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IT guys - will a CISCO networking certificate get you anywhere?

DGA3

DGA3

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My 25-year-old son is working on his, and when he passes the test and eventually receives it, are there jobs available? According to their website, there are many areas of IT he could pursue, but I'd rather hear from those of you who are actually in the business. What kind of jobs would he qualify for (if any)?

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/training- ... /ccna.html

If he wanted to go further, earn another certificate in something like cyber-security, what area do you think would be most valuable to him (for future job opportunities)?

Any thoughts or suggestions you could pass my way would be greatly appreciated.
 
I manage a group of network/IT people and do hiring in the role I'm in.
CCNA is decent but probably more on the basic side these days IMO. Could get an entry-level networking job somewhere. To me, experience is king. I know that's a double-edged sword for someone just entering the job market. Got to take that entry level job, work it for a year, then parlay it into something better at another company, usually.
 
That post said:
I manage a group of network/IT people and do hiring in the role I'm in.
CCNA is decent but probably more on the basic side these days IMO. Could get an entry-level networking job somewhere. To me, experience is king. I know that's a double-edged sword for someone just entering the job market. Got to take that entry level job, work it for a year, then parlay it into something better at another company, usually.
Click to expand...

That's the kind of advice I'm looking for.

Thank you.

Anyone else want to chime in?
 
CCNA is a specific certification, it never hurts to add a complimentary one such as Network+ & Security+ from CompTia
 
kiwichris said:
CCNA is a specific certification, it never hurts to add a complimentary one such as Network+ & Security+ from CompTia
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That's what I figured.

It would make one more marketable and open up more job opportunities.
 
Get in linkedin and join industry groups about cyber, IT and everything in between, lots of valuable information about the industry, jobs and what employers are looking for
 
With the job market the way it is these days it’s probably enough to get in the door to an entry level network position. He should be seeing it that way IMO. He will need to have a “continuous learners” mentality, kick butt in his current position to keep moving up, be looking for new positions/opportunities at other companies, etc.
 
IMO he should also work on a cybersecurity cert. that is and will continue to be a big deal.
 
It's been a long time for me in IT. Certs have come and gone. Cisco is one of those that's nice to have but will only maybe get your resume looked at. It's the basic knowledge behind the cert that can make or break an interview. If your son wants a CCNA, that's cool. And he should be able to perform the tasks listed in the front of the CCNA study guides pretty well.

Going beyond that, CCNP... yes it's more in depth. It's because it's a deeper branch of networking. CCNA says "you can administer routers and switches" basically. Or used to. I know Cisco scrapped their certs a couple years ago and rehashed them. Now CCNA is a little more granular maybe? I'm not 100% on that.

If your son wants to get in with a DoD contractor working with the military or for the US government, then he's going to need something like a Security+ and maybe a Network+. An A+ also will complete the trifecta for him and give him the 2870 required certs to be able to get onto a .gov or .mil network with more than basic user rights.

If he's got an interest in networking, then he should be fiddling with his own test lab consisting of different routers and switches, routing protocols, and other networking stuff I can't remember right now and making it all talk together. Stuff like: Windows 98 (don't laugh, it's still in use), Windows XP, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2012, Red Hat Linux, Unix, a couple of Sun micros, an old Zenith, and a smattering of low powered laptops running cobbled together and sketchy versions of Windows 10. All of that will need to be running on Banyan Vines and using a token ring network along with accessing a Microsoft SQL server (2003), a Linux PostGre server, a Novell Netware 3.5 server, and some flavor of Samba server that you can't quite figure out. Throw in a few users that absolutely MUST have MacOS running on their macbooks and you've got a recipe for an ulcer.

The above example is quite antiquated, out of spec, and probably not possible to actually make work but that's the kind of stuff he's going to run into.

As a fledgling network administrator, he's going to need to know how to add access lists to a Cisco perimeter router or switch to allow a user access to some site they can't otherwise get to. They're not going to know why it doesn't work or how it used to work before the previous system administrator on the other end of the connection incorrectly installed a server security certificate but no one ever noticed that error because the distant end firewall was misconfigured and allowed a connection through that was all source IP's, all destination IP's, and all ports and protocols.

Don't think that will happen? Yeah, maybe not. But then again, maybe it would. It's happened in the past.

If your son wants to investigate potentially keeping people out of where they're not supposed to be in IT, then look into cybersecurity. Lots of areas there... anti-virus, log collections, data mining, tuning vulnerability detection sensors, looking at logs...

Or there's the red teams - gaining access where they shouldn't be able to; blue teams - other aspects of red teams; and more.
There are teams working on making sure networks are compliant with standards and expectations. Making sure that regulations are being followed. Making sure paperwork is being properly filled out.

AI I think is maybe going to work on helping a lot of this out but there are some jobs that aren't trusted yet to AI... what those are I have no idea. I feel there's always going to be a personal element to IT... someone needs to make sure the computers are doing what they're supposed to.
 
I've been in probably since before it was called IT :) As has been said above certificates come and go but you need to be up to date with them to get on the ladder. Given the speed at which the technology progresses, a passion for learning (or at least showing it at interview and on your CV) is very important as well as having a personality. When I'm hiring I'm looking for three things for younger recruits:
  • can they do the job
  • can they grow with the job
  • and most importantly - can they work as part of a team.
There are a few companies out there that are just looking for hugely technically gifted individuals but most are looking (like any other job) for well rounded people, but the certificates and the CV needs to be there to get to the Interview.

Just my 2c worth.... Please feel free to ignore.

A
 
MGoBlue said:
IMO he should also work on a cybersecurity cert. that is and will continue to be a big deal.
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Agreed. My nephew got one and got into the DOD with no experience. Now he has a pretty good Federal gig with great bennies and he works from home most of the time, out in the middle of the woods.
 
I got a CCIE back when the CCIE cert was considered gold. It certainly served me well. I do agree with others that the "value of the cert" has come and gone a bit.

My view is this: if you need to go learn the material, you might as well get a cert while doing it, or at least try for one. Nobody has to know if you tried for one and didn't pass - you still get the learning. If you do pass, all the better. However, what will make FAR more difference in any interview is any experience you can show, and your attitude. I'll take someone who comes across as sharp, eager, and both excited to have the job and to learn new things any day over someone with a bunch of certs who interviews poorly and seems ho-hum.

I will say though, if you list a bunch of certs on your resume, make sure you know your material. Don't come to an interview emphasizing your CCNA and then be unable to explain to me what sub-masking is or how a routing protocol works.

Both cybersecurity and AI are extremely hot fields right now and likely for a while to come, so if someone has any interest in either of those, it'd certainly be worth their while to get some training.
 
One more lifelong IT guy of 20+ years to throw in an opinion....

I got started as an MCSE (NT 4.0 which dates me right?) after being laid off as an engineer from Boeing. I ended up getting hired as a low level IT guy at a company and got into data storage engineering and virtualization due to volunteering to take on the role.

I had the ability which not all people have, to volunteer for every garbage extra job my company threw out there, i.e. working in the data center on weekends, holidays, whatever, to rack and stack hardware, run cables, anything. It was noticed and I got more opportunities to learn new things. The Army probably helped me with doing the grunt work, lol!

If he can get in somewhere on the lower end and work hard, he'll get opportunities and at some point they'll pay him to learn new things.

If he's interested in networking, definitely build out a lab, real or virtual to give him some experience. Definitely learn some basic Linux and windows network and admin commands.

I'd agree on the cyber security space for extra learning, but also look into the cloud world, AWS and/or Azure as well.

I wish him the best of luck!
 
DGA3 said:
My 25-year-old son is working on his, and when he passes the test and eventually receives it, are there jobs available? According to their website, there are many areas of IT he could pursue, but I'd rather hear from those of you who are actually in the business. What kind of jobs would he qualify for (if any)?

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/training- ... /ccna.html

If he wanted to go further, earn another certificate in something like cyber-security, what area do you think would be most valuable to him (for future job opportunities)?

Any thoughts or suggestions you could pass my way would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Hardware/data center space sure. Lots of those are dwindling in lieu of public cloud infra though. Small firms typically use bespoke hosting centers and extra large places have internal data centers they manage along with public cloud.

It helps but the market isn’t what it was 20 yrs ago, sadly. Hosting has become commoditized
 
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