CWNA or CCNA next?
stndrd_123
Member Posts: 113
Hello all, I will be taking the net+ exam in about 2 weeks. So now I am trying to decide which cert to go for next.
General IT background: I worked help desk/repair center for about a year and half - A+ certified and thats about it. I am trying to get back into IT and am finding it difficult to get back in. So I looking to be pointed in the right direction after my net+. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Brian Davis
General IT background: I worked help desk/repair center for about a year and half - A+ certified and thats about it. I am trying to get back into IT and am finding it difficult to get back in. So I looking to be pointed in the right direction after my net+. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Brian Davis
Comments
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Webmaster Admin Posts: 10,292 AdminI am trying to get back into IT and am finding it difficult to get back in.
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stndrd_123 Member Posts: 113What are your plans after CWNA and/or CCNA?
I think having both certifications would be beneficial so I would probably get them both, although I may decide to go for Linux+ after the CCNA/CWNA. After that I am not entirely sure.Although it's difficult to go from helpdesk/repair center to a 'cisco job' with 'just' a CCNA cert
I realise the Cisco cert is vendor specific, yet would it help with general networking positions that don't even use Cisco products? Do employers look at it as: good Cisco knowledge or good Cisco knowledge + good general networking knowledge? If anybody can think of another alternative cert route that would be better, please advise.
Thanks,
Brian Davis -
KidTex Member Posts: 4 ■□□□□□□□□□Most companies use Microsoft so the MCP for 70-215 would help, the MCSA would be even better. If you have the CCNA, the CWNA, and your MCSA on either 2k or 2k3 you should be in pretty good shape. But most employers stress experience.The irony truly is strange that your the only one you can change -- Anthony Gomes
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JDMurray Admin Posts: 13,101 AdminMy favorite way to determine what certifications are in demand is to get on to a big job board like monster.com or dice.com and do a keyword search on the certs you are interested in (e.g., MCSE, CCNA, CWNA, etc.). Be sure to search across all jobs in all cities to get the best results. (If you only select "Information Technology" jobs then you'll miss a lot of potential jobs for the cert in other categories.)
I just did a few searches on monster.com and here's some hit count results that I got on popular certs:
CISSP: 1000+
MCSE: 1000+
CCNA: 982
CCIE: 422
MCSD: 308
MCSA: 303
CNE: 278
MCAD: 189
MCDBA: 171
GIAC: 120
CCSP: 65
GSEC: 34
MCDST: 32
SSCP: 30
CWNA: 9
CWSP: 2
CEH: 1
Now these results are skewed because there are many advertisements on monster for IT schools which flash the common cert acronyms. Also, some companies will repost the same job requisition each week and that drives up the totals. And there is always a chance of an IT cert acronym matching an acronym from another field.
Despite all this, you can still get a good statistical idea of what's hot and what's not. -
Webmaster Admin Posts: 10,292 AdminThose are some interesting statistics. Not too different from what I would have expected, but I am somewhat suprised to see CISSP 'that' high. Just started writing material for that one, so it's good to know it is that much in demand.
Would be nice to see CompTIA certs added to the list, even though many of the jobs for the stats above will include those. -
JDMurray Admin Posts: 13,101 AdminWebmaster wrote:Would be nice to see CompTIA certs added to the list, even though many of the jobs for the stats above will include those.
There should be a way to escape special characters like +'-[]"/\(), but none of the standard escape expression worked for me.
I'd like to see these types of searches performed every month on the top-ten job boards. We should be able to write an automated script to do this and have it post the results. -
Webmaster Admin Posts: 10,292 AdminI see what you mean, I tried aplus and it gave the same results as a+, and it is not all pc/IT related
A+ in the computer hardware, computer software, and IT categories gives 787 results, which might work with a small disclaimer as the results I check did actually include A+. Network+ however gives indeed the same results as network and "network+" so it's not possible to get an even close to accurate number on that one, nor sec+, server+, linux+ etc. Perhaps we can make a separate chart with the comptia certs based only on stats of job sites that recognize the +.jdmurray wrote:I'd like to see these types of searches performed every month on the top-ten job boards. We should be able to write an automated script to do this and have it post the results.