end job for Initech.

Element926

Slowhand wrote: »

I'm going to go against the current of advice to forget the certs and enjoy your life as a teenager for a while longer and say this: go look for a summer job, or even an internship, with what you've got while you're working towards that CCNP. Being as young as you are, most companies are going to find it impressive that you've got the initiative to work towards goals like the CCNA and CCNP. The focus shouldn't be what work you're doing, as long as it's IT work that gives you some experience to back up the certs.

With a little bit of work-experience, your certs, and the training you've gotten so far, you just might find college to be less financially draining and intimidating than others. The cert/work combo will look GREAT on your college applications, and being able to apply to work-study programs while you're attending is a huge advantage in getting money for tuition and the cost of living, (they'll pay you less than one of us out here in the "real world", but it'll be a lot more than your friends will be making at Starbucks or working the counter at the school bookstore.) Then there's the fact that, if you've grown accustomed to doing professional-level IT work, finishing projects for school might not seem so daunting.

Enjoying your life is important, don't let all your nights and weekends go by without seeing some fun and relaxation. You can balance it much better when you're younger, and putting in all that work now will ensure you have much more time to enjoy when you're older and you're not working a dead-end job for Initech.

That was a good post to read, as well as others. And I found a nice local company to work with which has alot of talented employees including CCNAs, CCNPs, and CCIEs. So I'm currently for the summer working 2 full 8 hour days so I can enjoy my summer. And during the school year I'm getting out early both of my high school days around 12 pm each day and then a few days out of the week I'll go to work for the company and try to get my CCNP in my spare time so it doesn't take away from my life, and it won't seem like a "paper CCNP"

Thanks for the posts!

Slowhand

Element926 wrote: »

That was a good post to read, as well as others. And I found a nice local company to work with which has alot of talented employees including CCNAs, CCNPs, and CCIEs. So I'm currently for the summer working 2 full 8 hour days so I can enjoy my summer. And during the school year I'm getting out early both of my high school days around 12 pm each day and then a few days out of the week I'll go to work for the company and try to get my CCNP in my spare time so it doesn't take away from my life, and it won't seem like a "paper CCNP"

Thanks for the posts!

That's a nice gig, couldn't have been more ideal. Keep us posted on how you're doing, and don't be a stranger to the tech-conversations on the board. Good luck!

brad-

experience.