By helping most I mean, either getting the job AND/OR doing your actual job.

Thanks!

4/24/2006 9:24:24 AM

The certificate from NC State that says I earned degrees in EE and CpE

4/24/2006 10:13:33 AM

The certificate from NC State that says I earned degrees in EE and CpE

4/24/2006 10:32:11 AM

Psh you know what I mean!

4/24/2006 10:48:36 AM

Birth Certificate... nepotism, bitches.

4/24/2006 11:50:23 AM

CCNA/CCNP are probably going to yield the biggest incomes. ($225 a pop) (It's a requirement to get into the company, and they're one of the country's best employers. The CCNA/CCNP are pretty deep exams, so yeah, you'll either learn a lot, or master what you think you know.)


A+ is barely a formality. ($150 each Hardware/Software) (Doesn't help much, unless you're a chimp.)

Security+ holds a bit of weight. ($225) (Dunno how much weight it holds, never seen it as a req on an application)

Any MCP is a plus.(~$175) (Seen these on quite a few job listings, not difficult to pass, might help a bit as far as general knowledge on the particular subject)


[Edited on April 24, 2006 at 12:32 PM. Reason : $'s and exp]

4/24/2006 12:04:05 PM

none yet

4/24/2006 12:11:49 PM

^^Is that how much it costs to take the tests or is that how much more you would get per year if you had that certification?

4/24/2006 12:32:49 PM

That's the cost for the exam.


The income effect is almost impossible to measure accurately.



A CCNP will all but guarantee you a $60K per year job though, from what I hear.

4/24/2006 12:36:29 PM

Yeah, I figured that one out. Then I made a joke.

4/24/2006 12:37:54 PM

CCNA got me my first foot in the door of a few employers, including Cisco, where I am at now... CCNP gave me the knowledge to do the job I now do well. It also got me a bunch of people looking to interview me, but I never actually took the interviews.

4/24/2006 12:40:09 PM

and it should be told, the CCNA takes, on average, 2-3 times before a passing score is earned.


Some people pass it on the first go, but more often than not, they have to take it multiple times.


It's actually the best entry level IT certification; whether you want to work for cisco or not.


Also, I'd look into monster.com or something similar and look at what the jobs your chasing require.


The A+, MCPs, and Security+ are lifetime certifications, the CCNA has to be renewed every 2-3 years.

[Edited on April 24, 2006 at 12:45 PM. Reason : more info]

4/24/2006 12:42:42 PM

I think I could have had 4 certificates (MCP, Net+, CNA w/Novell, A+) coming out of high school ... then I looked at the cost of the exams and said forget it.

I'll vouch for the SANS courses. Haven't taken the GIAC certification yet, but the course itself (SANS504) was excellent.

4/24/2006 12:51:25 PM

Just wanted to toss in my 2 cents regarding a couple of comments, doing so simply to provide another viewpoint, not calling anyone out.

Quote :

"It's a requirement to get into the company"

It's nice to have, but by no means a requirement, assuming you mean Cisco as 'the company'.

Quote :

"master what you think you know"

You're not going to master anything by studying for the ccnp. You're going to touch on a bunch of things for sure, but no mastery. There are entire sets of books for every topic you're glossing over in your studying.

Quote :

"the CCNA takes, on average, 2-3 times before a passing score is earned."

If you study the right way the first time, it should take you one, maybe two tries. Granted the material base has grown since I took it 3 years ago, but it's similar in difficulty. It's an entry level test, requiring only a fundamental understanding of networking topics.

Quote :

"CCNP will all but guarantee you a $60K per year job though"

That's a pipe dream. It's certainly a nice thing to have, I'll agree with that.

Quote :

"CCNA has to be renewed every 2-3 years."

CCNA certifications are valid for three years, at which point you can either complete a recert exam, or complete higher level exam (e.g. CQS, CCNP, etc etc).

[Edited on April 24, 2006 at 1:05 PM. Reason : .]

4/24/2006 12:59:47 PM

I have A+ and MCSE, but I only had the A+ before my tech job.

Earned the MCSE on the job, and promoted me to a network tech.

MCSE classes did come in handy as we started moving to Active Directory but of course no amount of classes equals what you do in the job.

4/24/2006 1:12:35 PM

My real estate license.

4/24/2006 2:49:32 PM

Quote :

"This year's outlook for Cisco technical professionals is truly a mixed bag. Those who possess the CCNA but no other Cisco certification earn an average of $60,000, which is down 10 percent from the average salary of $67,000 we reported in 2002. Those who possess a CCNP, a mid-tier Cisco credential, stayed fairly steady at an average of $72,000. This is down six percent from 2002's survey. On the other end of the spectrum, those who have the CCIE, Cisco's premier credential, earn an average of $102,000. That's an increase of three percent over 2002's reported average. CCDPs, design professionals, saw their salaries rise nearly four percent from two years ago, up to $88,000 from $85,000 in 2002. "

http://tcpmag.com/salarysurveys/


Granted that's a 2 year old survey, but I wouldn't expect all that much has changed. Why is a $60k estimated salary with a CCNP a "Pipe-Dream"?


I'll concede to the other points, although I was using the term "master", loosley.



[Edited on April 24, 2006 at 3:48 PM. Reason : It's an '04 survey]

4/24/2006 3:37:00 PM

^Oh, I whole-heartedly agree with the fact that an ambitous individual with a CCNP warrants 60k+. I'm just saying that by no means is it a meal-ticket to a position with that pay. Hell, back in BobbyDigital's day, you could get a job if you knew what CCNA stood for

[Edited on April 24, 2006 at 4:15 PM. Reason : .]

4/24/2006 4:14:59 PM

Quote :

"The certificate from NC State that says I earned degrees in EE and CpE"

4/24/2006 4:17:24 PM

^^ haha, when I started here, there was no CCNA, just the CCIE. I could spell TCP/IP, and that was all I knew about networking at the time. Yeah, I got hired, but it was 1998 and the tech bubble was just starting to form.

4/24/2006 4:44:59 PM

I really like the part of my work when it involves setting up networks and managing them. After my experience with the Cisco PIX box I'm starting to look at more of a system admin/networking angle for my career.

From your experience and what you know of these certifications which would be the most wise to pursue if I'm not yet ready to specialize. I've looked at the MCSE but a lot of businesses I know only prefer you have one but don't require it.

My ideal position would be working in a company managing web/application servers and networking components supporting the programmers and dbadmins. I'm sure Security+ would be a solid one but would that be an ideal first?

To grasp an idea of my experience as far as what I want to do... here is what I did in the past year with the company I worked for.

1) When I first arrived mission critical servers were crashing 3-4 times a day. It seems that their primary server was a 1ghz 1gb ram Dell server that was running every single program they needed for their company except their web page. Exchange server, SQL server, DNS, DHCP, Active Directory... you get the idea.
2) First I fixed MOST of the crashing issues which turned out to be several applications running as both services AND in the startup menu. Their weekly IT guy couldn't figure this out. The others were due to a d3linkage program between the SQL database and the barcode system.
3) Second they had no secondary DNS/DHCP Active Directory. I had to call in a friend to assist me moving these off the troubled server and onto the other servers they had available creating both a primary and a fall back.
4) The backup system they had was not functioning and had not been working for the past 6 months due to it being done on this troubled server. I ordered a new tape backup system and set up Veritas with a standalone SCSI connected Tape Drive.
5) Their POS, running on a RedHat 5.0 Linux box (yes yes I screamed too) was trying to backup to the troubled server where some nimrod made the directory READONLY... sigh. Pointed it to a new server and then had the backup systems copy that directory.
6) Their Cisco Pix was having issues occassionally and restarting itself. I updated the firmware and program on it so that I could access it using the newer IE... of course then I learned about how useless the GUI was except for monitoring the net traffic. I used the command line interface from then on. I opened ports, routed traffic... basic stuff.
7) Moved the SQL Server and Exchange server without issue to a newer server. Backed them up first of course.
8) Provided support for the entire store on mixed XP/2000 boxes and their homebrew applications written in Filemaker.

I appreciate any helpful advice you can give me as far as the direction I should explore. Thanks!

[Edited on April 25, 2006 at 12:04 AM. Reason : !]

4/25/2006 12:03:31 AM

networking sucks

4/25/2006 12:12:54 AM

From what is sounds like, you've done a fairly good job helping this company clean up their computer infrastructure. If tuition reimbursement is a benefit, I'd personally look to an advanced degree first, BEFORE looking to the certifications. Rather than thinking about what certificates you will need for your current/future job, you might want to also ask:

-What opportunities for advancement are available at your current company?
-What is the career track/path for an IT person?
-How will a family fit with this career? (I'm not sure what your plans are for a family, but in general, after-hours work usually doesn't go well if you have a wife/kids.)
-etc. etc.

Dunno if you care to do this for the rest of your life/what your ambitions are.

4/25/2006 6:29:56 AM

if you want to be a baller you gotta get your CFA

4/25/2006 7:32:24 AM

The certificate from NC State that says I earned degrees in EE and CpE

4/25/2006 8:21:30 AM

I don't work for that company anymore. Owner and I had difference of opinion though I did recieve a very generous severence package for all the work I did. I basically got fed up of not being allowed to actually fix things but having to duct tape fix things. To the degree that he would say "I don't care that the server is crashing as long as you are there to restart it".

Quote :

"The certificate from NC State that says I earned degrees in EE and CpE"

Grats! Not an option for me.

Put yourself in the shoes of someone who needed to hire an employee to work in your IT department doing what I want to do. What qualifications would you want them to have? I have a spotless record as far as obtaining a secret clearance if that makes a difference.

4/25/2006 8:53:00 AM

Quote :

"I don't care that the server is crashing as long as you are there to restart it"

ouch.

4/25/2006 12:18:15 PM

yeah the server in question was crashing even after I did the fixes that I knew to do and even RMSource, an IT company brought in couldn't figure it out. The problem was that it was running "legacy" (translation: fucking ancient duct tape crap) and the Vendor who wrote the d3linkage package would not support it or move it to a stable server though they would change the pointer in it to point to the new location of the SQL server.

This and a plethora of other head butt issues. We talked, decided it wasn't in the best for either party if I stayed, gave me a severance package and that was that. It's a very solid company other than that. But I did learn that I wanted to do more than focus on more than just application development.

4/25/2006 1:06:20 PM

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1954198,00.asp?kc=ewnws042706dtx1k0000599

Once again, the certificate from NC State that says I earned degrees in EE and CpE

but have fun at ITT

5/1/2006 8:20:31 PM

Well it's obvious that a 4 year degree is going to get you further than a cert.


The point we're making here is that they compliment each other well.

5/1/2006 10:55:15 PM

The certificate for logical, analytical, clever, and creative thinking.

5/1/2006 10:58:46 PM

i feel awfully stupid right now for wasting so much time getting my A+, Network+ and MCDST cuz they are adding up to be shit for me

5/1/2006 11:39:15 PM

For me, CISSP followed by CCNP.

5/2/2006 6:55:55 AM

The certificate from NC State that says I earned degrees in EE and CpE

5/2/2006 7:20:11 AM

Quote :

"The certificate from NC State that says I earned degrees in EE and CpE"

okay thats not witty anymore.

5/2/2006 1:14:12 PM