Is it a bad idea to pursue the CCNP with only 1 year of networking experience?

YuckTheFankees · 2012-05-26T22:47:29+00:00

The title says it all. Thanks in advance :D

YuckTheFankees

The title says it all. Thanks in advance

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YFZblu

I don't think so - But I'm sure there are many here would will disagree, and think professional-level certifications are for more experienced individuals. I think the CCNP would be a great way to become familiar with technologies that large enterprises use to facilitate data traversal; BGP, MPLS, L3 switching, and a myriad of other important network foundations that are covered in CCNP.

Good luck!

YuckTheFankees

My company uses more Juniper equipment than Cisco but I can't see myself putting so much effort into Juniper certs when most employers ask for ccna/ccnp/ccie. With that being said, how much of the material is theory vs. Cisco proprietary info?

SteveO86

Most likely in your 1 year of experience you have already touched some of the CCNP technologies.

But no I would not consider it a bad idea. It can only help, it will expand your skillset and show others around you that you are looking to advance yourself.

MrBishop

Absolutely not, I'm one test away from completing my CCNP and I have limited experience but I believe it has also brought me more job offers recently.

SteveO86

Stuff like HSRP and GLBP are proprietary, but the technology behind it routing OSFP/BGP/Redistribution,etc is all vendor nuetral

YuckTheFankees

Awesome, thanks for the information, it definitely helps!

MrBishop

You're getting the best of both world and getting that exposure to Juniper is going to add value to your skill set.

YuckTheFankees

Would you agree I should stay on the Cisco track, even though the majority of our equipment is Juniper?

MrBishop

Yes, but if you're employer is willing to pay for a few Juniper certs I would take them up on it. If getting Juniper certifications will get you a promotion or raise, you might want to pursue them after CCNP.

YuckTheFankees

From what I was told, they prefer Juniper but the CCNP would still get me promoted to a network engineer job..plus I'm still looking into getting the wireshark certification. I think it will help my troubleshooting skill set + they actually use it at work

MrBishop

You're in a good place and I would love the opportunity to work with Juniper in an enterprise environment. I think you're good either way from what you just said.

YuckTheFankees

Would you prefer to work with just Juniper or a mix of Cisco and Juniper equipment?

MrBishop

I'm a little bias and I prefer Cisco but learning new technologies only will increase your chances of find work and increase your salary offers in the future.

ChooseLife

YTF, do you already have a CCNA?

YuckTheFankees wrote: »

My company uses more Juniper equipment than Cisco but I can't see myself putting so much effort into Juniper certs

If Juniper is what you are working with right now, I imagine knocking out one or two Juniper certs would be easy for you at this point, and perhaps easier to reimburse than Cisco. The idea is to take advantage of exposure/access to Juniper technologies while they are available to you.

If I were in your shoes, I'd go this route:

CCNA -> JNCIA (that's Juniper counterpart of CCNA, as I understand) -> CCNP -> etc...

martell1000

from my experience you get the most out of the cisco certs because they are the most recognized ones in the industry. i didn't touch a lot of non cisco devices but what i can tell from some huawei and juniper gear i saw is that its kinda like what you know from the cisco world - only the commands are slightly different. kinda made me feel like these devices were speaking some kinda slang...

MickQ

Ditto as ChooseLife said.
My approach has been to go with the Cisco stuff first (there's more material out there for learning it), and then applying that level of knowledge to other vendors.

Even if you don't go for the exams straightaway, you will still learn the more detailed networking aspects. That's a good thing, right?

MrBrian

Yes, go for it even with 1 year experience or less. Like steveo said it will expand your skill set and show others that you want to advance yourself. However, just be realistic to job opportunities if you get the CCNP with limited real world experience implementing the technologies. You may not be able to simply land CCNP level jobs right off the bat.

I always encourage reading and labbing new technologies for a cert or otherwise. It's always good to learn new technologies and advance your understanding of the way things work.. just be realistic to what employers are looking for (often they prefer experience). But hey if you're looking to move up you have to be aggressive and really go after it. Good luck to you, CCNP is pretty hefty, but definitely doable.

ElvisG

You do realize that because you get a CCNP you don't have to tell anyone about it? I'm a military dependent and move every 4 years. This puts me into a position were I am isolated from society in some God awful base in the middle of no-where. I have only 2 years of IT experience but I plan on getting my CCNP Security by Dec. 2013. I think it's stupid to not study and go take cert test just because you don't have the experience. You just need to match the certs to the job.

MrBishop

ElvisG, this is exactly my view on certifications, you don't have to put every single one on your resume. Apply the certifications that are required for the job and then add those other certs when you've gained more experience. I would hate for anyone to stop learned just because they don't have the experience. If there were no certification process, we won't stop learning because of it! We're learning to gain the knowledge necessary to be able to work with the technology in the first place.

networker050184

YuckTheFankees wrote: »

Would you agree I should stay on the Cisco track, even though the majority of our equipment is Juniper?

If you are working on Juniper gear then I'd concentrate on Juniper certifications. As most people have mentioned, the exams are built around standard protocols and the theory transfers well. What you do have is the hands on familiarity with the 'Juniper way' of doing things. Not to mention you can hit up the Juniper Fast Track Portal to get free study material and exam vouchers. You can then work on the Cisco stuff as you gain more hands on with that. IMO there is no point in getting certified on something you don't work with.

YuckTheFankees

I think I'm going to continue the Cisco track and possibly get the JNCIA at some point as well. I just do not see the value of getting more Juniper certifications at this time. Yeah I work with the equipment but I don't see myself staying here forever, and once I decide to leave..most employers will be looking for Cisco certifications.

networker050184

What makes you think other employers won't be looking for people with Juniper experience? Your place isn't the only place that uses Juniper gear. Also, what makes you think employers will be looking for CCNPs without experience on Cisco gear? I think your best bang for you buck is getting certified on what you work with. To each their own though.

spicy ahi

I think you're better served as well by remaining with the Cisco track. It is more recognized in terms of job seeking so it will give you better exposure on the open job market. Juniper, however, is also nice to have on a resume. I've interviewed for positions seeking Juniper experience and they were willing to pay much more ($20k in one case) if you had that specific experience. I agree with you on sticking with the game plan of CCNP and wireshark then going the JNCIA route. Unless of course, your employers shells out the money for training. Then you'd be crazy not to take the free route first.

YuckTheFankees

I know other companies use Juniper equipment but when I search for Juniper jobs on indeed, simplyhired, and dice...cisco wins x10. It may change over time but even security jobs are asking for CCNA/CCNP and there's no mention about Juniper.

networker050184

Again I think the point you are missing is that you won't have the Cisco experience to back those certifications up. I don't doubt Cisco has a larger market share. I can do a search and get a lot of job hits for any type of job, doesn't mean they will hire me though.

Look at it this way, who's job prospects look better to you?

JNCIS/P with three (or whatever) years of hands on experience with Juniper gear

CCNP with minimal hands on experience with Cisco gear

kmcintosh78

I would say no.
But, I would work in conjunction on some juniper certs, since you have the equipment to touch and fondle every day.

higherho

I see no problem on expanding your knowledge set. The question is not the amount of experience you have but the ability to learn the material. Granted its easier when you have the experience but why wait? Get your CCNP and keep going all the way to the top.

Plus, . If you have a CCNP or CCIE guaranteed you will be able to handle juniper gear.. One thing my CCIE / Professor back in college told me when I was taking the CCNA networking academy and part of the CCNP academy is that Routing is routing and switching is switching. He could configure any type of network regardless of the vendor (yes he was a little arrogant but I guess when your at that level you can be a little bit).

MrBrian

To the OP.. do you want to advance your skill set? I'm assuming yes. These certifications are just a guideline. When you earn one, there's always a next step (unless you achieve ccie, but even then you can still learn more, or get another ccie, but my point is, you'll never know it all, so just accept that now). Certs are there to show a level of knowledge that you may have.

All obvious statements I kno, but I think too many people tell others not to learn new things unless they directly work with it. I guarantee you if you start going through ccnp route and switch it will be a shock at first, but you'll slowly learn. And in the process, say you're somewhere in between a CCNA and CCNP. In other words, you're probably a much better ccna. Then, let's say you move to a different cert before finishing ccnp. Well guess what, no sweat, because you've become that much better at ccna level knowledge. Thus, you've advanced yourself, isn't that awesome?

I'm not currently working as I'm in school full-time. However, I do have a few years experience. Going hard for the ccnp while completing my degree has benefited me so much. I feel like I can teach ccna level topics now such as subnetting, basic routing protocol functionality, vlans, stp, etc. So my question is, when I finish my CCNP in the fall time frame, will I be a solid, seasoned, CCNP? The answer is no, and I know it. Will I feel very confident with ccnp technologies and actually implementing them? Yes, because I've set up a home lab on which I constantly lab. You have to be honest with yourself. You have to be of the type that is driven to learn, and not necessarily "aiming" for certs. For instance the other day I was curious and read like 40 pages from the cwna (wireless cert). Do I work with wireless? No. Did I learn a little from that reading? Yes.

I really do agree with people who say go for a job once you get the ccna though. That's actually very sound advice. However, everyone is different. Some people are in school, some people aren't doing anything, some people are working other than IT going for the certs. My opinion is that, either way, go for it if you really want it. Just be darned sure you study it and get as much experience in a home lab as you can. And be completely honest with yourself about how much you really know. Don't expect to land top ccnp jobs with it. Do expect for your knowledge base to explode though

. So I'd say just "jump in" to studying a new technology. The main purpose of jumping in is to demystify it. These technologies can be learned by anyone who's willing to sacrifice consistently over a long period of time. You'll start connecting dots that you never even saw before, things will click, it's an awesome feeling. I tell you this because it took me a long time to learn subnetting while going through the ccna. I really felt maybe I wasn't up for all this networking. I felt people that knew this stuff could just "get it" better. I kept grinding. I learned it. I kept moving forward. Train yourself to whether the storm.

Also, I'd recommend to anyone out there, please get a tcp/ip book and thoroughly go through it. It will really help you lock everything in. I wish there was a tcp/ip cert for people. CCNP really opened me up and I saw that more was needed for me to grasp things coming from only ccna. I read "tcp/ip illustrated vol 1" by Stevens, which is an older book, but still amazing. I actually paused my initial CCNP studies a month in, took a solid month off and went through that book twice, it was that good. I can't even tell you how much that helped my understanding of everything moving forward.

So anyways, I can't believe I droned on here this long, but hopefully there's some things you can take away from it (I really hope someone takes something from it or I just wasted a ton of time rambling lol) To sum up how I feel.. time waits for no one. Start learning advanced topics that are over your head, right now. Keep doing it and stacking that knowledge, sliver by sliver. Don't worry about certs, paychecks, etc, just stay driven. That is how you can advance your skills.. and that's what we all want, right?

Legacy User

Agreed! couldnt have said it better myself. Sometimes it feels good to ramble on!

MrBishop

@MrBrian, I couldn't agree more! If the knowledge is there, it will be easier to connect the dots when you start to gain real world experience. Plus, I believe that continuing to learn advanced material like that of the CCIE will give you a greater ability to isolate a problem quicker than the average technician.