Old timer question on CCENT/CCNA

I'm very new to this field. I have decided to make a life altering swing from one field to another. I did some Admin work years back as an undergrad, back when Windows 2000 was popular. I ran a home Linux box for several years with many flavors and many installs. My favorite being Gentoo. I have been since that point in the real-estate field (law) but as many of you might know that field is sinking faster then a lead ballon. Anyways, I'm looking on CBT and TrainSignal to buy some training videos. I have a lot of computer building knowledge ( I have built every single computer I have owned) Right now running a Shuttle box. I know that's no big task with today's bios and pulg and play hardware but back in the day it was lol. So for an old timer of 33 here. I have a game plan.

I'm going to start and complete the

1. COMPTIA A+

2. DNS/DHCP Courses/Videos

3. NETWORK+

4. LINUX+

Then perhaps study for the CCENT or CCNA if I am getting this right?

I was thinking just doing the CCNA

Then doing the CWNA and eventually moving up to the CCNP after obtaining a job ofcourse.

Does this seem reasonable?

Mind you, I am great test taker, passed my LSAT with a 174, passed Bar exam on first try.

I really want to make this my career and give my wife and daughter a more stable life, as real-estate is always in flux.

Thank you guys/gals in advance for any advice or opinions

Cheers!
D

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Comments

Pheadrus

I'd love to hear from some of you guys/gals, your opinions, and advice. Help a newbie out here lol.

Cheers
D

JDMurray

How did you arrive at your game plan? Did you have a look at jobs posted on the major job boards (monster.com, dice.com, hotjobs,com, etc.) and see what employers are asking for in the areas of education, certification, and experience for IT people? IT people can be a dime-a-dozen in larger cities, so you might want to build a future career around the fact that you have a law degree. For IT, the obvious area to specialize in with law experience is Information Security.

human151

I have a Network + and while I am proud of it and the hard work it took for me to accomplish it, I would steer away from the comptia certs. The A+ will not really open any doors for you these days. The network + is too broad and out of date, imo. I work for a large datacenter, we have many huge clients, fortune 100. My employer does not really respect the network +, nor A+.

Depending on what you want to do I would say to stick with the cisco certs (network engineer) or the M$ certs(sys admin).

CCENT is a good starting point. If I would have known then what I know now I would have gone straight for the cisco certs instead of my Netowk +. On staff we have a few MCSA's who handle our internal IT stuff. To advance our network guys,me included, need to get our CCNA's and ideally a professional level cert (CCNP, CCSP). A hot cert for the future is going to be CCVP.

Good Luck! Its not easy. You have much to learn young padawan

Pheadrus

I thank you guys for your answers, interesting indeed.

JDMurray yes I looked at jobs on all of those sites, and I contacted a few employers and asked questions posing as a potential employee. I am actually very interested in internet security and the law still. I think your suggestion to use my law degree is a fine idea, and something i was planning on originally. Based on your suggestiong what certs do you reccomend I start off with to get my foot in the door with this field?? Do you agree with Human151 in that Comptia A+ and Network + as well as Linux+ are bad ideas?

Human151 So you feel that Comptia is useless for getting a job? I don't follow, because for me I need to start somewhere and get my feet wet, you can't run before walking ya know? Maybe what your saying is to go straight to getting Cisco certs and learning the basics towards that end?
Correct me if I am wrong here?

cheers
D

Turgon

Try network + to give you a baseline of networking knowledge. Then look at CCNA. You can press on with Security + from there. Your law background could be a lever into entry level security work at some point.

human151

well speaking from my own experience, I would skip network + and go straight to CCENT.

The network + is good, full of great information, but the important stuff is also covered in my CCENT/ICND1 book. Netowrk +, in addition to good information, is loaded with near useless information. Network + goes into great detail about faded technologies. Your never going to see a network using RG-58 (thinnet) Coax. The only place you will see RG-58 is on serial connections such as DS3's. Your never going to see a taken ring network, never going to see a network with a literal bus topology. Your never going to use appletalk. Your never going to use Netbuei/NetBIOS on your lan. IPX/SPX is a dead protocol. And who uses Novell these days?

all those dead or dying technologies are given as much importance as ethernet and tcp/ip.

So like I said, speaking from my own experience, you can just save yourself a lot of time by not learning the outdated tech in addition to the present tech on the network +, and just dive right into the ICND1.

thats just my opinion.

as I stated earlier, im proud of my Network + cert but in all honesty it is in need of an update. First thing my Boss said when I told him I had gotten my network + was "great, now get your CCNA"

human151

let me add one more thing.

there IS a lot of great information on the Network + exam that you will find useful that is not on the cisco exam, such as Raid, the way servers are grouped (mirroring, server clustering) and much more. in that way it is a good place to start, but as I said earlier it is not as respected as the cisco certs. Me personally, I got more out of studying for the ICND1 test than I did for the network +.

I guess what I'm really getting at is that learning all this stuff takes time, and the time spent learning and getting certified and time that your not going to be on the job, I believe time would be better spent heading straight to the ICND1.

JDMurray

Pheadrus wrote:

I think your suggestion to use my law degree is a fine idea, and something i was planning on originally. Based on your suggestiong what certs do you reccomend I start off with to get my foot in the door with this field??

You need to look at all of the types of jobs in InfoSec and see which ones ask for legal experience. You can basically divide all InfoSec careers into either technical or administrative/managerial. I'm not sure how much call there is for technical people with a law degree, but you never know. The certification that you will ultimately want is the CISSP, but that cert requires (at least) four years of documented InfoSec work experience.

Pheadrus wrote:

Do you agree with Human151 in that Comptia A+ and Network + as well as Linux+ are bad ideas?

If employers are asking for those certs, or you just want to get them for you own hobby interest, then they are not a bad idea. They are life-time, entry-level certs that do give a sense of accomplishment when you pass the exams(s). Just don't think that having any cert is an automatic ticket to a job--unless you like repairing PCs for $10/hr.

mamono

human151 wrote:

let me add one more thing.

there IS a lot of great information on the Network + exam that you will find useful that is not on the cisco exam, such as Raid, the way servers are grouped (mirroring, server clustering) and much more. in that way it is a good place to start, but as I said earlier it is not as respected as the cisco certs. Me personally, I got more out of studying for the ICND1 test than I did for the network +.

I guess what I'm really getting at is that learning all this stuff takes time, and the time spent learning and getting certified and time that your not going to be on the job, I believe time would be better spent heading straight to the ICND1.

Part of the reason is because CompTIA is considered a given baseline, the defacto minimum. I, myself, am proud to have CompTIA certifications. There are things that I would not have known or have been able to relate to without that information, but to get respect then it takes obtaining the higher level certifications.

I honestly believe that with your law background, JDMurray's suggestion is right on the mark. The InfoSec sector relies heavily on both security knowledge as well as networking. You'll want to consider both. There are numerous organizations for both networking and security.

CompTIA
Cisco
CWNP http://www.cwnp.com/
EC-Council http://www.eccouncil.org/
(ISC)2 http://www.isc2.org/

What I would recommend is consider what the goal is and then plan accordingly.

In addition... For the networking field, there is some reliance on Linux. From a law perspective, it is good to understand best practices and procedures. Spending a little time on Foundations ITIL v3 should be helpful if planning to apply IT knowledge to law consultation. These are all superfluous to the primary objective, but are nice to consider.

Note: Wireless security is an issue considering the latest news headlines regarding TJX and the database of stolen credit card information due to wardriving and network infiltration. That's why I threw in the CWNP.

Pheadrus

Thanks guys for all your help, much appreciated.

I know I will have to earn my stripes to getting and obtaining a good paying IT job. I will definitely use the law angle as well as my years in the real-estate field to try and obtain a job based on my previous skill set. I love the idea of IT Security, but I don't want to limit myself. I know everyone speaks as if there are tons on IT people out there, but day after day I do see jobs posted for IT people, so either employers are so specific ( which doesnt seem to be the case based on the job requirements ie: CCNA or CCNP etc...) or that it really depends on the area in which you live. I'm on the east coast and I see more jobs, perhaps on the west coast there is a plethora of IT folks. That's just a guess not a fact or anything.

Anyways, all good advice you guys, I will take it and run with it. I might pass on the Network+ and go straight to CCENT/CCNA and Security+ and eventually the CISSP once I have some good experience behind me. Right now Im a newb period! So I will try and revamp my Linux skills and get into the security end so I can use my law degree to its fullest too. I'm not sure what the Foundations ITIL v3 is, and I checked out those links, but the problem is most of those certifications require sponsorship and lots of knowledge I dont yet have, but definitely something to shoot for in the future. So it seems everyone thinks I should pursue Security with my law degree right?

Sorry if what Im saying seems so dumb, I'm just new to this field.

Cheers
D

Turgon

human151 wrote:

well speaking from my own experience, I would skip network + and go straight to CCENT.

The network + is good, full of great information, but the important stuff is also covered in my CCENT/ICND1 book. Netowrk +, in addition to good information, is loaded with near useless information. Network + goes into great detail about faded technologies. Your never going to see a network using RG-58 (thinnet) Coax. The only place you will see RG-58 is on serial connections such as DS3's. Your never going to see a taken ring network, never going to see a network with a literal bus topology. Your never going to use appletalk. Your never going to use Netbuei/NetBIOS on your lan. IPX/SPX is a dead protocol. And who uses Novell these days?

all those dead or dying technologies are given as much importance as ethernet and tcp/ip.

So like I said, speaking from my own experience, you can just save yourself a lot of time by not learning the outdated tech in addition to the present tech on the network +, and just dive right into the ICND1.

thats just my opinion.

as I stated earlier, im proud of my Network + cert but in all honesty it is in need of an update. First thing my Boss said when I told him I had gotten my network + was "great, now get your CCNA"

You would be surprised what you will find in some datacentres. I have encountered shops with Token Ring still lurking and DecNet for that matter. I do agree however that such technologies are rare. The chances of someone having to work with the faded technologies as you put are small but given that it is an entry level certification I would say that looking over the different technologies, some of which were once used heavily can have some benefit from a theoretical perspective particularly if one is really new to networking.

The ICND1 route however may be the way to go, particularly if someone wishes to head straight into Cisco. I would say look closely at the syllabus of both and decide which you feel works best for you. Historically N+ was often recommended as a precursor to CCNA studies but with the changes affecting the CCNA over the last few years this might be less useful these days.

Pheadrus

The ICND1 route however may be the way to go, particularly if someone wishes to head straight into Cisco. I would say look closely at the syllabus of both and decide which you feel works best for you. Historically N+ was often recommended as a precursor to CCNA studies but with the changes affecting the CCNA over the last few years this might be less useful these days.

I am going to do as follows

1. DHCP and DNS training videos

2. Microsoft XP Pro Training video

3. CCNA training video

4. Security+ training video

5 Get job hopefully.

6 SSCP video

6. CISSP video and course work.

Sound good guys?
any suggestions or corrections?

D

mamono

Usually, most training videos go over the subject material very loosely or in general. In order to learn in detail and really understand that subject material, best to read a book or two that covers that particular certification.

Pheadrus

Ok I will pick up some books, do you have any in mind for me to start with? I have heard Sybex are good ones, years back I used to read O'Reily for Linux.

cheers
D

human151

I do not know very much about Linux in general but I do know that is would be a good cert to train for.

http://www.redhat.com/certification/rhce/

Good luck

mamono

Pheadrus wrote:

Ok I will pick up some books, do you have any in mind for me to start with? I have heard Sybex are good ones, years back I used to read O'Reily for Linux.

Since this forum is broken up amongst all the different certification types, best to post an inquiry before studying for a particular cert. Some people will respond with recommendations. Or troll on some forum sections to read what other people are using. Often time, when someone passes on this forum, they will post their score and what study methods they used. That will give a great idea of what to consider when deciding on how to study for that certification.

I use Sybex and they are great books, but that is primarily a publisher. They are not all the same authors. Best to see what others are using and get impressions of what the material is like. Best of luck!

contentpros

Since you have a degree in law if you are going to look towards InfoSec I would look at working in the compliance side of the industry. The two tend to pair up hand in hand very nicely. Another emerging field on the legal side is the electronic discovery field since this is a fast growing area of the law they can definitely use some attorneys with tech knowledge.