not sure what route to take

alliasneo

Hey everyone,

I passed my CCNA about a month ago and I'm really not sure what route to take now. I've been looking for jobs but a lot of the jobs seem to want a lot of windows based qualifications as well. So I've found a good Microsoft cert that CBT nuggets offers which is Windows Server 2008: Network Infrastructure and this teaches you all about setting up a DHCP server and DNS etc. So I think this is valuable knowledge to have but I would also like to go on to the CCNP cert? But without any networking experience is it worth going and getting the CCNP yet?

MrBrian

Well with CCNP you're gonna deep dive into routing and switching protocols. It is a very valuable certification, but tough. It lays a solid foundation. However, if an employer sees a candidate with a CCNP going for a CCNP level job, but with no experience, they'd surely ding you for that. With that being said, it also shows that you have tremendous motivation, discipline, and willingness to learn.

I'll tell you this, I don't have much real-world experience with CCNP level things, but I'm studying for that while taking college classes. I've passed ROUTE so far, but I still feel like I have a ways to go before I'm really at "CCNP" level for routing. At this point, all the routing information is in my head, I've digested it, and felt good about it when I learned it. I'm now covering switching, but still do some routing labs just to keep it fresh. As time goes on, things are sticking more and more. I do see how people say not to go for ccnp without experience. However, as a person who's doing that himself, when I look back at ccna things now they are very easy in comparison.. so by going for the ccnp I can tell I'm advancing my skill set and I'm enjoying that.

CCNP may take a considerable amount of time and be very tough without experience, but hey, tough is good right? You'd probably be better off going for that MS cert though since you can obtain it quicker and it will probably be of more use to an entry level position. But if you want to go CCNP, that'd be pretty awesome too.. just get ready for an onslaught of information lol.