Network Admin Requirements?

[Ghiedo27]

That's because everyone knows a CCNA needs to have 2+ years experience or it's a testking/bootcamp cert.

As someone who's studying his arse off for the CCNA (to actually absorb the material and be competent) I have to ask; am I wasting my time? Should I honestly just study the test bullets to cert up and then work my way up from the bottom?

I understand that there's a wide gap between something you 'know' on paper and something you can put into practice, but I was hoping that I would at least have a good shot at getting a proper interview with the cert. Is there something I can round out my skill set with that would make a difference?

 

[mammador]

CCNA has no prior requirements, but it's recommended that one has some networking experience before taking it. CCENT and CCNA can be obtained in two seperate exams.

 

[Ghiedo27]

CCNA has no prior requirements, but it's recommended that one has some networking experience before taking it. CCENT and CCNA can be obtained in two seperate exams.

Right, I've completed the ICND1 portion and I'm working my way through the 2nd part right now. I'm more concerned with being employable (preferably $40k+ in the Atlanta area).

 

[her209]

excuse me? 😱 Pearson Vue only has it for 250 US.

I would agree OP with CCNA or even CompTIA Network. I'm not sure if CCNA in itself can get a network administrator post, maybe a network technician or other support role in a larger IT functional area. After that, go for CCIE and higher Cisco certifications.

He said "course". Course cost can vary greatly. The exam cost is $250.

 

[Emulex]

you can cover the basics and testking the rest but as i said - i'm not letting a n00b ccna near any gear - it would be an entry "watch only" training position - which to be honest - there is a glutton of folks who knows their networking (ccna or not) - so yeah experience counts.

Tons of jobless folks who have 10 years experience in a datacenter dealing with networking - and that comes with more than just a ccna. can you facilitate everything necessary to pull a (DS1,DS3,OC3)? contract, ip's, dns, provisioning of physical, router config best practice, follow up testing etc. ? firewall/switching/IPS?

Tons of people that can "handle it" from start to finish. I don't think they teach you all aspects with just one cert. Hell i've seen some folks that claimed to be CCIE that didn't even know how to handle BGP4 in a simple dual-homed dual-router cisco setup. Which is pretty textbook simple (dude didn't know how big two full routing tables were and tried to run it on an old pair of SP that had 90% of the ram necessary). After some serious flapping and having to force down an interface so claimed CCIE had to phone home for help. fortunately they had a single SP with enough ram so we just ran on a single router for a bit of time. Of course the CCIE didn't check the revisions of the ATM and ethernet ports so his new router processor wouldn't accept the old revision boards (epic fail to not check firmware and hardware revisions before attempting upgrade).

Needless to say i've been jaded with expensive CCIE's - i think most of them don't pimp themselves out these days.

CCDA (ccna+ccda + specialization) = guaranteed job - even if you don't work. 🙂 called pimping your certs out. If you are going to be book smart - do the CCDA+CCNA+some specialization tracks - you will be worth money to resellers with zero need for actual work.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

excuse me? 😱 Pearson Vue only has it for 250 US.

I would agree OP with CCNA or even CompTIA Network. I'm not sure if CCNA in itself can get a network administrator post, maybe a network technician or other support role in a larger IT functional area. After that, go for CCIE and higher Cisco certifications.

The class, not the exam

 

[Ghiedo27]

Thanks for the honesty Emulex.

Any place in particular you would recommend as a good place to get experience? The last thing I want is to be stuck in a best buy or generic help desk for a year or two getting "IT" experience that isn't really any experience at all.

I don't want to give the impression that I want to get a cert to skip past the need for experience, I just want to get my foot in the door at a place where I'll get relevant experience at a living wage. You're saying that a CCNA + CCDA is the way to do that?

Thanks again, I really appreciate any insight you can offer.

 

[rockchalk]

Like theevilsharpie said, be a mile wide and a inch think or vica versa.

 

[m1ldslide1]

Certs mean nothing - a person without experience and certs used a brain-dump most likely. CCIE's on paper suck. Don't expect much - there's a metric ton of old-farts 🙂 that lost their cushy management job or programming job that are surviving doing the low end type networking (your entry level job). think of it like trying to get a job at mcdonalds in this economy.

By "CCIE on paper" do you mean someone who brain-dumped the written and then did a boot-camp for the lab? If so then I'll give you that. Otherwise I've never really heard of a paper CCIE - that's why they have the insanely difficult lab exam after all (lower pass rate than CPA and Bar exam)

In general I agree with those saying experience is more important than cert's. For the most part what cert's do is help your resume stand out. Something like a CCIE does more than that - the majority of CCIE's really know their stuff, plus having CCIE's on staff allows Cisco partners to achieve their Platinum/Gold/Silver etc status which is worth a LOT of money to them. Sounds like that's a ways away for the OP though 🙂

 

[Emulex]

most of the CCIE's that actually know their stuff are hired by cisco. seriously i've met alot of CCIE's that don't know their way around. it's sad.

but yeah if you want to make money easy - get a CCNA/CCDA and specialize - you can sell yourself to a reseller and play wow at home all day long and never lift a finger to do work - other than renewing your cert or getting more cert's. very real job scenario. folks will pay $50K/year for a CCDA with specialization in one or two areas just to get silver/gold - you can associate yourself with only one company - but say if you like coding on the side or doing cisco work on the side it's a very real position - resellers want silver/gold and it takes people - but if you can pay 50-60% salary to a person to be on the books - that's gonna pay off for the reseller. Then hussle the day away to make up the rest of the salary to get your 6 figure income. there will ALWAYS be a reseller willing to do this - and it is legit if you are employed by them and do associate your cert to them.

regardless cisco hires the top level CCIE's for themselves. I hear there's a new cert level about the CCIE like CCDE.

Think of design as the doctor - the network (CCNA) as the dentist. one is going to have to put in alot more work every day 🙂

 

[Gryz]

most of the CCIE's that actually know their stuff are hired by cisco.
.... regardless cisco hires the top level CCIE's for themselves.

Last time I heard, cisco isn't hiring anybody. They are letting 11500 of their employees go. 5000 From a factory in Mexico that got sold (so that the employees aren't cisco anymore, even when they do the same work they did before). And 6500 "real" cisco employees that are put on the street. World-wide, across the board. I spoke to two old collegues (18y and 16y with cisco) recently. Their team (special testing) is deleted, and they are back in the TAC, taking cases. Like they did 2 decades ago. Must be fun to be in cisco right now.

I would be surprised if cisco could get away with hiring new employees any time soon.

 

[mammador]

most of the CCIE's that actually know their stuff are hired by cisco. seriously i've met alot of CCIE's that don't know their way around. it's sad.

but yeah if you want to make money easy - get a CCNA/CCDA and specialize - you can sell yourself to a reseller and play wow at home all day long and never lift a finger to do work - other than renewing your cert or getting more cert's. very real job scenario. folks will pay $50K/year for a CCDA with specialization in one or two areas just to get silver/gold - you can associate yourself with only one company - but say if you like coding on the side or doing cisco work on the side it's a very real position - resellers want silver/gold and it takes people - but if you can pay 50-60% salary to a person to be on the books - that's gonna pay off for the reseller. Then hussle the day away to make up the rest of the salary to get your 6 figure income. there will ALWAYS be a reseller willing to do this - and it is legit if you are employed by them and do associate your cert to them.

regardless cisco hires the top level CCIE's for themselves. I hear there's a new cert level about the CCIE like CCDE.

Think of design as the doctor - the network (CCNA) as the dentist. one is going to have to put in alot more work every day 🙂

Would a CCNA/CCDA get a network admin's position though? Surely there would have to be a working experience, even a CCNP or CCIE involved? I'd think a CCIE could get a job as network admin for a global corporate WAN, or even a IT VP somewhere.