Comp Tia, and CCNA will these help me get an IT job? thank you for your help..

dodgerman1978

Hello ladies and gentlemen,

I'm 35 years old and just now decided to go back to college.smh. I guess better late than never! I am currently taking Networking classes for the CCNA certification, and I'm also taking classes to help with the Comp Tia A+ certification. Upon completing these certifications ( I hope) what kind of job titles would I be able to qualify for?

I know it would be entry level since I have ZERO experience.

Thank you very much for your help! I really would appreciate any feedback

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stryder144

There is no real, easy answer to your question. So many factors play into how soon you'll get a job and what type of job it will be. With a CCNA and no experience, you will probably struggle. As such, there are a few things that I will pass along:

1. You need experience. So, the easiest way to get that experience is to either intern through your college or volunteer your time applying what you are learning.

2. Network your butt off. I don't mean the IT version of networking, either. Join any and all industry groups in your area. You can find them at Meetup and on LinkedIn (you are on LinkedIn, aren't you!?). Talk to IT recruiters in your area. Just be enthusiastic and let them know what your passions are and how jazzed you are to be learning what you are learning in school. Don't forget your instructors and your school's employment referral office.

3. Blog about your experience in school and while volunteering. Then post them to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. This gets your name out there. Just make sure that you watch your grammar, punctuation, and spelling. A good blog posting with horrific grammar or spelling mistakes will turn people off. Sad, but true.

4. Practice, practice, practice.

Just my .02. I wish you great success.

Cheers

eansdad

Will they HELP you get an interview then Yes. Will they GET you the job then No.

Having the certs is meaningless if you can't showcase your knowledge during the interview. If you have your CCNA but don't know what port 80 is then your going to have difficulty finding a job in IT.

SteveFT

I just have my A+ and Network+ certifications. I was able to land a few interviews. Finding an entry-level job can be difficult, so I took the first offer that I was given. I will be making ~$35,000 per year while working 24 hours per week. While this works for me, I know that many people could not work for this much money, especially with no benefits.

One of the other jobs I had a phone interview for was a NOC position. If you have your A+ and CCNA, then that will be a start towards one of these positions. Many of them require experience, but you will find the occasional posting that does not. Be ready for long overnight shifts if you take this route. This position would have had me working Wednesday - Saturday, with 2 - 12 hour shifts and 2 - 8 hours shifts. The hours were mostly 7pm - 7am or 11pm - 7am.

As others have said, certifications will not get you the job. They will just show that you have some initiative and that you are willing to learn. I highly suggest looking through your network to see who might be able to find you a job. Not only did I find my job through a friend, but I was also given a higher pay rate because I was a friend of a friend.

JasonIT

Stryder has great advice! Might I also add, since you are looking into CCNA, to search for your local Cisco Users Group. Most cities have one and its a great place to social network. Mine local group meets once a month. Someone usually provides a meal and sometimes they give away books etc.

Its a great place to meet people who share the same interest. Also, they usually are other guys looking for jobs as well as people that may be hiring/recruiting at the event.

Good Luck

J

DoubleNNs

SteveFT wrote: »

I will be making ~$35,000 per year while working 24 hours per week.

Wow, that's awesome. I'd love a job like that at the moment. Be able to hit the gym and exercise regularly, keep in touch with friends easily, and still make easy progress on certs and improving my skillset - I'd be studying more than I'd be at my job.

I'm jealous. lol

asurania

buddy of mine with zero IT experience got a job due to his CCNA at IBM....it paid him approx $27 an hour.... he now got a better job at $40 an hour, and he is working on his CCNP

So short answer yes. CCNA will do a lot more then the comptia, but of course do both.......
If your also more...

asurania

One thing...try to get into a NOC
CCNA and MCSA Server 2012 combo would be an awesome combo

Then from there see your interest and your experience to judge what the next step is

draught

No, having your CCNA, and A+ will not easily get you a professional IT job. I have been working hard since the beginning of October just to get interviews. Now if you have a bachelor's degree already that would be a big help I'd say, otherwise you are going to have to show them that you have knowledge. The zero experience part is what will be your biggest problem. I'd agree with the other poster that getting your MCSA as well would really help.

RouteMyPacket

I'm probably the last type of interviewer you want to run into. If I have a resume in front of me and for instance, let's say he/she has a CCNA R/S. I will hammer them on CCNA level R/S questions and scenarios.

See questions are rather easy, "What is a VLAN?"..experience will show when asked "Tell me how you would go about segmenting a network into three VLANs, one for Mgmt, UserData, Voice traffic. You have 100 users, how will you IP this network?"

Extremely basic question, an experienced individual will at the least be able to articulate how this could be carried out. Someone who simply has a certification will crumble and sink themselves. It's hilarious because if you don't know, simply say "I'm sorry I don't know exactly how I would do that?". I have more respect for honesty than a lying wannabe.

ANYONE can learn, and NOBODY can know it all. I can teach someone who is honest and willing to learn versus a lying know it all that thinks they are a Sr. Engineer.

Continue working on your CCNA OP but you have to live the technology, day to day is where we accumulate experience. Networking as mentioned before is instrumental in building up contacts and if you are focused and put in the effort someone will notice it and next thing you know "Hey, I know a guy who has his CCNA, he's always willing to learn and wants to continue his certifications etc" then you get the call.

Moral of the story, do NOT put anything on your resume that you can't back up!

Good luck!

draught

Don't mean to steal the thread but Just curious RouteMyPacket. What job title (NOC?) would even let you have an interview for a networking job to begin with provided you only had a CCNA and maybe an associates degree?

I would LOVE to get an interview and actually be asked about networking and CCNA level topics. When I look at entry level requirements for networking jobs (NOC). I usually see this:

Experience with Unix and/or Linux.
Experience with MS products such as; Windows, Exchange, Active Directory, SQL

Seems it's going to take more than CCNA for a networking position I'd think?

bermovick

My first IT gig was at a NOC - having the CCNA (and only the CCNA) got me the job. The pay was decent - 32k/year, working 3-on/3-off 12-hour shifts. Getting the night shift let me study for the CCNP over the 18 months I worked there.

Sadly I got almost no networking experience there (although I got a smattering of telephony experience - Call manager, SIP, etc), but I got my current job with the CCNP and being honest that most of my knowledge was "theoretical" (book knowledge).

SixtyCycle

What do you gain from a NOC position? Others have stated that they didn't get any networking experience. So what do you learn from it? Windows Server maintenance? Linux? How long does one need to stay there before he/she learns the ins & outs of it and be ready to move on? I'm also looking at getting my start in IT and would appreciate the insight.

bermovick

NOCs vary wildly, but in my case (disregarding all the voice stuff), the company leased lines and (optionally) edge devices to their customers. That part of the job was mostly watching the monitoring software. If a line dropped we'd log into our device and run a test on the circuit then usually call the higher level carrier (AT&T, L3, etc).

There wasn't very much experience with that really, but it WAS logging in and working with the CLI on large routers (7600s). I also occasionally got to log onto the customer devices for troubleshooting or configuration changes (I got to implement DMVPN on one of our customers, including adding a missed site to the mesh after the network engineer had left for the day. I also troubleshot an issue where I actually got to see the problem caused if you point a static route out a multiaccess interface rather than using a next-hop address)

I worked night shift - doing so let me be the tech working during maintenance windows which SHOULD HAVE given me a lot more opportunities working with the engineers doing maintenance, but I was always snubbed when asking to assist there. Working nights gave me a lot of time to study though, letting me get my CCNA Security and CCNP during the 1.5 years I worked there before moving on.

SixtyCycle

Thanks, I appreciate the input.

bermovick wrote: »

NOCs vary wildly, but in my case (disregarding all the voice stuff), the company leased lines and (optionally) edge devices to their customers. That part of the job was mostly watching the monitoring software. If a line dropped we'd log into our device and run a test on the circuit then usually call the higher level carrier (AT&T, L3, etc).

There wasn't very much experience with that really, but it WAS logging in and working with the CLI on large routers (7600s). I also occasionally got to log onto the customer devices for troubleshooting or configuration changes (I got to implement DMVPN on one of our customers, including adding a missed site to the mesh after the network engineer had left for the day. I also troubleshot an issue where I actually got to see the problem caused if you point a static route out a multiaccess interface rather than using a next-hop address)

I worked night shift - doing so let me be the tech working during maintenance windows which SHOULD HAVE given me a lot more opportunities working with the engineers doing maintenance, but I was always snubbed when asking to assist there. Working nights gave me a lot of time to study though, letting me get my CCNA Security and CCNP during the 1.5 years I worked there before moving on.