Career and cert advice

Evening all - long-time lurker on this forum who's only just decided to make the jump and become an active member.

I'm just wanting to ask for some thoughts and advice on the path I'm planning on taking both career- and certification-wise, as I'm currently a bit undecided. A bit of background info first: I became CCENT-certified in February, completed my degree in Computer Networking & Systems Support in early May and got a first-line support job in July at a local company, providing remote support for clients who use their bespoke software. I've had three attempts at the previous ICND2 exam, unfortunately failing each on each occasion - the first time I got 788, which I wasn't too disappointed by considering that I was spending a lot of time preparing for and travelling to interviews as well; the second time I got 815, and the third I got 801 (the latter coming two days before the old curriculum was phased out, and was particularly gutted by since nerves really got to me on the day despite having studied and practiced as much as I could and feeling cautiously confident going into the exam).

Now, here is where my uncertainty is...

When I failed the old ICND2 for the third time, my first thought was to start studying the new CCNA R&S in its entirety in preparation to go for the new one in January and get that out of the way. After some thinking, though, my current plan is to put that on the back burner and instead look at going for the Linux+/LPIC-1 certifications - followed by the Windows Server 2012 MCSA, and then the CCNA (from there, possibly the CCNP, CCNA Security and Red Hat certs) - as I would like to move across from the Support role at work to an Infrastructure one within the next 1-2 years if I progress well enough, which would give me a decent exposure to network and server (both Windows and Linux) administration. However, I'm just wondering about how sensible (for want a better word) this particular path would be; ultimately I know it'd be my decision, but still.

Added to the above is the fact that I have a long-standing interest in programming, which I have had previous exposure to - mostly Java and Python, but also some C. Originally I used to think that programming and network/server administration were two completely incompatible worlds, though now I realise that this is not the case given the demand for knowledge of coding and scripting (especially in the Sysadmin field) and would like to become proficient, but no 'guru', in several languages. Other fields of interest include cloud computing, virtualisation, InfoSec (another long-standing one) and DevOps (a more recently-developed interest). Having said that, in wanting to pursue these to a decent level, I feel in a way that I would be spreading myself too thin and running the risk of being a jack of all trades and master of none.

Has anybody else has ever found themselves in a similar situation to the one I'm in at the moment? What suggestions and advice would you offer? Motivation is certainly not lacking on my part, but I feel like I'm in need of a bit of a nudge in the right direction from those who have already established themselves.

Thanks in advance, and apologies if I've just gone off on a tangent and perhaps made no sense whatsoever in some parts; being on the autistic spectrum, I'm not the best at articulating my thoughts sometimes.

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Remedymp

You're looking at becoming a generalist.

Master what ever it is that you're good at first and then you can start branching off in to other areas of interest. The CCNA maybe out of reach currently because it's not you're daily driver of responsibilities. However, nothing saying you can't do the Security+ for right now and then make another leap vertically into something like the RHCSA or LFCS.

If you spread yourself too thin and you're not deep enough into one of the responsibilities, you're not going to be very useful. JMHO.

dk87

Thanks for your opinion, it's appreciated.

Remedymp wrote: »

You're looking at becoming a generalist.

Remedymp wrote: »

If you spread yourself too thin and you're not deep enough into one of the responsibilities, you're not going to be very useful. JMHO.

Both of which are kind of my fear, going back to the whole "jack of all trades, master of none" thing.

Remedymp wrote: »

Master what ever it is that you're good at first and then you can start branching off in to other areas of interest. The CCNA maybe out of reach currently because it's not you're daily driver of responsibilities. However, nothing saying you can't do the Security+ for right now and then make another leap vertically into something like the RHCSA or LFCS.

Right now I'm mostly looking at either network administration or system administration; the former was the core of my degree, while the latter was touched upon only in the final year, so I have a far more solid foundation in networking than I do with servers (hence my current thoughts about going for the Linux/LPIC-1 and MCSA first). I enjoyed and appreciate the value of both, yet if pressed to choose between one or the other I would probably say I preferred working with servers that bit more despite having relatively less exposure.

Regarding coding: my intention is to pursue it to the extent that it relates to system administration and DevOps, e.g. scripting and automation. Several sysadmin jobs I've come across have required - aside from the usual Perl, Python, bash/awk and PowerShell skills - some knowledge of Java and Web services, among a plethora of other things, and I've found that the alphabet soup and buzzwords thrown about with gleeful abandon in a lot of job adverts has only added to the indecision and confusion that I mentioned in my first post.

The Security+ is a nice suggestion, certainly one I've considered, although I've been told that CompTIA certs nowadays don't carry as much weight as they used to (which I'm not sure I'd agree with at all).

EANx

You've spent a lot of time and effort working toward a cert, why back off if that cert will remain in your future anyway? Sure, you might be at 85% of where you needed to be and a change in thee exam will drop that to 60% but if you do something else for a year, your understanding will drop to 30%.

I'm a firm believer that the best route to long-term success in the IT industry is to start off as a generalist and gradually become a specialist. You have a lot more credibility when you can understand how other areas in IT affect yours. So, in the case of MS Exchange, understanding the difference between fiber-channel vs iSCSI vs NFS and when you would want traffic engineering vs when it will break things, makes you a better Exchange engineer.

sillymcnasty

I would suggest finish the CCNA. You're already halfway there. When you take the Cisco certs they give you a breakdown of the % by category. See where you did bad, and look at how prevalent they are in the objectives. If you had a low % on something that has a high weight, you study that one more.

Plus the CCNA is really a foot-in-the-door cert. I got a job that doesn't have a THING to do with networking just because I had it. Recruiters see it and get turned on. Sure, you have to impress in the interview, but having it alone might get you there.

sillymcnasty

Remedymp wrote: »

You're looking at becoming a generalist.

Master what ever it is that you're good at first and then you can start branching off in to other areas of interest. The CCNA maybe out of reach currently because it's not you're daily driver of responsibilities. However, nothing saying you can't do the Security+ for right now and then make another leap vertically into something like the RHCSA or LFCS.

If you spread yourself too thin and you're not deep enough into one of the responsibilities, you're not going to be very useful. JMHO.

Also, every entry level networking job I've been looking at requires a wide range of "generalist" skills. Networking jobs tend to require Windows Server and Active Directory/Group Policy skills as well. Obviously specializing is better once you get higher up, but I think getting a wide base when you start out is helpful.

Remedymp

sillymcnasty wrote: »

Also, every entry level networking job I've been looking at requires a wide range of "generalist" skills. Networking jobs tend to require Windows Server and Active Directory/Group Policy skills as well. Obviously specializing is better once you get higher up, but I think getting a wide base when you start out is helpful.

They require Windows Server and AD because AD is apart of Windows Server and 2/3's of Windows Server roll outs are of DC's. An exam like Security+ or SSCP will test your knowledge in these areas.

My advice in this scenario, if you're just starting out, demonstrating literacy of said technologies makes more sense.

EANx

Remedymp wrote: »

They require Windows Server and AD because AD is apart of Windows Server and 2/3's of Windows Server roll outs are of DC's.

Highly dependent on the environment. I have a few sites like you describe while most of my sites have 10 non-DCs plus 2 DCs (5:1 against) and a few have as many as 25 regular VMs per DC. In a real data-center environment, it's easy to have 100 regular VMs for each DC.

It's best to avoid blanket statements.