CCNP or CCNA: Security?

chapapa

which certifications will boost my resume or my credibility in the market? (ofcourse neglecting the job title im applying for at the company).

I always look at R/S and Generalist and Security (or Voice, Wireless etc) as Specialist. So what does companies looks for, Generalist or Specialist?

fiftyo

Smaller wants a jack of all trade. Medium somewhere in between jack of all and specialist. Large enterprises generally want specialists.
As for certs, depends on if you are trying to break into networking or already have experience. If you are trying to break into networking, a ccna security will probably serve you better than the ccnp. If you already have networking experience, the ccnp will probably serve you better than the ccna:sec.

chapapa

thank you for this advice. currently I'am trying to break into networking

lordy

If you have little or no experience, go for CCNA:Security. If you have at least two or three years of experience, go for CCNP.

CodeBlox

I had this same questions between CCNA Voice and CCNP and I found that on job it seems like sometimes I am lacking the CCNP level knowledge so I am working on that currently. CCNA Voice material applies directly to my job and I could probably sit the test just from all the stuff I have learned doing this job. Man I love this place!

SecurityThroughObscurity

CCNA:sec/voice/etc is nothing because of superficiality.
CCNP is more valuable.

chrisone

You need to understand the nature of both paths in order to make a decision. There has been little change in R/S technologies within the past 10 yrs. Major protocols haven't seen much change. So going solid and full path in R/S will be straight forward and you will be confident in being relevant.

Security technologies always change based on the current threats in the world. Because of this nature your career will be an anomaly as you will always have to adapt to security threats. However because of you security "expertise" you understand this better than anyone! You will be sought after and trusted and paid very well for you protecting peoples networks/money. It is fun! the challenge is always fun, you job is never boring, and you never deal with day to day user crap. Another major component about security is that security spans across various platforms (wireless, web, programming, OS security, networking, penetration testing) however it seems like you are interested in the networking since you mention cisco certs.

After your run in cisco security I would focus on penetration testing to cover more ground as a security engineer. Cisco security is a little boring, the fun is in penetration testing aka white/gray hat hacking.

Bill3rdshift

CodeBlox wrote: »

I had this same questions between CCNA Voice and CCNP and I found that on job it seems like sometimes I am lacking the CCNP level knowledge so I am working on that currently. CCNA Voice material applies directly to my job and I could probably sit the test just from all the stuff I have learned doing this job. Man I love this place!

If you don't mind me asking could you tell us where you work and your job title? If not I understand. I also do VoIP and love it