On Wed, Apr 04, 2007 at 09:05:57AM +0530, CCNAStuff wrote: > Hello all, > > I have started studying for CCNA using CBTNuggets. They're pretty good. I crammed my CCNA with that. No substitute to real world experience of course. > Meanwhile I looked for options in the Linux world and there are > exams from LPI and RedHat. I have some 2 years' Linux experience > but am equally interested in CCNA/networking. I understand that I > can not have both at the same time. So please advise what will be > the right way to go. You can be experienced in both, but you may find it difficult to be certified in both since the certifications cost money and not many employers would be willing to pay for sysadmins to do Cisco courses and vice versa. > I have a few months experience working on a router too, so router > commands are easy for me to learn. I feel that in Linux I will > need to learn vast amounts instead of for CCNA. > > Will I be able to get a job as a CCNA fresher sooner than I will as experienced Linux admin? You would be junior in both areas so I don't think there is much in it. My overwhelming advice to you would be to work out what you LIKE to do, and pursue that. You will spend a significant portion of your life doing your dayjob and if it's something you picked just based on how easy it was to get the job then it's likely that it won't be very fulfilling. > In SysAdmin, the problem getting a job nowadays seems the "extra > things" employers want us to know (things like SAN/NAS and more). > Do I need to know similar things even after being a CCNA? When going for a junior role the most important thing is being able to learn new things and being able to demonstrate that. If your job needs you to know about SANs then getting a CCNA won't help because it has nothing to do with SANs. It might help convince people that you're a sysadmin who can learn things quickly though. CCNA itself is a rather low level networking qualification and a senior network engineer would need to know a lot more, so then the other certifications come into play. > I already get about 4 - 5 mails everyday for > sysadmin/Linux/Solaris jobs. But most of these want a Solaris > admin or want me to know C/C++ or MySQL/PHP or Perl Scripting or > Oracle which I do not know. Plain Linux Sysadmin jobs seem > difficult to be found! Sysadmins are expected to know everything :) > I would try the LPI certification, not RHCE since LPI is > vendor-independant. RHCE is not that bad. Not much of it is focused on red hat's proprietary tools. At least that was the case 18 months ago when I did one. Problem with LPI is very few employers have heard of it. Can't hurt though. A good interviewer will disregard the fact that you HAVE the certificate and focus on asking you to demonstrate the knowledge instead. The certificate is good for getting you the interview, not the job IMHO. Of course there are bad interviewers though. > So, I see that I have equal amount of interest in CCNA concepts as > in Linux. I listen to audiowhiz questions/answers when not in > front of the computer and enjoy it. I see that once a new concept > I hear, I don't forget it. > > Given these things, will I be able to complete studying CCNA in about 15 days? Sounds like it. It's hard to say. It's not complicated, it is possible to cram, but I came to it with broad general knowledge of networking already. Good luck. Cheers, Andy -- http://bitfolk.com/ -- No-nonsense VPS hosting Encrypted mail welcome - keyid 0x604DE5DB
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature