Need guidance on certs

Hey guys what's up. I am looking to get the following certs:

A+ (Done)
Network+ (Done)
Security+ (Almost, exam in a week)
Server+ (Mid to late june)
CWNA (Maybe)

Ive taken a look at cisco certs but dont understand their structure. What would benefit me the most, CCNA or dive into microsoft certs in hopes of completing MCITP: EA 08? I see that with Cisco, i need to buy a plethora of switches, routers ect in order to be able to learn, which is something im hesitant to do. Where is there a bigger market?

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Comments

Michael.J.Palmer

Actually the market may be in Cisco systems that operate off of Windows servers, so you may want to go both ways on this one.

You could go ahead and start working towards getting those MS certs towards your MCITP and at the same time you'll probably get a wealth of knowledge that may help you out a little with your Cisco certs. If you do go the way of both I can understand why you wouldn't be able to land a job as a domain administrator in a company using Windows Server 2008 and Cisco. Actually, you could put yourself into a position to be an Enterprise Admin at some point if you wanted the responsibility... of course the pay would be nice too,

.

PS: I know I'm a n00b when it comes to certs and what not but I've done my homework along the way. Gotta if you want to set a career path that would actually land you some money.

TheMechanic

Yeah I just dread cisco right now. So many certs, Career paths look fuzzy. Been thinking of branching into wreless network engineerig via CWNA/P and using ms server 08 admin as another option. I think a stay away from cisco

earweed

Then after your Server+ you may want to start your path down MS. You should probably start with the Client exam first (70-680) which I've heard is very hard aka challenging then do the exams for either the MCITP:SA or MCITP:EA depends on where you want to be.
Decide where you want to be 5 years down the road and then people here can better advise you how to get there. A lot of people here are where you (and I) want to be further down the road.
First off certs wont get you anywhere, you need experience.

I've found in my cert studies so far that everything builds off of everything else. I'm currently stuying for the 70-642 and it builds off of everything I learned on the 70-640 and my Net+, Sec+ knowledge. So get the knowledge, don't just pass a test.

RobertKaucher

Michael.J.Palmer wrote: »

Actually the market may be in Cisco systems that operate off of Windows servers, so you may want to go both ways on this one.

Could you explain that a bit?

To theMechanic: everyone has kind of skipped the critical questions here.

1. Where are you in your career and experience currently
2. What do you enjoy from a technical perspective?
3. What do you want to be doing in 3 to 5 years?

Certification should be mapped to your goals or you may as well not take the exams and just "to get a better job" is not a real goal. The comptia exams are very good starting points for almost any path in IT. But now you need to think about where you want to go and use certification as a stepping stone to help you get there.

Michael.J.Palmer

RobertKaucher wrote: »

Could you explain that a bit?

One of the trends my certification advisor has pointed out to me (and this is a guy who's done the works, government work for FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, etc., plus some major corporations including Microsoft and Cisco and Nortell). It seems that some savvy network admins are leaning towards using the Windows 2008 server software as a Virtual Media session on Cisco servers. This isn't exactly a new thing, however with most companies enjoying the integration of XP/7 to Windows server software it makes an obvious choice for the large corporation to implement and have the strong support of Cisco servers, routers, and switches.

Here's a link to information regarding the setup of 2008 server on a Cisco Server from Cisco's site: Cisco UCS C-Series Servers Windows Installation Guide - Windows Server 2008 Installation [Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Servers] - Cisco Systems

RobertKaucher

Cool stuff...