CCNA vs Bsc

Skilldibop · 25 Jan 2006 at 13:10

Which do you think is the best thing to do after A levels? Which do people find most useful or attractive as an employer or Employeee.

I know what i did, and what my mates did, but my brother is heading the same path as me and i'm wondering if i should convince him to do a CCNA after A2 as his college does it and his computer science lecturer is the CCNA tutor. Also he's entitled to do it free if he's under 19, afaik. I got it free, but that was at another college.

Also any other comments about education for a career in IT are welcome, this is something that's not often discussed amongst wide range of users, beginners and seasoned IT pros.

Skilldibop · 25 Jan 2006 at 13:31

That's what i did, less the CCNP because it's too expensive and the best/cheapest place for me to do it is UCL. My mate is at uni in his second year and he knows a fair bit about programming but not a lot about the practical stuff. He wanted me to teach him how to set up WPA cos he'd been earning a bit of cash doing odd jobs and only ever used WEP.
Infact he said "can you teach me the other protocol" so not only did he no know what it was but he didn't know what it did either.

While he was doing that i went and did a CCNA and got me 2 jobs, the second pays more and is more cushy

Skilldibop · 25 Jan 2006 at 13:41

Good to see i didn't make a hash of things for myself either

When i got this second job i hadn't actually finished CCNA it was mainly some experience and the fact that i put down in my CV exactly what i could do. not like "i've worked with computers before", but "i've built them, networked them, file shared, VLAN'd, domained, workgrouped......" Also mentioned the fact i'd been using PCs since i was 7. Which is now 12 years combined experience (11 when i started). Thus i'd used nearly all Windows OS versions and had learned things hands on as opposed to from books.
I thought that kinda stuff would sell me better than 3 letters after my name.
Added to that the fact my school arsed up my Alevel royally and i came out with only a D in computing. (tho tis kinda obvious as i had a good physics teacher and got a C, physics needing a similar brain but lots harder.)

Skilldibop · 25 Jan 2006 at 13:45

Mainly because the CCNA courses have been offered out at any which college lessening its value.

True, but if you get it surely your just as good as someone who did it elsewhere??
although i agree for what might be differeing reasons. A lot of colleges do it full time making it quite easy to acomplish. Where i did it in term times 4hours a week on a saturday morning. due to the fast pace you had to understand things as opposed to haveing things drummed into you through repetition.

Skilldibop · 25 Jan 2006 at 14:04

hmm, i did a thing that was like a combined course. It took you from A+ through Net+ MCP in XP server+ and all eventually adding up to an MCSA. But i got bored and went for a full time job instead because A+ jst seemed to be legacy stuff and even the "new" things were at least 2 or 3 years out of date.
MCP isn't awfully good tho cos it's quite OS specific. If your employer uses something else it's pretty worthless.

Skilldibop · 25 Jan 2006 at 14:26

Do a Server+ if you want to be a network engineer CCNx's don't look much at servers. Tho like an MCP you do a server plus in Server 2000 or 2003 or NT.
One tip i stand by in my short but colourful career to date is:
To begin with get a Net admin job assisting in running a network. If your lucky it'll be nice and diverse or rapidly expanding. I wouldn't go for field engineer. I did that, and without experience it's very very hard. Unless you've seen or looked at the many ways of doing things it's very hard to drop yourself into the midst of someone elses network and try and make head or tail of what's going on.

Skilldibop · 25 Jan 2006 at 16:33

Probably one exception to that would be MCSE as a work placement of i think 6months minimum is a course requirement. MCSA + experience and some exams = MCSE or from what i gathered while i was interested.

Skilldibop · 26 Jan 2006 at 11:16

eXSBass said:
I'm doing it in 2 years
However bear in mind i'm also doing other A Levels and my teacher is rubbish

i'ver never met a bad CCNA instructor, unless they're not a certified CCNA instructor and jsut a computing teacher standing in.
where you studying it?

Skilldibop · 26 Jan 2006 at 12:46

I didn't say "Uni" i said "bsc" i.e a degree in computing/computer science.

(i do BSc Computer Network Tech, final year) and i'll be honest, it's something i'd least like to do now.

that just says to me that your course is so boring that it's put you off. one thing i have noticed is Pro courses are far more practical and hands on, and often far faster paced. I enjoy networking and i've done several professional quals and i still enjoy it.
But the topic was the useful content of the courses when unleashed into the real world. In my personal experience the people i know doing technical degrees know less after 2 years full time than i do after 1 year doing 4 hours a week whilst working.