CWNA or CCNA next?

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

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Webmaster

I am trying to get back into IT and am finding it difficult to get back in.

In that case the skills you learn for CCNA may be more valuable than the theory in CWNA. Although it's difficult to go from helpdesk/repair center to a 'cisco job' with 'just' a CCNA cert. CWNA is a good follow-up after Network+ as well as after CCNA. It gives you a solid foundation in wireless networking but I don't think it will make 'getting back in' a lot easier on a short term. Perhaps you can try to find out which one would benifit you most by looking at the requirements for jobs in your area. What are your plans after CWNA and/or CCNA?

stndrd_123

What 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

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.

JDMurray

My 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

Those 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

Webmaster 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.

Hee Hee!! I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to get the monster.com search engine to recognize the "+" character. It seems to filter it out of the keyword search, as if they are trying to prevent SQL hacks. Also, there quite a few posts that used "A+" to indicate "excellent" or "a plus."

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

I 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.

But this still sounds like an excellent plan. Unfortunately 'I' don't have the skills to write something that fetches info from other sites. Would be great if you or anyone you know can come up with something, otherwise I think it's worth a visit to rentacoder or elance.