Cisco Partners

Hello all! What exactly is this Cisco Partner? I went to the website but I don't really understand it... And why would it be beneficial to get experience at a Cisco Partner as opposed to volunteering/"internshipping" at another place that has a network division...? Thanks you!

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Comments

mikej412

There are different sizes and different types of Cisco Business Partners -- but they all must the Cisco Requirements for their partner level.

Product discounts may be tied to # of certified employees at a certain level -- and all business partners must have a certain number of Cisco Cetified people on staff to achieve and maintain their Cisco Partner status and level.

Working for a Cisco Business Partner could give you more exposure to multiple customer environments and more different Cisco products than you might see working at just one company.

Even if you started out driving the delivery truck and racking 'n stacking new equipment at customer sites, the potential for a motivated person to learn, and possibly move up, is almost unlimited (at the right Cisco Business Partner).

I've seen people who worked for MEGACORPs learn one way to do things -- and then do the same things over and over and over, hopefully at different levels as they get promoted. You could possibly see more and learn more in 6 months at a Cisco Business Partner than some people might see in their entire safe low paying soon to be outsourced job at MEGACORP.

jjbrog

I'm kinda curious as well, my current position has nothing to do with IT, I work in manufacturing, however the company I work for is a Cisco gold partner(General Electric) so I'm hoping to switch to a Network Admin position of some sort after I graduate, get the CCNA etc..

Kaminsky

A year or two before I started in this company, they were ramping up their Gold level partnership and sent out an email across the various network discipline teams asking for 10 volunteers to be certified up to CCIE paid for by the company with extra time for studying at work etc.

As a Gold partner, I think we get something like either 40% off or 60% off. Not quite sure which, though I think it is the latter. Mike is right about the exposure. As a partner, we can offer much cheaper equipment to our clients and as a result you get to see loads of kit on a weekly basis. Not the odd one or two new routers and switches but pallettes of them stacked in the corridore waiting to be installed and configured. In previous companies, they may get a new bit of kit every once in a while which the main guy will be all over and you won't get a look in. Here it is yet another box that needs racking, patching and configuring.

The thing that struck me about this, once I got over the initial wow factor of it all, was how quickly you get used to seeing and doing it.