Curious on your thoughts...

I currently work in the Telecommunications field on the carrier side of the network. My previous position as of a week ago I was in charge of central office installation and maintenance of all equipment in a large Telco utilities network. From my experience the vendors that we use are specific to carrier equipment and cisco is not the name on the boxes however they seem to derive off the cisco IOS. Recently I have accepted a position where I will be working in a NOC environment working on everything from DMS-100, VoIP, xDSL, MetroEthernet, SONET, ATM, HDSL/Psuedowire, DS0/DS1/DS3 transport.

I'm having a hard time trying to decide what "I" should be studying. In this field I have been told numerous times that a CCNA isn't worth it as we are the jack of all trades and masters of none. I have hit a sort of low on the studying portion as it seems I am constantly working on different projects / equipment that handle non-ccna related questions. A couple of years ago I went through the Cisco Network Acadamy but never tested out for my CCNA as I was going through an Apprenticeship while taking night classes and hit major burn out.

My job doesn't require us to have a CCNA or any networking certifications more hands on field experience working with specific vendor products. If you were in my shoes would you still try to get your CCENT/CCNA, or just do as your company requires you? There is no pay incentives, nor position growth as per our classification we "do it all".

Find more posts tagged with

SAVE $250 on Your CISCO Boot Camp — Use Code "EXAM26"

Exclusively for TechExams members for Infosec Boot Camps starting before April 30, 2026

View CISCO Boot Camps

Comments

NetworkVeteran

Kalabin wrote: »

If you were in my shoes would you still try to get your CCENT/CCNA, or just do as your company requires you? There is no pay incentives, nor position growth as per our classification we "do it all".

It depends where you want to be in 3-5 years. If you enjoy what you're doing and the pay is enough for you, there may not be any incentive to change for now. If you want to earn more money--you need to improve your skillset, and possibly switch employers. At the moment, it sounds like your progress is stalled, and you're neither advancing as a specialist nor a generalist.

Z3-Masterd

One downside to getting a CCNA just for the sake of getting a CCNA is that it will need to be recertified in three years. If having one offers you no real benefit, then I can't see any advantage to taking on something that will eventually have to be renewed (thus costing you more time and $$). If you plan on looking for other jobs, though, it would, of course, be a different story.

NetworkVeteran

Z3-Masterd wrote: »

If you plan on looking for other jobs, though, it would, of course, be a different story.

Definitely. The obvious follow-up to gaining new skills, would be to seek out opportunities to utilize them.

Kalabin

Improve my skillset; that seems to be the troubling spot. We work with vendors such as Adtran, Calix, ADC, Fujitsu, Hatteras / Overture networks etc. These guys specialize in the last mile deployments using MetroEthernet / GPON, xDSL, BXB solutions. Even then as tech's we don't play in the MPLS network but simply with CO/CPE provisioning on a layer 1-2 level the majority of the time.

I guess the hard part I am having is while the CCNA does interest me and I do appreciate the skillsets it brings I just am not seeing a direct correlation to what I do for a living.

Edit : There is vendor specific training, but that typically goes to the guys with more years at the company. The classes are expensive and the vendors only put on the classes if your company has the equipment. So it's not something I can simply google and get training material / vendor certifications for.