Earned my CCNA 12/24/2013, sadly it does not seem to open many doors as I thought. I am now working on my CCNA-Wireless and CCNA-Security.
I had several interviews in the past 8 months, lots of disappointments. Many say the market will shift back to being an employee's market, but it seems like most Employers do as they please, and act the same way as well. Here are some examples:
Interview with company # 1 outcome: 2 hour interview and recommendation from 2 employees. They never got back to me. I started following up with their Corporate recruiter, but that didn't help. Later I found out their Network Manager quit and left. Their CIO does not seem to care. I still see the job ad out there and just shake my head. *sigh*
Interview with company # 2 outcome: man, what didn't I do to "show up" for this interview. Left a job site for an extended lunch, went back to my hotel, setup a laptop with Skype and it was on. Interview went well, and they invited over for a 2nd one.
Company # 2, Second interview: This one went well and they promised an answer, but kept delaying it. Then they said they went with someone else....then they came back after 3 days and told the recruiters I was their "#1 guy..." *sigh*......ok Seriously now? I'm guessing the "other guy" was asking for too much $$$$. Now it's back to no answer. On this one I decided they were too small of a company, and if they can't even decide who and when to hire, perhaps working for them isn't that wise.
Now for all the lovely recruiters out there..........this one tops the cake, some are better than others and they take the time to study your resume, ask you what hardware/OS you know, etc. On the other hand, some just keep cold calling you and keep asking the same questions over and over. I had to "fire" one of those this week, and advised them not to call me back ever again.
Mind you I've been in IT for 16 years and worked fulltime, part time and contract, so I know most of the tricks in the book by now.
From experience, it usually goes like this:
Recruiter: "Oh we have this great opportunity with the XYZ Corporation...........send me your resume...bla bla bla........"Me: <email them my resume>
Recruiter: "oh you got some good experience, but they are really looking for someone who can work on ABCD system....etc."
Me: "First of all, I doesn't take me that much to learn a system, given that I learned DOS, Windows, Linux and Cisco IOS.....when it comes to hardware I have my own lab at home, and I did manage to configure a Cisco 2100 WLC and a 1200 AP on my own in about 3 hours. I also really like Security, so I taught myself Linux, and now I'm experimenting with Backtrack 5 R3 on my test network"
This is when they either say "You're not a good fit for this" or they don't even get back to me at all.
As you can tell, I am taking a lot of steps to overcome this barrier. I buy my own hardware on eBay so I can gain hands with it, otherwise WHO will give me the chance?
In the meantime, one of my friends who in his mid 20's wants to get into IT, so I am mentoring him and he got the A+ book and a junky computer to mess around with. I am just hoping someone "up above" will return the favor......
