which is the best certification to pursue for a job in Dubai

desertjumper

Hello wise people,

I am new on here, forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this. This is more of a very narrowed down question. I am in Dubai and have been looking around for work. My 6 years of prior IT experience is of no use on here, which is mainframes and data warehousing support.

My question is, would you guys be able to recommend, the smartest and fastest certification path to take to find work in Dubai. What I have found while browsing through job ads is that the employers in here are crazy about certifications, but I am unable to gauge the demand of which domain to choose.

Is starting from CCNA to CCNP, the best path or is it CCNA + MCITP? Or are there other technology certifications, I can focus on that will give a major boost to my resume.

I am not particular about following just the networking stream, but thats what I notice the most on ads. I am quick learner and can learn a new technology, done that in most of my previous projects.

Any advice about the courses and the job scene and requirements is Dubai is highly appreciated.

Thanks!

DJ

UnixGuy

Welcome to the forums!


I have direct experience with the job market of Dubai and it's not different than the rest of the world. The problem is with your skills set, it's difficult to find a job in Dubai and elsewhere. Certifications is not the solution, you need to retrain. There's market for Cisco professionals and MS (Since you mentioned CCNA and MCITP), and other things as well. I say, pick an entry level cert, and start building your skills. Have you thought of targeting a helpdesk job? or technical support? I don't have knowledge in mainframe or data warehousing so I'm not sure which is the closest area that you can retrain in, but both MS and Cisco are fine. I *think* the market for MS technologies could be slightly better than Cisco and probably easier to break in than Cisco

the_hutch

I'd say CCNA to CCNP, over CCNA to MCITP. Cisco skills offer a lot of good opportunities. And CCNP is highly valued. On the other hand, throwing a MS cert on top of CCNA may show diversity, but it doesn't show progression of your skills (as one is networking and the other is Sys Admin).

BTW...I'm kind of envious of you. I would love to live in Dubai. Everything I have ever seen and heard about the city makes it sound like an awesome place to live (assuming you have the income to support it).

sratakhin

I'd suggest CCNA. I heard from some friends who worked in Dubai that Cisco is the market leader there with 95% of companies using them almost exclusively.