Can't decide on best route to progress in career

Well. I've finally gotten to a point I am happy with my progress, but I can't decide which direction is going to give me the best improvements in the career I am headed towards. I am currently Enrolled in WGU and just finished my MCITP:EA as of last week. I have 4 classes left to complete my Bachelors, and at this point they are all no-brainers. Project+, CIW: Java, and my Tech Writing + Capstone.

My dilemma: I can't decide what is going to give me the next best improvements.

I currently am a IT Consultant for a company who manages, maintains, builds, and monitors small/medium businesses. I am one of two Server/Network technicians. Other techs are just helpdesk, or they do the easy tasks. Quite good in the networking department, and servers. I want to end up having VMWare certs, Cisco Certs, and Windows Server certs by the time I stop, if I ever do. I just can't decide which way to go first.

Anyone have any recommendations on what may be the best route first?

Currently: MCITP: EA, A+, Network+, Security+, CIW: Web Design
In the next month or so: Project+, CIW: Java

Would like to have: CCENT/CCNA, MCSE2012, VMWare, CCNP, CCIE

Maybe there is 1 I am forgetting? I am currently not paid the greatest, but decent enough. The biggest benefit is how big my boss is on improving ones worth.

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Comments

NotHackingYou

I would start with the CCNA. It's great foundational knowledge for any direction in IT.

saffyre

CarlSaiyed wrote: »

I would start with the CCNA. It's great foundational knowledge for any direction in IT.

Thanks for the thoughts Carl, as they are close to what I was thinking. My biggest thing is I hear how much of a hype Virtualization is, I feel I should jump into it more as well. Other than Microsoft Hyper-V stuff.

NotHackingYou

I agree that it is but IMO the foundational knowledge of the CCNA before the VCP will be more beneficial.

saffyre

CarlSaiyed wrote: »

I agree that it is but IMO the foundational knowledge of the CCNA before the VCP will be more beneficial.

Great point. Have a good networking background, etc, but learning IOS will just firm it up even more. Guess i'm going to get my CCNA home lab up, and start pounding away at that. I think it really does sound like a great choice, thank you.

NotHackingYou

You are welcome, good luck!

docrice

saffyre wrote: »

...but learning iOS will just firm it up even more.

I'm nit-picky so I'll say it: there's a difference between IOS and iOS. Choose wisely for your CCNA.

saffyre

Ugh. I mixed Apple up with Cisco. I could have sworn I was writing it correctly. Sorry!

ptilsen

I agree with going for CCNA. I wish I had done it years ago.

I think you should look at MCSE after that, and specifically before you look at VCP. I won't knock VMware, but you may well decide you don't need to get into it after you've looked at Hyper-V 2012. That is not to say I don't see value in knowing both, but there's value in knowing one really well rather than both.

saffyre

So......
CCNA > MCSE2012 > CCNP, and go from there maybe.

For Virtualization, Microsoft gets a lot of bad press when compared to VMWare, which is what I was concerned about. Most of this is me seeing reports that are a few years old, but I can't find anything extremely recent for reviews. I've used Hyper-V some and so am a bit familiar with it in 2008, but just wasnt sure of the 2012 changes either. I'll need to look it up! I'm fine with sticking with just Hyper-V and not doing VMWare, but just thought I had to do the VMWare ones to get anywhere.

ptilsen

Basically, Hyper-V in 2008 R2 and previous virtualization solutions from MS ranged from okay to bad. Hyper-V 2012 and other current-gen MS virtualization (e.g. App-V) are highly competitive with VMware's offerings.

saffyre

ptilsen wrote: »

Basically, Hyper-V in 2008 R2 and previous virtualization solutions from MS ranged from okay to bad. Hyper-V 2012 and other current-gen MS virtualization (e.g. App-V) are highly competitive with VMware's offerings.

Interesting...
I'll need to do some research and learning on Hyper-V now, too. Sweet. Saves me some certs.