Career Switch - Is CCNA the right place to start?

I have 5 years of telecom sales experience (IP, WANs, voice, data, etc); however, I have very little/no knowledge of what happens from the "router in". Due to a recent move to Brazil (wife is from here), I am looking at a career change. My thought process is to build a career in networking, regardless of how much work and studying lie ahead. So now, I am looking to build a list of market-valued certs.

Questions: Is the CCNA cert the best place for a newbie to start? Or should I begin somewhere else, such as A+, Network+, MCSE, etc. and work my way up to CCNA?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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Drakonblayde

If you really don't know much about the LAN side of things, I'd recommend picking up a Net+ book and going through it until you're comfortable with the material, CCNA is a jump in the deep end from the networking point of view if you're coming in with little to no experience. I don't actually advise taking the Net+, since the CCNA will supersede it, but it's a good introduction to networking.

As well, if you plan a career in networking, don't plan to stop at CCNA. Plan on going at least for CCNP, because CCNA alone just doesn't guarentee a job they way it used to.

fromao55

Great info. Thanks a ton!

keenon

fromao55 wrote:

I have 5 years of telecom sales experience (IP, WANs, voice, data, etc); however, I have very little/no knowledge of what happens from the "router in". Due to a recent move to Brazil (wife is from here), I am looking at a career change. My thought process is to build a career in networking, regardless of how much work and studying lie ahead. So now, I am looking to build a list of market-valued certs.

Questions: Is the CCNA cert the best place for a newbie to start? Or should I begin somewhere else, such as A+, Network+, MCSE, etc. and work my way up to CCNA?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I see that u have alot of telecom sales experience i think this will aid in persuing a career change to the "field side" although i would recommend taking the net+ as its vendor neutral and provides a great ground work with what u already have to persue a vendor level cert as ccna, avaya, or nortel... but thats just my thoughts concerning your question

jmerl

Your past experience will help you ... I was a telcom / datacom tech before I got into networking and that background will help you in the understanding of networks.

Start with network + then go to CCNA ... you'll get it ...

Good Luck

fromao55

I ordered Network+ and CCNA books from Amazon and am looking forward to starting down this path. I plan to start with the books while I find a way to build a lab.

You input was very helpful, and I appreciate it. Best of luck to everyone!

keenon

there's no need to build a lab for N+ but for ccna u would need at least 2 routers and a switch. if possible if your able to get models above 2500 and 2900 switch i would go for it b/c they'll server u well if u decide to go further up the cisco track

Drakonblayde

I'll reiterate my disagreement with folks about taking the Net+

. The CCNA *is* a vendor specific cert, but Cisco pretty much wrote the book on modern networking and no one in their right mind is going to think that you don't know anything about networking because you have a Cisco cert and no Net+ to back it up. The only thing my Net+ did for me was to help prevent me from having to take another Microsoft exam for my MCSA. It's a waste of money.

So yeah, while the CCNA isn't vendor neutral, it *is* universally respected.

williamwbishop

Seconded, Net+ is seen as pretty much the network equivelant of the A+. An entry level cert.