Need a 2nd Opinion - CCNA Certification Question

Wyvern

First of all, i would like to say hello, my name is Charles Reynolds. Nice to be here, and i am sure that i am going to take in a lot being where i am.

OK. now that we have that out of the way, my father, who's in Telecommunications and has been for some time now, had turned me on to a CCNA study guide just a few months ago. i am pretty familiar with systems in general as far as hardware and software (Windows).
to get to the point, i used to be a firm believer in going to college. the perspective that my father gives me, is that i don't need to go to school to get my CCNA, that plenty of people land jobs as CCNA certified networkers and did not attend school. doing the research, he was obviously correct.

my father is very intelligent, and successful. but i would like a second opinion. do i need to attend college? can i just study this material and take the test?

buzzkill

I don't have any statistics to back this up, however I have a hunch that far more people take and pass the CCNA without having any formal schooling on it than those who attend a course on it.

Having said that, many of those would have been working with cisco equipment in their jobs. After all that is the purpose of the CCNA - to validate on the job experience.

However if you're asking whether you should self-study the CCNA instead of going to college to do a more general IT related discipline then that's a whole other issue with much wider ramifications!

Wyvern

i see. well having said that, what other certifications do you think might benefit me in the long run along with the CCNA Cert? also, how long does it usually take to prepare for the CCNA? like, from scratch.

Priston

Yes plenty of people have landed jobs as a CCNA with no school and no experience, but over the last few years it's becoming harder and harder to do that. Now there's alot more competition and there's plenty of people with a CCNA and a degree or CCNA and experience competing for the same job you would be trying to get.

gosh1976

I think you are very unlikely to be touching any Cisco equipment in your first IT job if you have your CCNA and no experience and no degree. You can self-study but I don't think I would start with the CCNA. A better place to start studying may be with some of the Comptia exams. Are you working now? If not or even if you are but not in IT you should start looking for entry level IT jobs now.

You can buy the books and put a lab together much cheaper than paying for courses. However, the bonus of going to a college or university that is part of the Cisco Net Academy is that you will have access to the teacher, to lab equipment, to all the curriculum and you would be working towards an A.A.S. and perhaps even a B.A.S. Getting a degree these days is much more important in IT than it was just a few years ago.

techie2012

I would say that getting degree in this day and age is definitely a plus. In I.T. I would not recommend spending ton of money on college tuition however. My method was grabbing my A.A.S in network admin and a few certs along the way, then transferring over to WGU. With my added certs and A.A.S transfers, I have just about a year or less depending on how fast I want to go to get my Bachelors. You can surely use a degree to argue a wage increase and sometimes company's wont even look at a candidate without their bachelors. I have literally heard an HR say, "If they haven't put forth the time and effort of a degree like the rest of us, then why should they have the same opportunity as us." However, there are many company's that could care less and only care about your performance and what you can provide for them. The way I see it is 5 years down the road you will either have it or not, so why not just get it?:)

dave330i

You don't need a degree, but there are certain jobs that require 4 year degree.