Follow your dreams or follow the market

bubble2005

Hey peeps, I want some advice. Mainly here in the Bahamas, there are a lot of system admins (Microsoft). However, my love is with Cisco, all of it and I have only taken a single test from Microsoft. I am not interested in their certifications; I only want to specialize in Cisco equipment, all of it (voice, r&s, wireless, security, sp, telepresence...etc). Do you feel I should obtain additional certs from Microsoft or continue working towards my Cisco goals (The first Bahamian CCIE )?

Thanks in advance.

Aldur

I would say to always go with your dreams. If you enjoy doing something then going to work everyday won't be so bad, dare I say that you might even enjoy it

subl1m1nal

Follow your dreams! Do the cisco stuff, and then go get M$ stuff.

Devilsbane

If you don't want microsoft, don't do it. If you take the cisco path and find there is no money, then you can always come back and know that you tried.

mikej412

The only reason to do Microsoft Certifications would be if it helped you get opportunities that would allow you do achieve your Cisco Dreams that much sooner.

If you've got the work (and the pay check) that's getting you your Cisco experience and will get you to where you want to go in CiscoLand, then there is no reason to change your certification/study course from Cisco.

hex_omega

Welcome to the dark side.

mikej412

hex_omega wrote: »

Welcome to the dark side.

We have cookies but we eated them

tbgree00

I'm facing the same question and I chose the market over my desire. I really want to get my VCP but am trying to get the MCSE right now. Every single job listing in my area has that as a requirement and I currently make entry level wages so 3k+ for the VMware class is expensive. I don't feel like I'm wasting my time with the material but my heart isn't in it. I'm hoping to get through within a year and then I'll do what I want but who knows where I'll be then.

Devilsbane

It is kind of a trade off. The higher they pay, the more that I would be willing to do something I didn't want to. What are your priorities? Do you want to go to wake up and want to go to work every morning? Or do you want to bring in some extra bacon so that you can buy more toys? You usually can't have both.

colemic

The first thing that popped into my mind:

As William Hung said -

Forrow your dreams!

bubble2005

Devilsbane wrote: »

It is kind of a trade off. The higher they pay, the more that I would be willing to do something I didn't want to. What are your priorities? Do you want to go to wake up and want to go to work every morning? Or do you want to bring in some extra bacon so that you can buy more toys? You usually can't have both.

Both fields pay well though. I guess it depends on demographics and the higher salary comes with additional experience and the level at which you want to reach such as the professional and expert. themain factor here for me is interest and growth. I do not have a family yet lol. My priorities are really to excel in the Cisco field of networking and attain as much experience as I can in that specialization.

vCole

mikej412 wrote: »

We have cookies but we eated them

hilarious!

ipconfig.all

Go for whatever you think will make you happy. Follow your dreams and your interests.

jtoast

I have found that the more I enjoy my job, the better job I do, and the more money I tend to make.

Devilsbane

jtoast wrote: »

I have found that the more I enjoy my job, the better job I do, and the more money I tend to make.

The first part is certainly true. I've been in a job I hated and I know my performance fell because of it. Just like back in school, you always got better grades in the subjects that you liked and were interested in.

The second part could be true, or could be false. It depends on the circumstances. You might love to do a service desk position and be excellent at it, but you are still not going to get paid more than you could as a systems administrator.

jtoast

Service desk = support. Some of our high end application support guys make $80k/year...Granted the applications they support are $250K/license and quite a bit more complex than average.

Michael.J.Palmer

You actually don't have that bad of a set-up on your plate to get into a server administrator position with just a few extra certifications. A path that you might want to consider is using Cisco networking technology with Microsoft server software. With that being said you could get a Server 2003 or 2008 (or both) certification along with your MCDST (you've got the MCP already) so you can be fully certified to do XP/Domain environments. At that point you should be more than qualified to get those domain administrator jobs using Cisco technology as well...

Just an idea though.