So why are you getting cisco certified?

I have been working in house for a large retail bank on a medium size campus site (3000 users) for 15 years. My responsibility's have been IT communications adds, moves, changes with faults thrown in. We do everything that involves patching and cabling together with LAN, WAN, VIOP and Wi-Fi hardware. The frustrating part of the job is that we unfortunately cant make any changes to the cisco network config . We have read only privilege that allows to look but not change/configure anything . The NOC and all configuration work is done by an off-shore office where English is not there first language. Lets just say its always a challenge to get problems sorted.

This leads me to why I am finally after 15 year getting cisco Certified. I would simply like to see an installation from start to finish. Also getting more understating of what goes on inside the hardware and fixing faults would be great. Probably have to move jobs to use my skills but I look forward to the challenge. I have loads of old kit to work on so labs will not be a problem. CCENT 1 and 2 RS ,CCNA voice and Wifi and that will do for now.

So that's me.....Why are you getting certified?

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Comments

joelsfood

My primary reason for any certification is to get a set of letters on resume that get my past HR (which match up to my actual experience. NOT getting certs that reflect something I'm not actually qualified for).

As an aside, it also helps my company fulfill our partner requirements.

bigdogz

I work for a MSP. I get certified for multiple reasons. I am working on vendor certs so I can learn more about the stuff I am using for our customers. It also helps my company when partnering up with vendors.
When I obtain certs that are vendor neutral I learn about that environment how how it works and apply the knowledge in day to day activities and projects.
Another reason for obtaining certs is just to constantly further my knowledge in general. I also do it in the case I am looking for a new job or get laid off.

networker050184

Employers like certified people. Learning is fun too, but I wouldn't worry about certifying if it wasn't helping me in my career.

d4nz1g

1- knowledge
2- broader point of view
3- resume/cv

NetworkNewb

gotta get those dolla dolla bills y'all!

(copy what networker said above me right here)

LeisureSuitLarry

Hoping it'll help me find a job. So far it hasn't.

NetworkNewb

LeisureSuitLarry wrote: »

Hoping it'll help me find a job. So far it hasn't.

That's because you only have half of what most consider Cisco's entry level cert, CCNA. Not many people are looking for someone with just a CCENT and probably won't get passed HR with that. Going off topic, but guarantee you would see more callbacks with finishing that up. Keep plugging away

LeisureSuitLarry

NetworkNewb wrote: »

That's because you only have half of what most consider Cisco's entry level cert, CCNA. Not many people are looking for someone with just a CCENT and probably won't get passed HR with that. Going off topic, but guarantee you would see more callbacks with finishing that up. Keep plugging away

Well, I'm working on CCNA Wireless now. Hoping it'll help.

mgmguy1

I currently work has a Tier 1 Telecommunications help desk person for a small Internet Service Provider. I am getting certified because I am tried of not being able to fix issues I know how to fix on Cisco equipment. As an example, When one of my customer's Ethernet Port is down due to a building outage that has been over for hours I have to open a trouble tkt and send it to tier 2 for them to do a shut/no shut to bring them back up. I have been told if I bring them up without a trouble ticket I will be written up. When I worked for a Large ISP I had much more freedom to work and trouble shoot issues then I do at this small ISP. Plus I want to move up and get into the Voice and Security side of things. My current work says I have to have a CCNA before I can do Tier 2 stuff. I love learning new things and I am getting tired of doing Tier 1 stuff

CMalon02

It's a specific job I want at a cellular company switch in my area they require CCNA for that job.

xenodamus

When I started down that road, my goal was to get a purely networking related job. I did that, but eventually moved on to other areas of technology. It's funny how your career progresses in directions you would have never expected.

Now I specialize in VDI and SBC technologies, but having Cisco certs gives me instant street-cred with regard to networking concepts.

ebohlman

xenodamus wrote: »

Now I specialize in VDI and SBC technologies, but having Cisco certs gives me instant street-cred with regard to networking concepts.

Am I correctly guessing that that means you're allowed to talk directly to the networking people rather than having to play a game of Telephone with them, going through managers who don't understand the involved technology?

OctalDump

It's what everyone else does, basically. Most networking roles don't need everything in the CCNA R+S. Probably CCENT is even overkill for anything like System + Network Admin roles in smaller organisations (say single site under 150 users). But those roles still ask for CCNA, because that's what everyone has. Bit like all those MCSA's that spend all day pushing out group policy, or reseting passwords, or adding printers to the network.

But if the jobs ask for it, and most of the candidates have it, then getting it is a smart move.

Having said that, I actually did the CCNA R+S Cisco Academy course as part of a degree. It is still probably the best vendor course I've done. It's better even than some of the generic IT courses I've done at university. It touches on nearly everything you would likely want to know about, and puts a good chunk of it into context i.e. how you would apply all the technologies in a real network and how different parts work together.

So assuming that you learn the CCNA content, it really does give your networking skills/knowledge a pretty solid foundation. And a good general overview makes troubleshooting a lot easier than "there's some weird, intermittent problem with the network, maybe I'll restart the switches"

byron66

I just want to get as many as I possibly can. I like a challenge and I want to prove something to my self and of course money.

no!all!

I'm getting my CCNA because I'd like to be a network engineer someday. At this point I feel like CCNA is my only way out of my current job since there's no hope for me joining the network team.

Jon_Cisco

So I picked up my CCNA as part of my associates degree. The courses were a joke because anyone who wanted an easy A could look up the answers on the internet and ace every exam. I however did learn the information which is already slipping away.

My primary reason for going for a certification is that it gives me a structured goal. Reading a certification book often means reading a lot of stuff you already know and a lot of stuff you don't think you care about. But it does give you a broader understanding of a topic and exposes you to ideas and features you might not have been aware before hand.

toasterboy1

I am trying to change careers and the CCNA salary range seems comparable.