What MS cert would go best with Cisco certs?

jjbrog

Just curious, our school has us doing classes on both, the Cisco is clearly CCNA and CCNA security, but the MS their not too clear on what certs we're actually being trained on. That and the cisco cert paths are pretty straight forward and understandable. The MS are quite confusing.

Their not too clear on Linux either but I'm going with the assumption Linux+ would be it.

crrussell3

There really isn't a "best answer" for this, as it all depends on what you are interested in doing, and what technologies your employer is using or considering. Typically, most will pair MCSA/MCSE/MCITP:SA/MCITP:EA with Cisco. Along with that, you can consider Exchange, SQL, Sharepoint, Hyper-V, ISA, WinXP, WinVista, Win7, SCCM, etc.

Most likely your school will start you out with a client certification, then move up into the server certs. Depending on what you are using, that could be MCSx or MCITPA.

Bl8ckr0uter

jjbrog wrote: »

Just curious, our school has us doing classes on both, the Cisco is clearly CCNA and CCNA security, but the MS their not too clear on what certs we're actually being trained on. That and the cisco cert paths are pretty straight forward and understandable. The MS are quite confusing.

Their not too clear on Linux either but I'm going with the assumption Linux+ would be it.

The cisco path really isn't that clear. There is the classic path CCNA/CCNP/CCIE:RS and newer combos. There is also the CCNA:S ,CCNA:W, CCNA:V, CCDA, CCNP, CCDP, CCSP, CCIP, CCVP and all of the related CCIE exams. There are also many specialist exams that you can take.

I think the certification that is going to go well with cisco is whatever the hell employers in your market are looking for be it MS, Comptia, RedHat, Solaris, or whatever. I cut down my cert goals drastically and instead replace certs goals with knowledge goals. Why? Because in the end, knowledge should always be the goal and having a cert and having the knowledge that is expected of people who have that cert are different things, especially in today's brain dumping age.

No one is going to have a path for you, all anyone here can do is tell you what may work and what worked for them and to me, that is a good thing. You have a chance to make your own path and to carve your own way. I would suggest that you do some research of employer requirements for the type of jobs that you would want to do and line your resume (and skill set) up accordingly.

jjbrog

Yeah you both seem pretty knowledgeable i'll kinda go with the flow and see what happends. I know about all those cisco certs, I guess the reason why I think their more clear is like, if you ask someone what certs they have, a cisco person will simply say "I have CCNA, CCNP, and I'm thinking of going into CCVP, cause I like phones" or whatever. Ask a MS person they'll usually just throw the numbers out and those don't tell me much unless I look them up. Plus when entering Cisco, you pretty much have to start with CCNA(or CCENT I suppose) with MS, its harder for a newbie to know right off the bat what they should be going for. I know thus far I'm probably going for Windows 7 configuration, which sounds like a decent entry level exam as far as MS is concerned, after that well we'll see.

Then again I have been putting most my effort into Cisco, cause starting out thats were I felt most conferable, plus my first class was a Net+ class which leads into Cisco(and the Net+ exam, respectively) more so than the others

dynamik

With the current track, the MCITP: EA is probably the baseline. That will get you a solid foundation with AD and Server 2008, and then you can branch out into other things, like Exchange or SQL Server, if you're interested.

Bl8ckr0uter

jjbrog wrote: »

Yeah you both seem pretty knowledgeable i'll kinda go with the flow and see what happends.

I wouldn't go that far. Don't get me wrong, you need goals. You need to know what you want to do and where you want to aim. I have called recruiters and asked them, "Hey for these types of jobs, what do you guys look for". Most of the time, I have gotten pretty good responses. I have also asked people who are doing what I want to do, "What did it take for you to get to where you are". You can get some interesting responses that way as well.

I am not saying I know it all or anything but I know my career is my responsibility and I want to take it by the horns and steer (there was a joke in there) it towards my goals.

RobertKaucher

knwminus wrote: »

I am not saying I know it all or anything but I know my career is my responsibility and I want to take it by the horns and steer (there was a joke in there) it towards my goals.

This deserves the punitentury.
Terrible, just terrible....

veritas_libertas

knwminus wrote: »

I am not saying I know it all or anything but I know my career is my responsibility and I want to take it by the horns and steer (there was a joke in there) it towards my goals.

Yeah right, whatever...

stephens316

Reviewing some things from the December /January found here:
Volatile Hiring Landscape Means Some Certs Worth More than Others | CertCities.com | News

I would say that you need to focus on what jobs that are out there and what they are asking for . So that said your best certs are the following

Download PDF file

This should be your focus for now because of the job market outlook.

As a systems administrator I have found hard to find a job in my local area and I also have a narrow field which I want to get back into I am currently trying to open up to whatever I can get now as some job I expected to get I was really overlooked and has looking over my goals right now. You need to have a well round skill set to find a job in this market and I wish I could go back school even though I just got out in 2008.

Hope this is helps

veritas_libertas

dynamik wrote: »

With the current track, the MCITP: EA is probably the baseline. That will get you a solid foundation with AD and Server 2008, and then you can branch out into other things, like Exchange or SQL Server, if you're interested.

+1 This makes the most sense to me. If I was only concerned with what the market wanted, I would probably also do SQL, and Virtualization.