Not sure if I should keep going with the CCENT/CCNA Studies

captaincrash4

Hi, I decided I wanted to enter the IT sector as for the last 4 years I have taken time to bring up my son who had additional needs. I'm now in the position where I plan on heading back out into the big bad world summer of 2013 (Son starts school) and I really want to do something different with my life. I started my CCENT/CCNA studies about 8 weeks ago and I feel i'm doing really good with it all. My concern is that I have no background in networking at all as my career was always in general admin and i'm worried that I won't be able to get off the ground even if I get the CCNA due to the fact I have no experience. Is it realistic to get work with no experience and a CCNA or am I better to cut my losses and go for another sector that I have a better chance of working my way up the ladder?

Cheers for reading!

bermovick

I got my CCNA July 2010 and got my first IT job Feb 2011, so it's definitely possible. At the time I was the only one there with an active CCNA - the engineers that had certs have all let them expire (no point with 14 years experience...), and a few of the other techs are long-term "working on it".

So yeah, it's possible -- and 7 months is probably at the long-end of how long of how long it takes. There aren't any cities of any size (100k) within an hour, and the closest really metropolitan area (St Louis) is closer to 2 hours; so most of my "job searching" was indeed.com, etc and hitting up IT recruiting agencies when I encountered them.

Obvious nothing is guaranteed though

captaincrash4

Thanks for letting me know your experience. I'm from the UK so hopefully I can get qualified and find some sort of job that can give me the experience

YuckTheFankees

Definitely continue the studying, it will benefit your career and hopefully get you a job you're looking for .

DevNRG

I was in the same boat as you for months, deciding if the CCNA was worth it, with very little relative work experience. Within 6 days of passing ICND2, landed my current job. My advice? Keep at it and don't question if it's going to be worth it or not, because in the end, it's always worth it!