How much weight do they carry in the IT industry today? I know they're hella hard to get, but if I put all the effort into say becoming a CCIE, can I still expect decent pay? Are there any Cisco certified people here (or do you know anyone with such certifications) who could answer those questions? kthx.

5/27/2006 6:44:08 PM

a CCIE will take access to a lot of equipment and a lot of time

unless you're already in the industry and work for a real high tech company, or well...cisco... it would be REAL hard.

5/27/2006 7:41:16 PM

Quote :

"a CCIE will take access to a lot of equipment and a lot of time"

^ right on.

As an oversimplified general rule, certifications don't mean as much as experience. I worked at Cisco for a little over 3 years and managed to work in time to finish my CCNP. In my experience, each certification level for Cisco is orders of magnitude more difficult than the previous one. I'm not saying it can't be done, just setting expectations.

I hear tales that unless you work on routers and switches every day that you have an infinitesimally small chance of achieving the CCIE in Routing and Switching. However, as an aside, I have recently learned that the test has changed somewhat (the lab portion only) and while it is probably significantly easier than in the past, it's still quite challenging.

To answer your question, yes you can still expect good pay, but you'd receive better pay with experience in addition to the certification. I know a couple of CCIEs that I wouldn't want working on my network and I know some CCNPs that I would trust to run extremely complex ones.

5/27/2006 8:24:22 PM

I know nothing of the Cisco certifications ... but in general, if just trying to get the certificates for the $$$, you probably won't do well. You have to ENJOY what you are doing and actively seek additional knowledge for how things work. Not saying you it's not possible, just saying the passion for a subject will make it a lot easier than training alone.

5/28/2006 9:39:13 AM

However, while certs do not guarantee anything, SOME companies need to fill a quota of certified people in order to be eligible for certain sales/distributer/vendor programs... With this in mind, there will always be a job for someone with a CCIE, while it doesnt guarantee a certain amount of pay (that will depend on what you can really do) it will at least give you a shot at most jobs if your skills are worth a damn.

But yes, to get it, is pretty tough... Im about to start working on it myself, but for me it will probably be easier because I troubleshoot routers all day long.

You may want to look towards getting your CCNP instead. I got mine in 6 months, and if you put your mind to it and have maybe just 2 routers to work on, you can get the nessecary training to pass those tests.

Plus, go online to bitme.org and search for knowledgenet. Download some of their ccnp videos - They have some pretty good labs in them and give a good overall idea of whats on the test, and you will save some reading time.

5/28/2006 11:40:37 AM

Thanks for the info guys.

Quote :

"I know nothing of the Cisco certifications ... but in general, if just trying to get the certificates for the $$$, you probably won't do well. You have to ENJOY what you are doing and actively seek additional knowledge for how things work. Not saying you it's not possible, just saying the passion for a subject will make it a lot easier than training alone."

Oh no, I love pretty much anything that has to do with the IT industry (except programming, I blow at that hard). My specialty is hardware though. I just wanted to know if I could still make a decent living off it after the tech bubble bust and all. I have no desire to take the starving artist route.

Also I would like to know what major I should pursue to complement said certification?

5/30/2006 10:33:37 AM

If you want to get a CCIE, and you want to be a good CCIE (there are quite a few "paper CCIEs" out there) then CSC, EE, and CPE are the best complementary majors.

If you have a CCIE, you can pretty much count on a six figure salary. The amount of discount on support contracts that a company would get by having a CCIE on staff would more than pay the six figure salary that a CCIE would command. Given that there's less than 5000 in the US, it's pretty damn lucrative.

Check out:
http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/ccie/certified_ccies/worldwide.html

But, keep in mind that the test is designed so that you pretty much HAVE to have practical networking experience to pass it. It's fairly easy to pass the written exam without it, but virtually impossible for the lab portion of it. It's possible to get it without such experience, but you'd have to be really really good at applying book knowledge to a task and getting it right the first time.

5/30/2006 10:45:36 AM

I work for a cisco competitor and they like for you to get your ccnp. I got $1000 bonus for getting it.
($500 for the ccna). But I have talked with some other ccna/ccnp's who don't know what the hell is going on, dont interact with any ccies, so i cant speak for those.

5/30/2006 6:46:37 PM

I know a few CCIE's who all passed the written test on the first go and failed the lab several times. It can get hella expensive if you don't have a company footing the bill. I have a lot of respect for all of them, and I'd say that seeing them fail a few times is a good indicator that the test really is very difficult.

I had a CCNA (expired a couple of years ago.) The test wasn't really hard IMO. Most people that I talked to said that the four CCNP tests were each easier to study for than the CCNA test because they were focused on one category instead of requiring such a broad range of knowledge. It just takes longer since there are four of them to pass.

5/31/2006 4:32:36 PM