The CCNA will be pretty useless unless you can back it up with some experience too. We pretty much bin any CCNA/MCSA and the like applicants that have no relevant experience. Generally paper exam and no experience means ActualTests and the like rather than knowing the subject.
CCNA where to sit, how much?
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The point is, a lot of people do the CCNA due to it leading to better paid IT jobs. This "lot of people" include those of whom who have worked in the industry at 1st and 2nd line support roles for a year or two.
These people with hands on experience of the job/environment will be more favourably looked at than someone who is purely paper based and would need to be trained from the ground up.
Having no experience in the industry and a CCNA *is* worthless, when looking at it from an employer/interviewer's point of view. Or at least, that is how I look at it (and I am in that position).
As was said in your other thread. By all means, get the qualification, but don't be disheartened by the prospect of having to start on a menial helpdesk role.
CCNA is worth doing just to cover networking and Cisco basics but it really is a fairly low level qualification and one that is pretty easy to pick up by using stuff like testking. As others have said, if you are serious about getting into this then get some hardware so you can have a proper play with it and use it for the more serious qualifications.
I've picked up quite a few qualifications (MCSE, CISA, CISSP, CCNA, CCSE and others) and they are all great for bolstering the CV but practical experience is infinitely more useful for actually doing the job so you need to get a balance otherwise you may find yourself getting embarassed in an interview or worse in a job you aren't "qualified" for and in the current climate that means you won't be doing it for long!
Good luck, it's a hard time to get into IT and sadly there are a LOT of people who are being tricked by unscrupulous companies into thinking getting a CCNA and a couple of MS certs will land them a £30-40k job, but if you are determined and intelligent then once you have done a year or two of grunt work you can make a good living and start doing more interesting things.
I've picked up quite a few qualifications (MCSE, CISA, CISSP, CCNA, CCSE and others) and they are all great for bolstering the CV but practical experience is infinitely more useful for actually doing the job so you need to get a balance otherwise you may find yourself getting embarassed in an interview or worse in a job you aren't "qualified" for and in the current climate that means you won't be doing it for long!
Good luck, it's a hard time to get into IT and sadly there are a LOT of people who are being tricked by unscrupulous companies into thinking getting a CCNA and a couple of MS certs will land them a £30-40k job, but if you are determined and intelligent then once you have done a year or two of grunt work you can make a good living and start doing more interesting things.
Interesting although i pretty much knew this anyway.
I am on a taught A+ IT essen. course just now (very basic i know, i know all the content but the opportunity came up to do it so why waste it?), and the trainer reckons he can get us a few months work experience when we complete, so i thought i could do the CCNA on my own in my spare time at the same time and end up with 2 certs and a few months work ex. Now this will take a few months to complete obviously, what do you think, a decent start ?
Depends entirely on what the "experience" is. If its proper enterprise based (which I doubt it would be), then its a start, but not enough experience to get into a more technical role. However work experience can lead to being kept on in a role, but that would depend on the situation.
If its simply helping Joe with his hairdresser sole tradership and his POP3 emails, then it's about as useful as doing a weeks work experience as a bus driver.
Either way, it would still leave you in the situation where you need to be looking at a lower end IT role, and in which case, you have a year in which to get your CCNA (as without at least a years enterprise-level experience, it won't mean much).
If its simply helping Joe with his hairdresser sole tradership and his POP3 emails, then it's about as useful as doing a weeks work experience as a bus driver.
Either way, it would still leave you in the situation where you need to be looking at a lower end IT role, and in which case, you have a year in which to get your CCNA (as without at least a years enterprise-level experience, it won't mean much).
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I think the CCNA is quite good value, you're learning a lot of the basics which form a core understanding of the subject, now that they changed it with CCNA 2007 it includes basic voip and wireless, something that I missed when I did mine and would have helped me no end when I moved forward to take my CCNP this year.
With regards to getting study information, I didn't torrent, but I did get it by bidding for some items. I'd also recommend CBT nuggets - CCNA 2007 a guy at work got them and they're pretty good and helped him to understand bits of the subject, it's certainly better than going it alone.
I got some for my CCNP and I've also got some for the CCVP which, once I get some more time I'll start looking into that fully.
From an employment stance, it's certainly worth a lot more with the practical experience than on it's own.
As suggested I'd get some real kit to play on, having it in a sim if fine, but until you've connected serial cables the wrong way around and started to troubleshoot the fact that you've been a tool, you'll never get the feel for it...
With regards to getting study information, I didn't torrent, but I did get it by bidding for some items. I'd also recommend CBT nuggets - CCNA 2007 a guy at work got them and they're pretty good and helped him to understand bits of the subject, it's certainly better than going it alone.
I got some for my CCNP and I've also got some for the CCVP which, once I get some more time I'll start looking into that fully.
From an employment stance, it's certainly worth a lot more with the practical experience than on it's own.
As suggested I'd get some real kit to play on, having it in a sim if fine, but until you've connected serial cables the wrong way around and started to troubleshoot the fact that you've been a tool, you'll never get the feel for it...
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Sit at the back, all the cool people sit at the back
We get enough applicants for roles that a CCNA is useless on its own. The CV won't even go through to interview stage. There are too many ways of getting a quick CCNA without actually knowing the subject, just by knowing the exam. MCSE is just the same (if not worse as more people seem to have heard of it).
No decent enterprise level business would hire you based on a CCNA for any role that needs a CCNA level of knowledge.
For those suggesting getting a small ccna lab off ebay, would that realy be needed for me because my course with the OU provides access to the cisco academy (so i can get packet tracer as a sim), provide me with all the books on the subject as well as several day schools throughout the course to get some hands on time with the routers.
Even with all that do you think buying a lab is essential? And i dont mean to essential to pass the exams, i mean as in to learn the subject thoroughly? I will get a lab if it will give me better experience then a few days of pure hands on work at the day schools, but technology moves so fast these days and i wasn't sure if the labs on ebay would be up to date, like wireless has been added into the CCNA yet no labs i have seen come with wireless cisco devices.
Edit: Also, how worthwhile is a CCNP, and how much more advanced is it over a CCNA? i ask because the OU also do a postgrad diploma in advanced networking (which is 4 CCNP courses), and if i can learn that at the same time as doing a basic ICT job once i finish my degree then that will mean that 2 years down the line (after my degree) i will not only have 2 years experience, but a CCNP/postgrad diploma too (and that postgrad diploma becomes a Masters degree if i do a dissertation course as well).
Even with all that do you think buying a lab is essential? And i dont mean to essential to pass the exams, i mean as in to learn the subject thoroughly? I will get a lab if it will give me better experience then a few days of pure hands on work at the day schools, but technology moves so fast these days and i wasn't sure if the labs on ebay would be up to date, like wireless has been added into the CCNA yet no labs i have seen come with wireless cisco devices.
Edit: Also, how worthwhile is a CCNP, and how much more advanced is it over a CCNA? i ask because the OU also do a postgrad diploma in advanced networking (which is 4 CCNP courses), and if i can learn that at the same time as doing a basic ICT job once i finish my degree then that will mean that 2 years down the line (after my degree) i will not only have 2 years experience, but a CCNP/postgrad diploma too (and that postgrad diploma becomes a Masters degree if i do a dissertation course as well).
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Soldato
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Agreed. I'm not on the Interview panel in my current job but if I had been the new guy who just started would not have got the job.
Paper MCSA with very little experience and it shows. I have to check everything he does.
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In all honesty dont give this idiot any of your time he is just a troll look at his last thread in GD
So long as its a 2611 or 2621, then although "old", will still be perfectly servicable and can connect to ADSL connections with a WIC1-ADSL module (sadly not Annex-M lines, so 8MB max).
As for switches, a 2900 series (so long as F/E) would be perfectly adequate for CCNA labs, although these days, you may find a 3500 series falling into the "affordable" bracket.
Rubbish, i am starting to see the depth of networking after all this now, especially after briefly reading through the CCNA manual, this isn't secret knowledge and some people in here enjoy talking networking.
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Hi Dist,
I'd say the CCNP was well worthwhile, it goes into a lot more detail than the CCNA - CCNP is 4 exams or 3 if you take the combo...
Routing
Switching which includes a little VoIP and wireless
Above as a combo
Security - VPN's, Cisco SDM (yeah they put that in the exams too
)Optimization - QOS and VoIP
You cover basic BGP, multi-area OSPF, IS-IS, go into spanning-tree in a lot more detail as well as port security. I got a lot out of it and it certainly adds some weight to the CV (with experience). I'm also looking to take the CCVP too.
Lab stuff is worth it, I'd go for some of the 'newer' kit, 2611, 2621 xm's if you can find them as they can run call manager express if you want to later
Serial interfaces still crop up, you'll need to do VLAN's. a couple of routers and a switch or a couple of switches are fine. Like I said before, sim's are ok, but until you're tinkering with the kit and know what a serial interface looks like and stuff like you've spent 20 mins scratching your head because the interface won't come up because you've been a tool and plugged it in the wrong way. This kind of thing a sim can't replicate and won't prep you for in real-life.
I've had a number of bits from online auctions, but I'm also in a fortunate enough position to have a test-lab in the office, so I can pretty much run up most things that take my fancy (even have a call-manager in there so that'll be handy for me soon!)
Kev
i just got home from college. passed CCNA1 v4 Exploration final exam 