Telecommunications Certs..

vCole

I tried Google & searching here, maybe my skillz (

) aren't that great.

So, what type of certification should I look into for Telco?

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networker050184

Depends on what you want to do at the telco.

zoidberg

TIA, the Telecommunications Industry Association, has these 2 certifications:

CCNT - Certified in Convergence Network Technologies

This requires 6 exams, administered via the Internet.
- basic telecom
- basic data communications
- computer telephone integration (cti)
- local area networks
- broadband technologies
- voice over ip

Last for 2 years I think? Mine's expired. Oh well.

CTP - Convergence Technologies Professional

1 exam, but it's via Prometric or Pearson or something.
- data networking
- telephony networking
- convergence technologies

I think the CTP has no expiry? Haven't tried this one. Sidetracked with more interesting things.

I work for a large telecommunications provider, and for some time, they claimed they cared greatly about the CCNT and wanted many of the employees to be CCNT certified. Other than that statement, I saw no follow thru and doubt they care much about it. They have new apprentices unofficially take 1 of the 6 CCNT exams internally (not one of the officially graded exams) and then the employees run around thinking they passed the CCNT and are certified.

So, decide it it's worth it. For me, I learned a lot of telecom history, layer-1, layer-2, voice codecs, and such.

zoidberg

Doh, forgot link: TIA Certification: Convergence Credentialing

malcybood

Does depend what you want to do.

Most telcos look for some kind of Cisco experience on the data and voice side and even if you're fitting up SDH circuits in the field Cisco skills are usually beneficial so CCENT or CCNA is as good a place to start as any.

That would give you options to go into a general networking role then cross over into the specific telco area you want to get into rather than "pidgeon holing" yourself.

I'd say get the CCENT or CCNA, get a NOC Tier 1 job then you'll learn about the different elements that make up the telecoms industry and go from there.

vCole

Well, I'm very good with phones (IP Phones including Avaya and also BlackBerrys)

So I'm wondering if it's worth it to even get a cert in either?

HeroPsycho

Cisco cert in IP phones would help, dunno if it would in a telco company unless they use those internally...

Blackberry cert? Dunno if that will help you.

LBC90805

malcybood wrote: »

Does depend what you want to do.

Most telcos look for some kind of Cisco experience on the data and voice side and even if you're fitting up SDH circuits in the field Cisco skills are usually beneficial so CCENT or CCNA is as good a place to start as any.

That would give you options to go into a general networking role then cross over into the specific telco area you want to get into rather than "pidgeon holing" yourself.

I'd say get the CCENT or CCNA, get a NOC Tier 1 job then you'll learn about the different elements that make up the telecoms industry and go from there.

I work at the Worlds Largest TELCO and can tell you that they do not care one bit about Cisco Certifications unless you work on as a LAN/WAN Admin. Also talking about they don't care even if you are an engineer. They do all that training themselves.

I've been working here for over 18 months and have yet met ONE Cisco Certified person. Even the folks who work in the Central Offices on the Transport Data equipment aren't Cisco Certified. By in large most Layer One and Layer Two equipment is made my Adtran, Fujitsu, et al.

vCole

LBC90805 wrote: »

I work at the Worlds Largest TELCO and can tell you that they do not care one bit about Cisco Certifications unless you work on as a LAN/WAN Admin. Also talking about they don't care even if you are an engineer. They do all that training themselves.

I've been working here for over 18 months and have yet met ONE Cisco Certified person. Even the folks who work in the Central Offices on the Transport Data equipment aren't Cisco Certified. By in large most Layer One and Layer Two equipment is made my Adtran, Fujitsu, et al.

Wow, that's quite the insight. How would I go about obtaining a job like you have?

dynamik

Are you thinking about sticking with IT? I thought you just switched to criminal justice.

vCole

dynamik wrote: »

Are you thinking about sticking with IT? I thought you just switched to criminal justice.

I have switched, but I also have 2 years until I complete my associates in Criminal Justice. Not much I can do until I get that diploma.

darkerosxx

I work for a fortune 500 telco and cisco certs are highly regarded. It just depends on what you want to do, though. Telcos are like really specialized enterprises with really big WANs and lots of remote offices.

scheistermeister

LBC90805 wrote: »

I work at the Worlds Largest TELCO and can tell you that they do not care one bit about Cisco Certifications unless you work on as a LAN/WAN Admin. Also talking about they don't care even if you are an engineer. They do all that training themselves.

I work at a telco as well and will agree. I am one of the LAN/WAN guys though so my certs got me in. Funny thing is though that even out of all the LAN/WAN guys very few have Cisco certs. The only two CCNPs I know of are myself and one of our advanced engineers although I did see another engineer with a BSCI book cracked open on his desk when I started a few months ago.

The other guy who has his CCNP also tacks his cert on the end of his name and the first time I got an email from him was the first time I really saw how tacky I thought it looked :P

networker050184

My last job was at a very large telco and everyone on my team either had a Cisco cert or was working on their CCNA.

It just depends on which area you work in. No point in getting Cisco certs to work on large telephone switches...

LBC90805

FadeToBright wrote: »

Wow, that's quite the insight. How would I go about obtaining a job like you have?

I'm contracted as a Desktop Support Analyst. I don't work on the infrastructure beyond working deskside trouble tickets and lease rolls.

mamono

If you like Blackberries, then Blackberry Enterprise Server and Microsoft Exchange is one area that you'll want to look into.