CISCO all its cracked up to be?

joki

joki

joki

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Joined
15 Jan 2004
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Ipswich
Hi

Im applying to Uni at the moment and been looking around a few Universities and some oof them are offereing CISCO others are not. What I really want to know is, is it preferable to have the CCNA to your name to get employment? I am mainly interested iin a course at UCE in Birmingham which is Networks with Security. The centre is amazing, all brand new equipment etc

Anyway, id be really interested in who you all think
 
Depends.

What job do you want when you finish uni? Will a Cisco qual be relevant? Will it still be valid when you finish uni, ie, will you have to re-take any exams to stay qualified?

Best thing to do is look at some job ads and see what sort of things they ask for. Pointless getting CCNA or CCNP if you're looking at jobs that require MCSE!
 
Paper qualifications really mean nothing.
I'm interviewing at the moment to take on a new person in our department.
We're seeing the usual selection of CV's with Microsoft, Redhat, Cisco qualifications listed.
We ignore these and grant interviews really on the rest of the CV and most importantly experience.

With the Internet being this great area for "cramming" and the like so many qualifications have become extremely diluted.
Whereas people used to have to work had to pick up a single MCP - I know people who have just crammed a few days before the exam and passed.
 
The course goes into a lot more detail than just the CCNA, it is actually much more directed towards Security than the actual administrating side. I had a look at MMU in manchester yesterday and it just didnt have any where near the structure or correct modules for which i wanted, for one thing they were doing nothing on .NET which i felt was odd.
 
CCNA might not help you get a job but I cant see how it would detract anyone from employing you, its good for a basic overview of networking. Its classic chicken and egg problem when it comes to employment. Need experience to get a job, but cant get a job with no experience to start with.
 
Dave77 said:
CCNA might not help you get a job but I cant see how it would detract anyone from employing you, its good for a basic overview of networking. Its classic chicken and egg problem when it comes to employment. Need experience to get a job, but cant get a job with no experience to start with.
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If you're going through uni try to get a degree with industrial experience (sandwitch course) or work over holidays in the sort of role you want (prefferably the former)

I don't have a CCNA, but am looking to study for one in the near future (and I have a degree in Computer Systems Engineering from what was UMIST now part of Manchester uni)
 
the course Im doing does have an optional year placement which i will definatly be taking. Thanks for everyones views so far :)
 
Depends really what you want to do, the thing about Cisco certs is that it teaches you a good level of networking theory whilst applying it to the actual technology, its highly up to date and well known. Obviously when it comes to getting a job you'll struggle against someone who has the cert and the experience, but if you go to Uni, do the CCNA get a placement and some experience you'll be in a good position. When it comes to getting a decent job in I.T you cannot skimp on experience, if theres a production network with 5000 desktops and 5000 ip phones, you'll need to know your stuff and no amount of certs can teach you how to do it in the real world, only best practises and theory.
 
My advice would be to do the CCNA as well. I've only ever worked for ISP's so my experience is probably a bit different to others but in this industry certs are great for getting you into positions.

The thing is, you have to do the cert properly. If you read and do some pracs you will gain real Cisco skills which are in huge demand at the moment. I'll be honest, it's quite possible to cheat on most of these certs - there are people (Destroying the value of industry qualifications!!! :mad: ) that will sell you "practice questions" which are actually stolen from the realexam.

If you get a CCNA, it will help you get interviews but from that point you will get asked technical questions. If you genuinely worked hard and learnt the material you will be fine.

People slating certs in this thread are quite justified (Due to the huge scale cheating) but genuinely earning them will make you a better engineer.
 
I think Cisco certs are OK when you are studying and trying to get a foot through the door but once in the industry they can become pretty irrelevant. I work alongside some very experience IP engineers yet none have bothered to get any certs, and I am sure most of them could walk through a CCIE.
Personally I have bought the books and read some but never got to the point of taking the CCNA exam. I am more keen to do Juniper certs tha Cisco as most of my world involves WAN connectivity and we use Juniper kit.
Speaking to the IP engineering manager he says experience and to a degree reputations are more important than certs alone. He turned down several people with CCIE for jobs recently as they had very little real world experience.

Go ahead and get the certs if you can, but don't expect them to automatically open doors for you.
 
There are some paper CCIEs out there sure, but I know for a fact of many companies that simply bin CVs that don't have the certs that are looked for, it's an easy way to filter candidates. Technical\personal interviews are time consuming and expensive.
 
Thats true but then it should not always be used as a filter. One of my friends son is doing a CCNA at school so are you saying that he is more worthy of a job than me with no certs but 4 years solid experience with a tier1 carrier? I get calls from rival companies every now and then offering me posts yet when I look at the job spec it might say CCNA/NP required.

I'm sure I will get around to doing some sometime, but purely for my own self esteem really.
 
pdw8 said:
Thats true but then it should not always be used as a filter. One of my friends son is doing a CCNA at school so are you saying that he is more worthy of a job than me with no certs but 4 years solid experience with a tier1 carrier? I get calls from rival companies every now and then offering me posts yet when I look at the job spec it might say CCNA/NP required.

I'm sure I will get around to doing some sometime, but purely for my own self esteem really.
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Same here I have worked for a large business ISP for 7 years now, and still haven't got around to sitting my ccna/ccnp, although I have just started looking for a new job (going contracting) and all I see at the moment is companies wanting you to have at least CCNA.....so looks like its time to get down to the test center :)
 
I've got my CCIE R&S lab exam booked for December in Brussels, im not doing it because I want to earn £xx money, or because I want to change jobs, im simply doing it because I love networks and I like a challenge, i've worked for several giant companies over 6 years and I think its about time I can have a go at it. I did the entire CCNP in 2 months.. was a breeze.
There are a lot of CCIE "LabRats" out there, who bought a load of kit off Ebay and sat for 12 months learning every aspect of it, but they're not experts, thus they don't get jobs.
I think its naive to say "Certs are worthless" in my experience the only people who say that are people who havn't got any/cba to get any. Experience and certs go hand in hand, but the bottom line is no one will touch you unless you've got some proven experience, its that simple.
 
As someone who's hired a fair few CCIE's and non-certs into support/PS/SE roles, the certs help to show the desire to learn as well as a guide for actual knowledge. Without the real world experience you'll faill any decent interview process though.

If you're JNCIE-M cert then you'll prob pass a core routing practical test though.

Some of the high volume recruiters will filter on the certs at a first level though
 
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