IT Consultancy/Support and Network engineering

TechMinerUK · 20 May 2016 at 21:14

Hi everyone, sorry for another thread about IT jobs but since I've seen a few posts about it I was hoping I would be able to gain some advice on the certifications/qualifications that would be useful for going into this field of work.

I have plenty of time to research, learn and take the tests so I would greatly appreciated any advice on anything that will help me break into this field

paradigm · 21 May 2016 at 07:45

Start small. Get yourself the course/syllabus materials for the Cisco ICND1 and ICND2 (CCENT and CCNA R&S). From there you need to decide if you want to diversify into a particular networking field (Wifi, Voice, Design, Security, etc) or if you are going to stay with the "Core" Routing and Switching track.

Experience is typically held in as high (or higher) regard than qualifications, so you'll need to work your way up the career ladder also. Get yourself in at the bottom as a network tech/engineer, preferably at a Cisco partner or at least a business that utilizes a majority of Cisco equipment.

Getting hands on is most definitely key, which is why a lot of "pupils" of Cisco tracks end up owning their own lab kit (I do, plus run my home network on Cisco kit), but don't go all in immediately, the earlier qualifications can be studied for using software (GNS3, Cisco Packet Tracer), but a few cheap and simple physical devices wouldn't go amiss for giving yourself opportunity to do the few things you can't do in emulators and simulators (physically configuring, firmware updates, password recovery, etc).

As for timescales, well really putting your spare time into ICND1 and 2 should be possible within 3-4 months in reality (I did it in 2 I seem to recall).

Andybtsn · 21 May 2016 at 07:57

Another solution is to try and find someone who are hiring trainees/apprentices such as the company I work for who give you exposure to the Cisco kit.
We've been interviewing for a network engineer for around 6 months now, we are very picky however the amount of candidates with CCNA/CCNP who don't understand subnetting and basic routing and switching is scary.
Cisco looks good on paper but cannot replace "live" working on the kit. Crap wage for a while but massive benefits for the future.

TechMinerUK · 21 May 2016 at 08:10

paradigm said:
Start small. Get yourself the course/syllabus materials for the Cisco ICND1 and ICND2 (CCENT and CCNA R&S). From there you need to decide if you want to diversify into a particular networking field (Wifi, Voice, Design, Security, etc) or if you are going to stay with the "Core" Routing and Switching track.

Experience is typically held in as high (or higher) regard than qualifications, so you'll need to work your way up the career ladder also. Get yourself in at the bottom as a network tech/engineer, preferably at a Cisco partner or at least a business that utilizes a majority of Cisco equipment.

Getting hands on is most definitely key, which is why a lot of "pupils" of Cisco tracks end up owning their own lab kit (I do, plus run my home network on Cisco kit), but don't go all in immediately, the earlier qualifications can be studied for using software (GNS3, Cisco Packet Tracer), but a few cheap and simple physical devices wouldn't go amiss for giving yourself opportunity to do the few things you can't do in emulators and simulators (physically configuring, firmware updates, password recovery, etc).

As for timescales, well really putting your spare time into ICND1 and 2 should be possible within 3-4 months in reality (I did it in 2 I seem to recall).

Andybtsn said:
Another solution is to try and find someone who are hiring trainees/apprentices such as the company I work for who give you exposure to the Cisco kit.
We've been interviewing for a network engineer for around 6 months now, we are very picky however the amount of candidates with CCNA/CCNP who don't understand subnetting and basic routing and switching is scary.
Cisco looks good on paper but cannot replace "live" working on the kit. Crap wage for a while but massive benefits for the future.

Thank you guys, this will help for the time being as I had no idea where to start. Also glad to know that I don't have to invest in a massive amount of equipment before I've even started to study