Ccie & rhce

I know this is attainable, but how useful are both together in the long run? I've always thought a combination of both is the perfect way to go. What do you guys think? Career wise you can't go wrong with either but I'm more interested in having both and would like to have the opinion of some of the experienced folks out here.

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sratakhin

How useful would be having both MD and Law degrees?

QHalo

^ for you
http://www.yalemedlaw.com/2009/04/medical-lawyer-or-legal-doctor-a-look-into-md-jd-programs/
http://law.duke.edu/admis/degreeprograms/jd-md/

If both interest you then go for it. They are pretty different in regards to areas of study though, so they may not work together that much. Personally I would focus on one or the other.

Edit: it also really depends on which CCIE you're talking about. If you're talking Data Center, well that's not that far off as it could work coupled with VCP and/or MCSE like advised below.

gkca

I would think that RHCE & MCSE would be a better combo, maybe with VCP and CCNA thrown in the mix.

JustFred

sratakhin wrote: »

How useful would be having both MD and Law degrees?

True, but what if both interests you? I think at least you should have a good knowledge of one and be a specialist in the other? That would work well wouldn't it?

boobobobobob

It sounds really good on paper, but it's just not practical.

log32

VCP & RHCE sounds like a much smarter path imo

xeet

DO IT.

The bigger bowl of alphabet soup (more certs) you have, the more valuable you are to an employer. Well-rounded IT professionals are hard to come by.

I just took the RHCE on RHEL6 today, and I likely just barely failed. It is a fun test, though. In terms of difficulty, if the CCIE RS lab is a 10, then I feel RHCE is about a 7, but 2 hours instead of 8 hours.

Yes, they are VERY DIFFERENT but that's a good thing, having both shows a depth of knowledge, and it is quite practical, just have to keep at it.

Sounds Good

REMOVED UNNECESSARY QUOTED REPLY FROM PREVIOUS POST

what is it that you do that allows you to use even half your certs?

UnixGuy

@xeet: Interesting profile and certs you have! can you tell us about your experience/background and how you managed to have such a diverse technical background?

brombulec

xeet wrote:

DO IT.

...

I beg to differ - CCIE is 10, but RHCE is 5 maybe 5.5. RHCA is only 8 in terms of difficulty. On the CCIE exam you have to know all the stuff and use it on exam, on RHCA exams you can only learn one topic at the time (Security/Deployment/Clustering/Tuning/Virtualization) and you can pass the exam. I'm on the way to 436 (Clustering and Storage) and it's a lot easier than CCIE R&S.

--
Regards

boobobobobob

Can anyone that has a RHCA and CCIE talk about the return on investment? With a CCIE you can make 125k+ but how much more does having a RHCE really add? And what exactly do you do that requires both skills?

brombulec

I don't think that there is on this forum a person with both certs: CCIE AND RHCA. But in my country none of this certs will have a significant influence on salary. CCIE is important only for Cisco Partners and RHCA only for training companies. So getting RHCA and CCIE just for the cert is only for your own satisfaction

--
Regards

Sounds Good

REMOVED UNNECESSARY QUOTED REPLY FROM PREVIOUS POST
You keep bringing up RHCA, but I think everyone is talking about CCIE/RHCE here.

UnixGuy

brombulec wrote: »

..But in my country none of this certs will have a significant influence on salary. CCIE is important only for Cisco Partners and RHCA only for training companies.

--
Regards

Which country are you talking about?

I think you are underestimating the value and level of skill needed to pass the RHCA exams.

xeet

So as it turns out, I actually did pass the RHCE. It seems like maybe Redhat gives partial credit for objectives.

what is it that you do that allows you to use even half your certs?

@xeet: Interesting profile and certs you have! can you tell us about your experience/background and how you managed to have such a diverse technical background?

I've worked for/occasionally helped start hosting and service provider companies, usually in a design/architecture lead role. I've recently moved into a sales engineering role (giving it a try) at a VAR, focusing on service provider customers. I use everything I've learned from all of these experiences on a fairly regular basis. When you have a technical understanding covering diverse areas of IT, you can provide designs and guidance that are more thorough and take more into account, in a shorter amount of time, with fewer people needed to complete. This = value for an employer, or lately in my case, a customer.

I beg to differ - CCIE is 10, but RHCE is 5 maybe 5.5. RHCA is only 8 in terms of difficulty.

Well, it depends. I got my start in networking/mostly Cisco, so RHCE is more difficult for me than others with a primarily server/linux background.

Can anyone that has a RHCA and CCIE talk about the return on investment? With a CCIE you can make 125k+ but how much more does having a RHCE really add? And what exactly do you do that requires both skills?

Having a diverse background can be far more valuable than the number you state.

CCIE is important only for Cisco Partners and RHCA only for training companies. So getting RHCA and CCIE just for the cert is only for your own satisfaction

It depends on the type of role you want to be in. If you are in a staff networking or server role in general having both may not change much, but going more into design, architecture, consulting, professional services, it can make a big difference.

brombulec

UnixGuy wrote: »

Which country are you talking about?

I think you are underestimating the value and level of skill needed to pass the RHCA exams.

Believe me - I know the value of CCIE and RHCA - I'm going to get my RHCA in next year (if the company will pay for the exams

). But CCIE is IMHO very complex, you need to know a lot of stuff (including things not used in everyday work).
In my country (Poland) there are about 15 RHCAs - all of them are members of training companies. And I also know a few CCIEs (some of them doubles and triples) and they are Cisco employees or they work for a consulting companies or banks.

--
Regards

JustFred

xeet wrote:

DO IT.

...

Xeet,

Thank you for sharing, i have the motivation and willingness to learn and i intend to persue both certs. I personally enjoy being an all rounded person. As i always say, its good to be a specialist in one aspect of technology but it makes you well rounded knowing the others as well.

Thanks for sharing your experiences

UnixGuy

brombulec wrote: »

Believe me - I know the value of CCIE and RHCA - I'm going to get my RHCA in next year s

I tend to agree with what @xeet said:

xeet wrote: »

Well, it depends. I got my start in networking/mostly Cisco, so RHCE is more difficult for me than others with a primarily server/linux background.

For someone working in an ISP doing Routing and Switch work, CCIE while not easy but definitely more convenient to do. How can someone who works with network gear all day be able to study and pass the RHCA exams so easily? Is the cluster, storage, virtualization, security exams that easy to study and pass specially for those who don't work with Linux on that level? I don't really think so!

Honestly speaking, if someone has an RHCA and doesn't have a proven track record of experience to back it up, then he/she will look very suspicious. Training center experience is NOT a commercial experience. Training someone to pass an exam is something but troubleshooting production issues is something else. Instructors in training centers can be experts in knowing the scenarios for specific exams in RHCA, but that doesn't make them architects with design and troubleshooting experience.

blueberries

brombulec wrote: »

I don't think that there is on this forum a person with both certs: CCIE AND RHCA. But in my country none of this certs will have a significant influence on salary. CCIE is important only for Cisco Partners and RHCA only for training companies. So getting RHCA and CCIE just for the cert is only for your own satisfaction

--
Regards

Maybe this is true in a little village in Poland, but if you live in a bigger city anywhere in Europe (like um Warsaw or Krakow) there are hundreds of international companies. These international companies have standards, and want professionals, not low level tradesmen.

Low level tradesmen destroy everything they touch, and if they rule the IT infrastructure of Poland, your telecom investments will wind up like your roads.

brombulec

I'm living in Warsaw and believe me, I know this "IT world" better than you. Even if you have CCIE you can't get salary as high as a CCIE in USA can get. Additionaly - I worked for a service side (IT service company) and for the customer side (currently). The RHCE, or a lot of other certs are not important for the employer, they want a CCIE guy for a salary of CCNP, moreover, sometimes there is no difference for recruiters between MCP and MCITP. So I'm not going to get CCIE - CCNP is more than enough, but RHCE is just a walk in the park, and I'm going to get my RHCDS, RHCA and RHCSS (in this order).

--
Regards

UnixGuy

Just to add, there are training centers that are nothing but RHCE factories, but that's not just RHCE. There are many (many) CCIE factories in China and India and in other places. This has been discussed before. You have an impressive experience and certs, but what I'm trying to say is that most vendor certs, unfortunately can be subject to dodgy training centers that teach students "how to pass" an exam unethically (I don't mean you at all, I'm talking about cases that I've met personally who have RHCE and can't edit a text file using VI Editor!)

blueberries

My experience and common sense says boycott everything from China and India. With China, soon the number of CCIE's will go from 40,000 to 40 million in the next few years, and most of them will be of the same quality as their products that flood walmart.

blueberries

brombulec wrote: »

I'm living in Warsaw and believe me, I know this "IT world" better than you. Even if you have CCIE you can't get salary as high as a CCIE in USA can get. Additionaly - I worked for a service side (IT service company) and for the customer side (currently). The RHCE, or a lot of other certs are not important for the employer, they want a CCIE guy for a salary of CCNP, moreover, sometimes there is no difference for recruiters between MCP and MCITP. So I'm not going to get CCIE - CCNP is more than enough, but RHCE is just a walk in the park, and I'm going to get my RHCDS, RHCA and RHCSS (in this order).

--
Regards

I'm not denying what you say is true, but do you really think this is good for Poland? Your best guys are gonna take a two hour flight to London and get paid 4 times more. This is classic brain drain.

Polish employers are putting themselves at a big disadvantage by trying to get a single guy to play the positions of every man on a football field.

brombulec

blueberries wrote: »

I'm not denying what you say is true, but do you really think this is good for Poland? Your best guys are gonna take a two hour flight to London and get paid 4 times more. This is classic brain drain.

Polish employers are putting themselves at a big disadvantage by trying to get a single guy to play the positions of every man on a football field.

I know that this situation is a big disadvantage for our economy and people, but we have families, girlfriends, parents. It's not easy to change the country.
The same situation is in other Eastern European countries, this is a legacy from the "communist time". But I'm not going to accept this and work for the minimum wages - I'm going to get an RHCA and probably open a training facility or consulting company. I also have a friends in USA so there is another possibility - work for the US company as a contractor.

--
Regards

UnixGuy

@blueberries: that is a strong generalization and that's not what I meant to say. I was just trying to say that there are cases of training centers teaching students how to pass exams including the CCIE as well

blueberries

brombulec wrote: »

I know that this situation is a big disadvantage for our economy and people, but we have families, girlfriends, parents. It's not easy to change the country.
The same situation is in other Eastern European countries, this is a legacy from the "communist time". But I'm not going to accept this and work for the minimum wages - I'm going to get an RHCA and probably open a training facility or consulting company. I also have a friends in USA so there is another possibility - work for the US company as a contractor.

--
Regards

You will have to pay up to Zus, but it may be worth it. Good luck!

chanakyajupudi

I think the CCIE and RHCA are good if you are moving to the Infrastructure Architect or Design Roles. The value of these certificates will be accentuated and meaningful only if you have the experience.

The repeated discussion of countries like India and China having factories making RHCA's and CCIE's is not entire true.

They make CCIE's - True . RHCE's - True . RHCA's - False.

If RHCA was true - We have only 40 or so in India and 90% of them them work for Redhat in a Training or Consulting Role. 26 of them are trainers with or associated with Redhat.

Get experience go for the Architect exams.

Some day you will get the Consultant Tag and thats the day you can truly gloat about having both !

My 0.2$ though !

I plan to do them too. I am three papers short for my RHCA. I intended to do the CCNA before September but SANS happened to me so that goes on the backburner for a while.

I intend to finish the RHCA next year. CCIE in the next two.

My Company does not pay me anything but 500$ per year as certification reimbursement.

I get raises and role changes due to them though ! That makes it all the more worthwhile.

I work as a Configuration Engineer - Design and Config Management in a Financial Institution for those who might want to validate my views !

Cheers

Chanakya

UnixGuy

chanakyajupudi wrote: »

They make CCIE's - True . RHCE's - True . RHCA's - False.

..

Exactly! Thank you! that's why I said CCIE & RHCE in my original post but never RHCA! I have seen dodgy RHCEs but never a suspicious RHCA!

chanakyajupudi

I was clarifying. This thread started out as RHCA. Ended as an argument about RHCE.

Sounds Good

chanakyajupudi wrote: »

I was clarifying. This thread started out as RHCA. Ended as an argument about RHCE.

Actually, quite the opposite. The thread started off as a CCIE/RHCE thread and ended as an argument about RHCA lol