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CCIE-Wireless demand?

Cat5Cat5 Member Posts: 297 ■■■□□□□□□□
in CCIE
Does anyone know about the demand out there for someone with a CCIE-Wireless cert? There are other wireless certs available, also, and I'm wondering about the desire by employers for someone with a Cisco one. It would be a b*tch if you finally completed your CCIE-Wireless written and lab only to find out that they wanted someone with a CWSP or something.
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    thadizzythadizzy Member Posts: 72 ■■□□□□□□□□
    First of all the CCIE implies you know the 802.11 protocol quite well already.

    The Cisco certificate is vendor specific while the CWNP/CWSP certificates are only concerned with 802.11 standard and wireless in general. For an employeer if you have Cisco infrastructure, going for the Cisco education will benefit him more since you learn to do acctual detailed configuration and troubleshooting in the Cisco infrastructure, you will not get that from the CWNP/CWSP.

    Look at the market share on the market you are interested to work within and then decide. Cisco is extremely strong in the wireless enterprise segment so with that in mind it made sense to me to focus on Cisco as a vendor.


    Ideally one should go for both certification tracks since they are very different and do complement each other - but you must realize the CWNP/CWSP material is much more abstract. For day to day work, you benefit more from being an expert at a vendor's solution than knowing every little detail about the 802.11 protocol, of course there will be exceptions.

    My personal experience is that in Europe employers do not know about the CWNP/CWSP/CWNE certificates, while the CCIE is much more well known and got a much higher reputation. On a technical level the CCIE-Wireless is much more difficult to achieve than the CWNE, however they are not really comparable.

    The job market for strong wireless candidates is ridicilously good these days and this market increase in size every day. Wireless as a technology is expanding faster than any other technology in the network segment - but the number of experts do not keep up right now which makes the demand for the best ones extremely high. You will get offered top pay and a really good position even without CCIE/CWNE but of course it will definetly boost you CV if you have them.
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    powmiapowmia Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 322
    Some of the guys I see that get the CCIE Wireless combine it with a CCIE Security. With all of the organizations looking to move to a BYOD environment, they would have to try pretty hard to become unemployed. You would think that it would not be quite as timeless as an R&S or SP, since there are proprietary interfaces... still, any wireless/security vendor uses some form of WLC and NAC combo that runs the same standard underlying protocols. I would never turn down a CCIE-Wireless for a CWNP/CWSP/etc, unless it was to save money... but my opinion is probably very bias.
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    Cat5Cat5 Member Posts: 297 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Thanks for the reply. I'm a fan of going after that which you love over that which is practical, and for me wireless is where my interest is. I currently only have R&S experience, and I'm hoping that that, combined with a good wireless certification(s) will enable me to in turn get a better job than I otherwise would be able to get. Have I mentioned yet that come Friday, I'll be unemployed, with a wife and children depending on me? So getting something that does more than just pay the bills is heavily on my mind, even though the end date is far down the road.
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    pertpert Member Posts: 250
    thadizzy wrote: »
    First of all the CCIE implies you know the 802.11 protocol quite well already.

    The Cisco certificate is vendor specific while the CWNP/CWSP certificates are only concerned with 802.11 standard and wireless in general. For an employeer if you have Cisco infrastructure, going for the Cisco education will benefit him more since you learn to do acctual detailed configuration and troubleshooting in the Cisco infrastructure, you will not get that from the CWNP/CWSP.

    Look at the market share on the market you are interested to work within and then decide. Cisco is extremely strong in the wireless enterprise segment so with that in mind it made sense to me to focus on Cisco as a vendor.


    Ideally one should go for both certification tracks since they are very different and do complement each other - but you must realize the CWNP/CWSP material is much more abstract. For day to day work, you benefit more from being an expert at a vendor's solution than knowing every little detail about the 802.11 protocol, of course there will be exceptions.

    My personal experience is that in Europe employers do not know about the CWNP/CWSP/CWNE certificates, while the CCIE is much more well known and got a much higher reputation. On a technical level the CCIE-Wireless is much more difficult to achieve than the CWNE, however they are not really comparable.

    The job market for strong wireless candidates is ridicilously good these days and this market increase in size every day. Wireless as a technology is expanding faster than any other technology in the network segment - but the number of experts do not keep up right now which makes the demand for the best ones extremely high. You will get offered top pay and a really good position even without CCIE/CWNE but of course it will definetly boost you CV if you have them.

    Am I correct in thinking that almost all CCIE level wireless jobs are for resellers / msp / vendors? It seems like a field where you would need to travel ALL the time.
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    thadizzythadizzy Member Posts: 72 ■■□□□□□□□□
    pert wrote: »
    Am I correct in thinking that almost all CCIE level wireless jobs are for resellers / msp / vendors? It seems like a field where you would need to travel ALL the time.

    Yes and no.. if you work in the field that will be the case. Cisco Advanced Services got a very tough time recruiting for that reason. However there is very often an architect type of position at big enterprises, where you do not work with site surveys or on site work (of course it happends, but rarely..)
    I currently got such a position and I hardly never travel.
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    wifimanwifiman Registered Users Posts: 1 ■□□□□□□□□□
    Hi, new on the forum, nice to meet you all....

    I think the wireless profession is a bit special in the way that you occasionally have to physically visit a site, something we all try to avoid with family and all. Dont think that really has anything to do with the CCIE as such. As thadizzy mentioned, you can go for an Architect role.

    As a comment to the value-of-CWSP discussion: Have had mine since 2006, in the UK a few people recognize it, but for the rest of Europe employers in general are unaware.
    Solid knowledge of 802.11 is never wrong though...
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