CCNA importance

I wanted to get some differing opinions on the importance of the Cisco line. I have a friend/teacher who is very well known IT guy in our little city of about 300,000. He teaches MCSE and does his own private consulting business too. That's just for credibility's sake.

The general consensus of he and his partners is that if you're going to work for an ISP, CCNA (and up) is a good thing. But if not, you won't use it enough to justify the investment. Despite this, I'm seeing lots of people requesting CCNAs to go along with MCSEs on the various job sites.

Your thoughts appreciated.

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Comments

garv221

Baredor wrote:

But if not, you won't use it enough to justify the investment. .

I don't find $125.00 alot of money. This is a great cert if you wish to network Cisco gear.

Baredor

I don't find $125.00 alot of money.

More of your time than anything else. But $125 is certainly not all you'd be spending monetarily... books, practice tests, routers, etc. Again though, time spent preparing is the real investment.

This is a great cert if you wish to network Cisco gear.

I'm sure it is, but how often will the average, fairly green network admin need to do this? Enough to justify working on a CCNA over a MCSE?

Webmaster

The general consensus of he and his partners is that if you're going to work for an ISP, CCNA (and up) is a good thing. But if not, you won't use it enough to justify the investment. Despite this, I'm seeing lots of people requesting CCNAs to go along with MCSEs on the various job sites.

I guess you answered your own question already with that last line. I have never worked at very small companies, but even the smaller medium ones with one or two LANs/locations used Cisco products. I don't know it by heart but if you check the information about CCNA at the Cisco site you will read something about CCNA being for small and medium-sized networks. Apart from the basics of router/switch configuration and basics of WAN technologies, CCNA is hardly useful for managing an ISPs networks. CCNA, as well as most of CCNP focusses on corporate networks, not an ISP's network. (i.e. internal gateway routing protocols vs. external). CCIP would be more appropriate for ISPs.

In other words, there's very little truth in that being the general concensus. No truth at all imho. There are many more companies that use Cisco equipment than ISPs, though perhaps your friend's experience is different in your location.

And I agree with Garv. Although you'll probably need to invest in study material and time in addition to the exam, not going to work at an ISP isn't going to make CCNA/CCNP less worthy to invest in.

[continued in next reply...]

Webmaster

Baredor wrote:

I'm sure it is, but how often will the average, fairly green network admin need to do this? Enough to justify working on a CCNA over a MCSE?

Imo, no, not enough to justify CCNA over a MCSE. MCSE will lead to a job more easily than 'just' a CCNA. I've worked with many Windows networks in the past decade and never encountered one that wasn't tied together with Cisco equipement. But getting into the Cisco field isn't that easy, and just like with the MCSE, you often won't be able to apply the things you learn for your CCNA or CCNP on your first IT job. You have to start near the bottom where it's usually not allowed to touch live Cisco gear. I've seen a lot of people doing sys admin first (i.e. MCSE) for a couple of years, get their CCNA (get hooked to it, because apart from the value of the cert it's interesting material), and work up to net admin. Often after administering the local switches and routers that connect the lan to the corporate wan for example.

I'm not saying you need MCSA/E before CCNA, I think it's one of the more common routes though. The thing is that you need experience with Cisco equipment to get a Cisco job, and need the job to get experience. The experience is usually gained by getting a job that includes some Cisco tasks, but usually aside the main tasks (ie. sys admin or whatever). Many companies aren't large enough to justify a sys 'and' cisco net admin because there's simply not enough cisco devices in the company's network. And once a Cisco device is configured and implemented correctly, it usually doesn't need 'that' much attention. So many companies go to a third-party (i.e. telco) and let them implement the routers and switches. A sys admin can then assign ports to VLANs and other basics tasks. That experience, a CCNA and/or CCNP is a feasible road to becoming a full-time net admin/engineer job.

Something else you should realize is that a lot of networks are not pure cisco, and the jobs that correspond to typical CCNP tasks often include the need for skills and knowledge, and perhaps even certs, for non-cisco products and technologies, which are mostly gained from experience.

I hope this helps!

Baredor

Hmm. Just goes to show that the more you know, the more you realize how little you really do know. Thanks Johan for all of that (and most of all for indulging my ignorance).

Meditate on this, I will.

s0c0

I am getitng my CCNA first. I think it is a better idea since I CCNA can be obtained a lot fast than an MCSE. I mean come on, one test v.s. multitple. However I do see a lot more jobs requesting an MCSE. This is my reason for getting my CCNA first though and it goes hand in hand with my college course

xjx

s0c0 wrote:

I am getitng my CCNA first. I think it is a better idea since I CCNA can be obtained a lot fast than an MCSE. I mean come on, one test v.s. multitple. However I do see a lot more jobs requesting an MCSE. This is my reason for getting my CCNA first though and it goes hand in hand with my college course

someone told me there were millions MCSE certification out there, but only a few hudres thousands CCNA there, you might get on the right track.

good luck, Jun