Is this possible?

Joe.Fodor

The company I work for has an internal school that takes you on a one year course of hands on experience and classes. If you pass you get a really nice Job. Only problem is you have to pass all the certifications within the year.. To me it doesn't seem very possible to pass all of these certs. Is it?

these are the certs:

• CISSP
• RSA Security Analytics
• ISE Certified
• IronPort Certified
• CCNP-Security
• Certified Ethical Hacker

JasminLandry

Wow it does really seem a lot.. but I guess if you're studying 40 hours a week, I believe it might be possible. The only thing that I would be worried about though is the fact that you do it so quickly that you might forget a lot stuff.

RouteMyPacket

Sure it's possible, people ****/cram all the time and any company that expects all that in a year blatantly doesn't care how you achieve it. I've seen people on here talk of getting 3 CCNP's in just over a month so yeah, it's "possible". It's just the "how" that's the grey area.

Joe.Fodor

Well that is what I thought Thanks. I Was going to go for it but no way in hell I would actually be able to get all of them and remember everything.

DoubleNNs

Are the classes free? Why not just go thru them for the training, even if you don't get all the certs. You'll at least come out of the year more knowledgeable, and possibly even owning a subset of that list of certs. Even completing 2 of the 6 certs, in addition to working knowledge towards the materials included in the other 4 would be awesome in my book. Then you could always finish up the others in your own time if you so desired.

Iristheangel

You're talking about World Wide Technology, right? I heard about that plan and its a GREAT company to work at. It's extremely possible since they would be paying top dollar for you to learn but you're going to be tied in for 3 years as an employee. The way it works is that they'll have you at their office for 6 months for hardcore training and then have you out in the field for 6 more months of hardcore training. It's a really great way to get your foot into networking & security and you'd be working for one of the top VARs out there. A year of experience there is like 5 years at any random enterprise you may get to. Plus you're a mid-level security engineer the second you end training.

Talk about a kick-start to your career. Here's the job posting if anyone is interested in doing it: https://ch.tbe.taleo.net/CH02/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=WWT&cws=1&rid=2788

To be honest, I was tempted to go jump on board but I really want to wait til I have my CCNP DC and Security for better leverage for starting salary

JaneDoe

That's 2 months per cert. If you studied 60 hours a week or more, with 40 hours of classroom instruction, it would be doable, but it would be really hard, and beyond a full time job. You'd also need some experience and/or academic background going in. You couldn't waste part of that time learning the basics, you'd need to hit the ground running.

dpsmooth15

Anything is possible, especially if you have the drive! I think if you apply yourself, you could accomplish it, granted you not have a wife or girlfriend, children, dog, cat, hamster, 12ft snake, bird, Cox cable and stay off of Facebook. Let's use that 40hr a week, that is 160 hours a month 1920 hrs a year….. I believe it is very much possible. and I am sure someone somewhere has done it, Just like that little boy or girl that graduates high school at 16 and has a college degree before 21, it is not something everyone can mentally or physically do.They would not be offering this if nobody completed it, I also, would want to have 2 or 3 certs before submitting the application just to minimize the pain.

P.S. Would be nice to know about the $$$$$$, it better guarantee over 100K! You can make 50k or 60k with half of those certs. and a girlfriend or wife self studying in the right city

Iristheangel

Look at the cert list and you'd realize it's not that hard for someone with a CCNA/CCNA Security-level of experience (which is what the job post is looking for):
CEH - I'd rank this cert as easier than the CompTIAs based on my experience with both.
"ISE Certified" - There isn't an ISE-specific certification. They're talking about the 500-254 exam. That's a 5-10 day long training depending on how they broke it down and based on the experience I had a couple weeks ago, that exam was EASY.
"Ironport Certified" - Cisco doesn't have Ironport-specific certification tracks anymore that I know of. According to the Cisco exam list, there are three "online exams" for Ironport - The Ironport Sales Specialist, Ironport Security Instructor, Ironport Cloud Associate. I would assume they mean the Ironport Cloud Associate (650-159 ICA) and that doesn't look too hard (Source: Current Exam List - IT Certification and Career Paths - Cisco Systems)

So with the above, I would say you could finish them off in a month or two based on my experience. Then you're left with the following three:
RSA Security Analytics - I have no experience at all with this so I can't comment on how long this would take.
CISSP - If studying for this full-time is your job and you're getting formal training, it's perfectly reasonable to get this one knocked out in 2 months. In fact, it might even be easier without as much experience since you're not approaching security from a technical point of view.
CCNP Security - Now this is the one that might take you some time. Four exams and a new certification track but with formal training, studying as your job, and going out into the field to get experience while you're doing this, it's extremely doable.

As far as pay, I've known my fair share of engineers that work at WWT. They're a solid and excellent company that pays pretty damn well. They're one of the biggest Cisco partners.

Edit: One of my CCIE friends that works at WWT wanted me to say this for him: "My CCIE took me 1,000 hours of study. There are 2180 hours-ish of work in a year. Theoretically, you could get your CCIE and those certs if you broke it down"

Balantine

I thought you couldn't get CISSP without demonstrable experience...

bull313

Balantine wrote: »

I thought you couldn't get CISSP without demonstrable experience...

From ics2.org

Ukimokia

I would totally try it if you like where you work, and want the possibility to expand and grow. Seems like an excellent opportunity!

maharaliel

It will be better if you pass all required exams for these certification but still for CISSP you will not have the certification until you gain some experience.

unfbilly11

Correct me if I'm wrong but you would not have to pay for these exams or the training you receive? You obviously have to have a job while doing this so would you have to get a night time job or would you be getting paid by them?


I don't see how this is a bad thing at all. If you received all that training and even got ONE of those certs it's completely worth it. I would love an opportunity like this. Your job is basically studying for certs...that's pretty awesome.

Iristheangel

Yes, they pay you. I think they even put you up at some corporate apartments or hotel while you're onsite training.

As I said, it's a great opportunity and I was REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY tempted when I heard about it last month. There's just a few things holding me back like bunch of big projects I want to get done this year where I'm at, getting married this year, and some certs I want to finish up first. If the opportunity is still available next year, I might be jumping on it

Danielm7

Iristheangel wrote: »

Yes, they pay you. I think they even put you up at some corporate apartments or hotel while you're onsite training.

That sounds like an amazing opportunity, if that was available locally I'd be all over it.

Chivalry1

That is a pretty aggressive certification list for one year. Many of the certifications below require some real hands on experience. Specifically with the Cisco IronPort certification in order to really pass the test. I obtained mine with the IronPort certification program was still active for (CICSP-Email). I haven't attempted the RSA but I also heard you need some real world experience. And just the CISSP alone is a beast of an exam. In my opinion if it is free, go for it. But don't let management set any unreal expectations. I think before it is over, you will be burned out from the aggressive learning.

CISSP
RSA Security Analytics
ISE Certified
IronPort Certified
CCNP-Security
Certified Ethical Hacker

RouteMyPacket

Chivalry1 wrote: »

That is a pretty aggressive certification list for one year. Many of the certifications below require some real hands on experience. Specifically with the Cisco IronPort certification in order to really pass the test. I obtained mine with the IronPort certification program was still active for (CICSP-Email). I haven't attempted the RSA but I also heard you need some real world experience. And just the CISSP alone is a beast of an exam. In my opinion if it is free, go for it. But don't let management set any unreal expectations. I think before it is over, you will be burned out from the aggressive learning.

CISSP
RSA Security Analytics
ISE Certified
IronPort Certified
CCNP-Security
Certified Ethical Hacker

The only for me personally that would a challenge/cool would be CISSP. As Iris pointed out, the ISE one is a seminar/class and I do believe she has this one now. I wouldn't ind the RSA either and overall it really seems they want you to truly be a "Security Engineer" when it is all said and done.

I have dug some more into this position and it's intriguing and my initial assessment was a bit off, WWT does care and sink a lot of money into candidates.

colemic

Iristheangel wrote: »

You're talking about World Wide Technology, right? I heard about that plan and its a GREAT company to work at. It's extremely possible since they would be paying top dollar for you to learn but you're going to be tied in for 3 years as an employee. The way it works is that they'll have you at their office for 6 months for hardcore training and then have you out in the field for 6 more months of hardcore training. It's a really great way to get your foot into networking & security and you'd be working for one of the top VARs out there. A year of experience there is like 5 years at any random enterprise you may get to. Plus you're a mid-level security engineer the second you end training.

Talk about a kick-start to your career. Here's the job posting if anyone is interested in doing it: https://ch.tbe.taleo.net/CH02/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=WWT&cws=1&rid=2788

To be honest, I was tempted to go jump on board but I really want to wait til I have my CCNP DC and Security for better leverage for starting salary

8 ago I lived in StL and Matt Rizzo (POC on the job posting) helped place me in a temp job there... he's a good guy.