Seek Career Advice - Multiple Certifications + Masters degree with little Experience

Hi Guys,
I've been reading this forum for a long time and decided to post today to get some advice on my messed up career.

I've worked as an ETL developer straight after completing my Undergrad in an Outsourcing firm in India. My company sponsored me to train in a few popular Data Warehousing tools. I took part in the delivery of a few modules of a project for a Foreign Bank. I improved my SQL skills thanks to the job and certified in Teradata and Datastage. I quit the job after 6 months to study for my CCIE Security, as I felt that I had a lot of interest for Networks and didn't like the grind at my job. I hope to pass the lab in the next few months. I also have basic Java programming skills, which I've brushed up from my undergrad days to pass my SCJP.

I was offered admission to a UC, and am going to be doing my Masters in Computer Science starting this fall. I passed the RHCE and am looking to spend the next month before I enter graduate school pursuing my VCP and CCIE.

Assuming I get my CCIE and VCP, Is my lack of relevant experience going to be a problem in landing a decently paying job in the US? Is having multiple certifications in unrelated technology going to be a problem for me? I'm 22 now.

I'd appreciate some advice on how to best spend my time usefully to give a good crack at the job market in 2012.

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Comments

ipconfig.all

It looks like you have the qualifications which is good, but experience is the key to success and you will need a lot of experience to back up your certifications, I suggest you get more experience as you can, for me I do not see a point in getting high level certifications and having no experience to show. It is all about the experience. Experience beats all especially in technical roles, I have never heard of a well experience and seasoned I.T professional being hired over someone with a lot of certifications/degree and very little work experience.

My point is qualifications are really good and it does help but you will also need experience.

networker050184

god_of_thunder wrote: »

Assuming I get my CCIE and VCP, Is my lack of relevant experience going to be a problem in landing a decently paying job in the US?

The CCIE as you know is a high level certification. Its going to be really hard to get a high level job without experience. I'm sure someone would be willing to give you a shot though eventually. It just might have to be something below the CCIE level.

I also agree with ipconfig.all that going for the CCIE without experience is pretty pointless. If I were you I'd start with the CCNA and try to land an entry level gig.

god_of_thunder wrote: »

I'd appreciate some advice on how to best spend my time usefully to give a good crack at the job market in 2012.

Why wait until 2012? You need experience, try and get some now! Waiting until 2012 to get that experience isn't going to help you.

veritas_libertas

Where do you really want to be? RHCE and CCIE are at very opposite spectrums of IT. CCIE is for Network Engineers where RHCE is for Systems Engineers. Sure they will both help you to find good jobs, but as I see it with a CCIE or RHCE you would be focusing on one specific vendor.

I would start searching for a Unix SysAdmin job right now if I were you. Networker pretty much summed up my thoughts, experience is golden in IT.

BradleyHU

hol on....so you're saying you got ur CCNA & CCNP, but NEVER got a job or even looked for a job in networking, but now you're about to get your CCIE???? how long have you had your NA/NP for? and how long ago to you take the written test for the IE?

*sniff**sniff*I smell shenanigans...

erpadmin

BradleyHU wrote: »

*sniff**sniff*I smell shenanigans...

I don't think he's trying to be malicious or unscrupulous, but something is definitely up. A CCIE is hard even for an CCNP who has been doing Cisco at that level for a number of years. There's a reason why there aren't that many of them (still!).

On the other hand, like I said in an earlier post, perhaps he's a savant or the next Stephen Hawking....lmao.

god_of_thunder

I've been spending time on the reading list for the past 8 months. I did my CCNA a year back. I'm not working at the moment and am dedicating all my time towards study for the CCIE. I've got a mentor and a lab to practice on.
And as I mentioned in my original post; I haven't taken the lab yet, but I do hope to pass. It's doable.

networker050184

Anything is doable if you put your mind to it. You obviously want to go for the CCIE so do it.

Is it going to land you a bad ass job with out some kind of practical experience? Probably not. You will realize in time that 90% of what you need day in and day out isn't something you learn studying for an exam. That's why experience is key.

phantasm

I have to agree with a lot of other posters. Sure a CCIE is doable, but a CCIE with no experience won't get you anywhere fast. You need entry level experience and time pounding away at the command prompt. Best of luck though.

ipconfig.all

There are plenty of CCNA and CCNP people here who never held a networking or an i.t job gained employment thanks to the credentials.

networker050184

ipconfig.all wrote: »

There are plenty of CCNA and CCNP people here who never held a networking or an i.t job gained employment thanks to the credentials.

There are a few. Since I have been posting here there have been a lot more people that got the higher level certs and still couldn't find a job then the other way around.

SephStorm

Its tough in the IT job field right now. I personally would probably hire you just because you had the drive to jump to CCIE, and a masters to boot, especially at your age. My suggestion would be to get some experience while you are in school. It sounds like you have already passed the written CCIE?

god_of_thunder

I'm done with my written, targeting a lab date in September; after which I will plunge headfirst into study mode to tackle a full time masters degree. The school I'm going to has a quarter system to boot. I'm hoping its going too be fun getting back to algorithms, data structures and other core computer science courses.
It's not going to substitute for experience, but I'm hoping for the best.

Good to know that someone would want to give an academic a chance.
It's a chicken and egg situation when it comes to getting the required experience for a job profile of my choice.

Bl8ckr0uter

I must have missed this, you are going for all those certs and you DON'T have an IT related job now? To me that seems pointless. IMO by getting (or at least by putting ) those certs on your resume, you force yourself to compete with very high level, experience individuals which is going to make it harder for you to shine. I suggest applying with what you have now. You are already way overkill for any entry level gigs but you could possibly try to find a mid level gig. Have you looked at any cisco partners or ISPs?

What exactly are you trying to do?

JoJoCal19

At this point if you are going to have such high level certs but no matching experience, I would apply for entry level networking jobs and only list the CCNA. You should be able to get into the door and then maybe after a year, or even less if you are on a contract job, list your CCNP and try for a more mid-level networking job. Then I'd say after some more experience there you can go and apply for hig level network engineer jobs and list your CCIE. With having no experience but all of the education, you should be able to gain an entry level position and do a step-up as I described.

erpadmin

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

At this point if you are going to have such high level certs but no matching experience, I would apply for entry level networking jobs and only list the CCNA. You should be able to get into the door and then maybe after a year, or even less if you are on a contract job, list your CCNP and try for a more mid-level networking job. Then I'd say after some more experience there you can go and apply for hig level network engineer jobs and list your CCIE. With having no experience but all of the education, you should be able to gain an entry level position and do a step-up as I described.

+1 on that. That's actually a very good plan.

To quote one of my favorite Southern sayings...anything else in this situation would make you have a "big hat with no cattle."

it_consultant

Considering your RHCE and your potential masters in CS, I would probably stay away from networking. Open source operating systems and computer programming go hand in hand but Cisco is a far different animal. Normally people do the MS + Cisco route which gives them good overall network management capabilities. The difference, in your case, is the programming, something most of us do not do.

god_of_thunder

I'm bumping my thread to update you guys.
My programming skills are not really up to scratch; Discovered that after taking Advanced Data Structures this quarter. I'm still going to take more programming based courses next quarter as I feel that staying in touch with core CS courses such as Operating systems, Algorithms will help me interview better for programming jobs which are in more abundance.

Do you think this is a good idea? I am interested in doing Network Admin work though. Do you think IT jobs will come my way even with my background in CS, provided I stay in touch with my Cisco skills.

I graduate in Jan 2012.

MrAgent

Did you take and pass the CCIE lab?

Heero

ipconfig.all wrote: »

There are plenty of CCNA and CCNP people here who never held a networking or an i.t job gained employment thanks to the credentials.

They just don't get the same kind of offers that people with 3+ years of experience as network engineers get.

Having the education and certs will help you progress faster in a job, but you will still start off as a lower level than what you would be if you had the experience.

god_of_thunder

MrAgent wrote: »

Did you take and pass the CCIE lab?

Got busy with school so Didn't take it yet. 1Q 2011 hopefully.