Afraid of Cisco

I'm in an interesting place right now. I've got a ton of MS certifications, a VCP, etc but now I've been asked to go after Cisco and it scares me. I don't know why, I usually jump into studying, reading, etc. Right now I just think of anything else in the world I would rather be doing. Has anyone else transitioned into Cisco? I think I'm just being a big baby.

In the end I'm afraid I will be bad at it but expected to do the work since I studied the stuff. I think that's what I'm afraid of. Being responsible for a network when I have no clue what's up.

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dave330i

You're being a big baby.

Cisco is pretty straight forward compared to MS.

Plantwiz

Same process with the Cisco Certs as with other certs.

And if the 'fear' is failure...I cannot speak for others, but you are not alone. Just about everyone I have spoken with always feels a little of that ..."oh, no what if I fail this exam, what will my peers say?" And the reality is, the more exams you take, the more you challenge yourself, the more likely you might fail an exam here or there.

Gain as much experience on the topic you want to test on. Gather books and hardware or virtual hardware labs to practice. TALK to the folks here as many have already taken this path and can offer their advice, but set a goal for yourself and go for it!

If you ALWAYS make your goal (without some failures on the journey)...your goal was set too low

QHalo

Getting exposure to the networking side will help round you out in regards to data center technologies.

It's not as bad as it seems and opened me to an entirely new perspective on how networking works with other stuff in the DC. It really made me better at my job overall.

In other words, suck it up buttercup! You'll do just fine. Confidence in your abilities is the key. GL!

chrisone

Yikes! run the servers! run the VMWARE! run the network! I would have quit a long time ago...

tbgree00

Thanks for confirming that I'm being a baby

The fear isn't of failing the test. I've failed plenty of those and usually learn more after a failure than if I pass the first time. I think I'm afraid of the career implications of adding "Cisco stuff" to my domain of stuff I'm in charge of. I'm already in charge of helpdesk, print and scan, antivirus, sharepoint, MS server, VMware, XenDesktop, NetScaler, and external program support. Adding one more thing may be too much!

I have CBTnuggets subscription, a few switches thrown at me from our Cisco guy, and a book ready to go. Jeremy from CBT is really scattered at times so I have trouble following him as a total newbie. I may stop writing notes and just watch them, then read the book, then go back to take notes once I understand a little better.

chrisone wrote: »

Yikes! run the servers! run the VMWARE! run the network! I would have quit a long time ago...

You have no idea how close you are sometimes. I'm in the position where if I do my job right nobody pays attention but when anything at all goes wrong with any system I am being yelled at from the top and from below.

it_consultant

tbgree00 wrote: »

Thanks for confirming that I'm being a baby

The fear isn't of failing the test. I've failed plenty of those and usually learn more after a failure than if I pass the first time. I think I'm afraid of the career implications of adding "Cisco stuff" to my domain of stuff I'm in charge of. I'm already in charge of helpdesk, print and scan, antivirus, sharepoint, MS server, VMware, XenDesktop, NetScaler, and external program support. Adding one more thing may be too much!

I have CBTnuggets subscription, a few switches thrown at me from our Cisco guy, and a book ready to go. Jeremy from CBT is really scattered at times so I have trouble following him as a total newbie. I may stop writing notes and just watch them, then read the book, then go back to take notes once I understand a little better.

Maybe do the datacenter track then. It is more closely tied to stuff you are already doing. The nexus switches run a fork of the MDS FC switch, which in turn is a linux kernel. I did the route/switch/security track and I am 1/2 sysadmin, if I were to do it all over again I would do the datacenter track.

Mishra

Makes total sense that you are afraid of running a network with little to no experience. You have a couple of choices here:

If they were to add networking as part of your job, ensure that you communicate with your management that certifications do not substitute experience. You need to have a consultant back you up in case of major problems. And ask about SLAs too. If there is a 99.999% expectation, then they need to have a managed service contract with a networking company in case of problems around the clock.

If they do not want to do that, just make sure to let them know that you can't be expected to actually maintain that kind of uptime. If you think you would be blamed even after having this conversation, you should probably leave.

If you don't want to do networking stuff, then you should probably have a conversation with your management and let them know you don't have an interest (as in if this makes you want to leave the company). If they don't care, then elave.

If everything else checks out, then definitely get you hands wet! Just make sure you don't work too much.

pamccabe

phoeneous wrote: »

I'm in charge of all that, plus the network, plus the voice, plus the security. Don't be scared, you're totally missing out. Once you discover how the network really works, it'll open up your eyes. QoS alone is an awesome topic.

This. I did desktop support for years and was an MCP. Then, ran into the network side of things and been studying hard for my CCNA. I've never loved any side of technology as much as the networking side. RIP, EIGRP, OSPF... VLANs... port security... to see how the networking side of things works amazes me every single day. I am so happy I pursued it. Embrace this opportunity, you never know where it will take you!

vinbuck

tbgree00 wrote: »

You have no idea how close you are sometimes. I'm in the position where if I do my job right nobody pays attention but when anything at all goes wrong with any system I am being yelled at from the top and from below.

This is very common when you are in more of a generalist/jack-of-all trades position. I left that world years ago to become a Network Engineer and haven't looked back since. Become an expert in your field, continue down that path and people will know exactly who to call when they have a high level design project and no clue how to put it together. I spend as much time now in design meetings as I do in operations - haven't touched a server unless I felt like it in over 5 years.

I spent the first 10 years of my career in Server/Desktop and got very bored with it after just a few years in. Network Engineering touches everything and is very dynamic which is why after 5 years at full steam i'm still on my honeymoon with networking. Nobody gets a better birds eye view of how everything fits together than the Network Guys/Gals and it's a hell of a lotta fun.

gorebrush

vinbuck wrote: »

This is very common when you are in more of a generalist/jack-of-all trades position. I left that world years ago to become a Network Engineer and haven't looked back since. Become an expert in your field, continue down that path and people will know exactly who to call when they have a high level design project and no clue how to put it together. I spend as much time now in design meetings as I do in operations - haven't touched a server unless I felt like it in over 5 years.

I spent the first 10 years of my career in Server/Desktop and got very bored with it after just a few years in. Network Engineering touches everything and is very dynamic which is why after 5 years at full steam i'm still on my honeymoon with networking. Nobody gets a better birds eye view of how everything fits together than the Network Guys/Gals and it's a hell of a lotta fun.

Pretty much how my journey has gone.

Remember that also, even if Windows Server dies tomorrow and we all start using something else, you still need networking to plumb it all together

tbgree00

Of course you all are right. I need to embrace it and really learn. I've never met a cisco guy that wasn't passionate to the point of obsession so maybe there's a reason for that. I just need to carve time and do it. I have a ton of server, vmware, monitoring projects and laptop deployments going on at work and P90X afterward so time is tighter than usual right now. No excuses though, gotta do it and love it.