The CCIE has been around since August 1993 and a lot has happened within the last 17 years. One big thing that has changed is that now there is actual curriculum to study and courses that you can take. That just didn’t exist 17 years ago. There was no book to study from, you had to learn everything from experience working for many years in the Networking Field. Now because Cisco offers courses you can take as part of your high school curriculum you have 18 year old CCNA’s who get their certification before they even graduate and have a job. Like me! I was fortunate to work for a VOIP company while still in high school which helped me tremendously get my certification. Then college happens, while many universities offer some networking classes they usually are just Associate degrees which in my opinion doesn’t mean much any more.
A lot of my friends from the Cisco Networking Academy aren’t involved with Cisco any more. I’m sure life got in their way and other endeavors caught their interest, but I think there is a very important thing called getting a college degree which should not be overlooked especially if you are pursuing a CCIE. I myself am about half way done with school. I was attending Boise State University seeking a Computer Science degree and I just recently moved to Orange County California for many reasons, but unfortunately due to having to pay out of state tuition I’m taking 1 year off of school until I can get my residency in the State of California. Which is okay, though I’m taking advantage of my time off by allowing my wife to finish up her Culinary Degree from the Art Institute while I watch our 1 year old daughter and work on passing some more Cisco Certifications before I go back to school.
There have been several questions that I have always had about getting a college degree and balancing that with getting Cisco Certifications. And since I’m not as experienced as many other people out there I decided to ask the experts what they thought. I was really impressed with their replies and I would love to share them with you. I know this post is long, but please take the time to learn from their wisdom and see how you can apply it to your lives so that you can achieve your dreams in the networking field and become one of the best networking technitions out there. And for those short on time I highlighted some of their words that caught my attention that you can scroll through quickly, but still gain some valuable insight.
Here is what some of the best have said about Cisco Certifications and College:
1. Emannuel Conde
CCIE Flyer
@CCIEAgent
Eman started to learn about networks back before most of us were born. Eman is also known as the CCIE Recruiter and produces a monthy online magazine known as the CCIE Flyer. I had the pleasure of having a wonderful conversation with Eman on the phone. He definitily is very experienced about what companies need from CCIE’s, and someone we all should be paying attention to. Here is what he had to say about some of the questions I asked him:
College
Blake: Most job descriptions require you to have a college degree alongside your Cisco Credentials, but most universities don’t offer a “Networking” bachelor degree. Which major do you recommend?
Eman: There are IT centric degrees and engineering degrees either of which do equip future CCIEs with tools to think in ways that enhance their ability to master Network Engineering. I would say approach this goal as you would any other, with lots of what you enjoy in the mix. If you are not having fun then you will wander off to those things that are fun and lose interest.
Blake: If you have a college degree what is it in?
Eman : No I do not have a degree. I joined the Navy after a year of Junior College and that is where I learned about computer systems back in 1974. I was an Aviation Electronics Technician running and supporting automated shop test computer systems to keep airframes flying. My squadron was VS -37 stationed on the USS Kitty Hawk as an anti-submarine squadron.
Blake: What is the best way to balance getting a college degree and getting Cisco certified?
Eman: Balance is a tough thing for many of us when young but I would say treat each as if they were goals to a future. Check out the Cisco Network Academy give the CCNA a shot in college if you can and then keep growing. The drive must come from within.
Specializing
Blake: There are now a number of different CCIE’s that you can specialize in. How important is it to be on a specific track like voice, or security?
Eman: Specializing is good because demand has been more focused for the CCIE. Where in the old days the plumbers (R&S) guys were all the rage the solutions they discovered led to the creation of demand in niche areas. Security, Voice, Storage, Wireless, SP and Datacenter technologies are creating a demand for specialization. BUT cloud computing seems to be drawing from each of these specialties to create a new demand for generalists. I get confused these days as well. Will the cloud launch as Cisco and EMC predict? Just be ready is all we can do.
Blake: Will this help you get a job over someone else who only has routing and switching?
Eman: Yes it will help today. What will it be tomorrow? I cannot answer for certain but R&S CCIEs are still the biggest sellers globally. The demand is always there for an R&S guy who does Security, Voice or even Juniper.
Blake: What if you specialize in voice and then decide to go down some other networking path?
Eman:
Now that’s a good question. Whatever path you take from Voice will probably be after much deliberation. Getting the Voice IE is a tough nut. But many CCIEs do explore beyond the track they have chosen. Just do it right and certify or train, just don’t end up a confused Bozo!
The best way to avoid being too scattered is to plan what you intend to do professionally with certifications.
Quote/Advice
Blake: If you had to give one piece of advice to those just starting out in their Cisco Certification Path what would you say?
Eman:
Remember you have 100,000 hours to be a success in whatever profession you choose. There are 2,000 billable hours in a year and if you work from age 20 you have 100,000 hours to retirement at age 70. Now if you used up a few years since then, then subtract 2,000 for each year spent without a focused plan. The time is ticking away. Do the right thing and create a plan for your career. Mile posts will help you evaluate if you have accomplished anything. A good mentor is always a good idea. Make sure to find one who you can talk to and who has achieved a similar goal to which you strive. 100,000 hours until retirement if you count down not up and start looking at your daily, weekly and monthly achievements to help guide your efforts. Stay focused on your goals and they will carry you through your career in return. You cannot go wrong as a Cisco CCIE because the knowledge is transferable to other vendors’ products. Why do Juniper, Avaya and HP constantly recruit CCIEs? Because CCIEs have the proven knowledge to handle the most complex resources of our IT world, that’s why!
Good luck Blake with you blog and journey to become a CCIE and thanks for the honor of asking me to contribute!
2. Ethan Banks
PACKETattack
@ecbanks
Ethan Banks is CCIE #20655. I’ve enjoyed reading his posts on his blog the PACKETattack and is one of the head guys on the PACKET PUSHERS podcast.
College
Blake: Most job descriptions require you to have a college degree along side your Cisco Credentials, but most universities don’t offer a “Networking” bachelor degree. Which major do you recommend?
Ethan:
Many schools offer degrees in “Computer Science”, “Information Science”, or something similarly named. Inside of that CS/IS program, you should find various specialties or tracks to choose from, depending on your interest. The specialties will vary among programming, management, and administration/engineering. Some schools might offer highly specialized tracks, perhaps incorporating programs like the Cisco Networking Academy. Spend quality time with an advisor, and pick a track that best suits you; don’t be afraid to switch tracks if you chose something that you find out you really don’t like.
When considering a minor, strongly consider a business track to bolster your CS/IS degree. When you step into the business world, a knowledge of accounting, markets, budgeting, economics, and advertising can help you better understand the challenges your company faces and the various groups that you’ll be serving.
Blake: If you have a college degree what is it in?
Ethan: I graduated from Pensacola Christian College in 1993 with a Bachelor of Science degree. I completed a double major in Computer Science and Business Administration during 4 years of full-time study.
Blake: What is the best way to balance getting a college degree and getting Cisco certified?
Ethan:
While Cisco certifications are marketable, they have a shelf life. The knowledge they impart (when properly studied) is of progressively less value as time goes on, because technology changes. Conversely, a college degree will hold the same value at the end of your career as it does today. My recommendation is to focus on obtaining a college degree, and maintaining a high GPA while doing so. Go out of your way to excel in your chosen field of study. If, after that, you have time to pursue a Cisco certification, go for it.
The opportunity for Cisco and other vendor certifications will always be there. As we age and take on the responsibilities of families and mortgages, going back to college becomes almost impossible. Don’t sacrifice your degree to get a certification; in particular, don’t sacrifice your degree because you think a Cisco certification is a path to quick money.
Specializing
Blake: There are now a number of different CCIE’s that you can specialize in. How important is it to be on a specific track like voice, or security?
Ethan:
There are two stereotypical engineers that go after the CCIE certification: those working for Cisco partners, and everyone else. If you are working for a partner, the markets that the Cisco partner plays in will likely drive your CCIE track. If the partner bids on a lot of voice jobs, they’ll want to place you on site as the expert VoIP person, and bill you out at an exorbitant rate as a voice CCIE. If they build secure infrastructures for the DoD, they might be better served by you holding a CCIE certification in the security track, again so that they can bill your time for ridiculous sums of money.
If you fall into the “everyone else” category, the track will usually be driven by your experience and personal interest. I love routing and switching, and had built or supported a number of sizable EIGRP and OSPF wide area networks using Cisco gear. The CCIE R&S track was therefore a simple choice for me to make. I have also done a lot of security work, although less Cisco-centric; at one point I was a CCSP. As such, the CCIE security track wasn’t a bad fit, but just wasn’t as good as the R&S track at the time.
Most engineers having completed a single CCIE track are R&S certified. If they have completed multiple CCIE tracks, that usually means R&S, plus something else. R&S is foundational to most of the other tracks. Yes, there are far more R&S CCIE network engineers than any of the others, so you might think you can stand out by doing a non-R&S track. That might be true, but keep in mind that if you hold a CCIE certification at all, no matter what the track, you stand out. Therefore, do what you love. Do what is needful for where you are at in your career. Do what you can get good training and equipment for.
Blake: Will this help you get a job over someone else who only has routing and switching?
Ethan: There’s no one right answer to this question, in that it will depend greatly on the perspective of the hiring manager and the nature of the position you have applied for. Keep in mind that certifications alone do not make a great engineer. Even at a very senior level, experience is usually a better indicator of an engineer’s capabilities that the certifications they hold.
Blake: What if you specialize in voice and then decide to go down some other networking path?
Ethan: Voice is hot, but not as hot as it was 3-5 years ago. Most of the larger companies that are going to go to VoIP have gone there already. If it was me, I wouldn’t put all my eggs in the voice basket to start. I’d consider what companies are doing to virtualize their infrastructure, and the get trained to contribute intelligently to those conversations. Virtualization is where it’s at right now – it’s red hot, it’s bleeding edge, it’s solving problems of space, power, and disaster recovery in interesting ways that companies of all sizes find compelling. A network engineer who intimately understands tiered architectures, how data flows through data centers, and the technologies that keep data centers running efficiently has the most to add to the virtualization discussion. So for now, that means going down the R&S CCIE track, keeping a close eye on whatever exams Cisco is offering in the “data center” space. A “data center” CCIE track has been rumored for some time.
Quote/Advice
Blake: If you had to give one piece of advice to those just starting out in their Cisco Certification Path what would you say?
Ethan: A certification can’t take the place of experience. Therefore, try to do something in the IT field while working on your certifications. Some people make the mistake of saying that they’ll stay out of the IT field until they’ve front-loaded their resume/CV with certifications. Even with a lot of certs, not many people start out as the senior engineer on the team. Most of us started out with PC support or help desk jobs, and then moved up over time. Certifications can help you move up faster, but there’s nothing as helpful as hands-on experience to make you a real contributor in your company. My point is that any certification is a means to an end – but is usually not the end in and of itself. View certification as a tool to demonstrate a baseline level of competency, but also plan to be doing “time in the trenches” to show people reviewing your resume that you’ve been out there in the real world.
Blake: Also if you have anything else to say or add feel free to share.
Ethan:
Cisco exams are hard, and the temptation to take a shortcut can be overwhelming. As such, there’s a huge market for exam braindumps. Don’t naively assume a site selling practice exams is above board just because a friend recommends them or that they looks legitimate. A good practice exam site like Boson sells you an original question database created by their experts that will help you discover your weak areas. A braindump site encourages you to memorize answers; you learn comparatively little. Be smart, and be skeptical: most of these practice exam sites are ripping off actual exams from test centers. Remember that Cisco profiles exam takers in such a way as to detect those who simply memorized answers. Cisco has gone to a lot of trouble specifically to make it difficult to pass a certification exam armed only with a braindump.
Take the high road, and you’ll be a much better network engineer.
3. Jeff Fry
FryGuy’s Blog
@fryguy_pa
Jeff has his Routing and Switching CCIE and is currently working on his Service Provider CCIE.
College
Blake: Most job descriptions require you to have a college degree along side your Cisco Credentials, but most universities don’t offer a “Networking” bachelor degree. Which major do you recommend?
Jeff: This is an interesting question and I have a unique approach to this. I would actually suggest a degree in Business over a degree in technology. Reason for this thought is that technology changes so fast, what you learn today is gone tomorrow. Also, when you consider a business degree, it means that the person understands more then the technology – but what is driving the technology. They should understand the accounting behind decisions, budgets, OpEx vs CapEx, stranded assets, etc.
Blake: If you have a college degree what is it in?
Jeff: I have an Associates in Specialized Business (basically a general degree) and am currently in an accelerate college for my BA in Business Management. I chose that not just because of what I said above, but also because that type of degree is good for all aspects of life. Investing – knowing how to understand financial reports; negotiation – being able to get a good deal on a car, house, etc; crisis intervention – one word, kids; etc.
Blake: What is the best way to balance getting a college degree and getting Cisco certified?
Jeff: Best balance it to be dedicated and, as Stephen Covey says, Begin with the end in mind. Also what helps is finding your passion. If you are passionate about what you do – you will succeed no matter what. When you do something for the $$, it is not fun and you do not put your heard and soul into it.
Specializing
Blake: There are now a number of different CCIE’s that you can specialize in. How important is it to be on a specific track like voice, or security?
Jeff:
There are many CCIE tracks out there now, but R&S is looked at as the base that the others build off of. Take voice for example, even in voice there is QoS, switch-port configurations, potential network security stuff – if you understand the base, all you then need to do is learn the specialized parts of voice. Security is the same, Service Provider is the same, even Storage (VSAN vs VLAN for example). Once you understand the base, you just build from there.
Now, if you are in a job where Voice is your day-to-day task, then it makes sense to just go for that and not do R&S. But if you are working on CCIE, then R&S is probably the best direction to start. If you need to switch up and work on another track, the base has already been established with studies as well as knowledge.
Blake: Will this help you get a job over someone else who only has routing and switching?
Jeff: I think that Certifications are a start, but the person’s experience should win over Certifications. I have met a few CCIEs out there that I would not hire – they might have the cert, but they do not have the understanding or knowledge that goes with it. I am not saying that they cheated – they are very bright. The difference is that they are good test takers and can work within guide-lines. In the real world you are rarely presented with that type of structure – many times you need to figure out how to do it.
Blake: What if you specialize in voice and then decide to go down some other networking path?
Jeff: Again, this depends on your passion and what you do for a living. If you do not do much voice – it is tough to justify to a perspective employer why you got your CCIE in Voice when all you do is say, Storage. There needs to be a coherence there that goes with the certification – experience is that coherence.
Quote/Advice
Blake: If you had to give one piece of advice to those just starting out in their Cisco Certification Path what would you say?
Jeff: Begin with the end in mind. You can do whatever you want to do, just remember that in the end is it to you to accomplish your goal. You will stumble, you will fall – but what counts is that you get back up and do not quit. And when you do achieve your goal, you will feel proud, accomplished, and on-top-of-the-world.
4. Greg Ferro
etherealmind
@etherealmind
Greg is CCIE #6920 and has been networking for the last 12 years and in IT for 8 years before that. He also is the host of the PACKET PUSHERS podcast. I love listening to his show, but to be honest a lot of things are over my head. However don’t let this intimidate you if your just starting to learn about networking. Often what I do is look up things in the show that they mention and it becomes a great learning process for me.
Here is what Greg has to say about the questions I asked him:
College
Blake: Most job descriptions require you to have a college degree along side your Cisco Credentials, but most universities don’t offer a “Networking” bachelor degree. Which major do you recommend? If you have a college degree what is it in?
Greg: I grew up in Australia where the education is very different from that in the US. I don’t know what a college degree is. However, I went to school until I was seventeen, then to University to study Engineering where I specialised in Digital Electronics. Due to sickness, I dropped out halfway through the third year and went into the workforce, I was about twenty when I started work in the computer industry.
Blake: What is the best way to balance getting a college degree and getting Cisco certified?
Greg: I can’t answer that. I don’t know what a college degree is.
Specializing
Blake: There are now a number of different CCIE’s that you can specialize in. How important is it to be on a specific track like voice, or security?
Greg:
Not at all. As a general principle,, Cisco has structured their training programs to teach you two basic facts. First, the fundamentals or first principles of technology are core. So learning WHY OSPF works is just as important as HOW OSPF works.
Second, that you learn how to learn. The not-so-obvious lessons in Cisco certifications is that you can read documentation, books and training material to work on new technologies. Not only to improve your career, but also to add new technologies to your skillset as they come into the market.
For example, when I started in networking, there was no TCP/IP protocol. It was used only by Unix systems and only in certain very small areas of the network that didn’t need routing. Therefore I learned AppleTalk, IPX, Banyan Vines and SNA.
How did I learn TCP/IP ? By reading, practicing and researching.
Thus the Cisco CCIE R&S is the best foundation for all of the others. And you can easily build on your R&S knowledge to learn security or other skills.
Will this help you get a job over someone else who only has routing and switching?
Not in my experience. Employers will judge you on your own merits.
Blake: What if you specialize in voice and then decide to go down some other networking path?
Greg: In my opinion, that would be pointless. Voice is less than 40% networking, and 60% configuring Microsoft servers, voice mail systems, numbering plans and other quite niche technologies. If you like mucking around with Microsoft Word, then voice might be your thing. Voice technologies are not networking and never will be (and never have been).
Quote/Advice
Blake: If you had to give one piece of advice to those just starting out in their Cisco Certification Path what would you say?
Greg:
Learn how to learn. Even after fifteen years of Cisco exams and re-certifications and new technologies in the workplace, I constantly have to learn new technologies, new products, new software, new ways of working and cope with change.
Your CCNx is just the start of your networking career, whatever level you go on to achieve or choose to be. And in a few years, you will have to learn the next thing. That’s the lesson to learn.
5. Aaron Conaway
Aconaway
@aconaway
Aaron has over 10 years of experience in the networking field and he just passed is CCNP ROUTE exam. He has many notes covering important topics about the ROUTE exam and also some very good study tips on his website. Here is what Aaron had to say about the questions I asked him:
College
Blake: Most job descriptions require you to have a college degree along side your Cisco Credentials, but most universities don’t offer a “Networking” bachelor degree. Which major do you recommend?
Aaron: I’ve noticed that a lot of companies look for Computer Science or equivalent. I was a CS major for a while, and I found it to have no bearing on the real world at all. I changed my major to something more practical, and I was all the better for it. If you want to get the job, though, CS or something along those lines seems to be the way to go.
Blake: If you have a college degree what is it in?
Aaron: I have a Bachelor of Business Administration in Information Systems from Georgia Southern University. Go Eagles!
Blake: What is the best way to balance getting a college degree and getting Cisco certified?
Aaron: In today’s market, a college degree may be required to get you in the door for a job. As you get experience, you’ll realize that you need to start getting your certs to further your knowledge and get ahead of your peers. Your degree will always be an interview talking point, but, eventually, its your own knowledge that advances you in your career.
Specializing
Blake: There are now a number of different Cisco Certifications that you can specialize in. How important is it to be on a specific track like voice, or security?
Aaron: I think it’s very important to get the specialized cert for your career. The R&S certs are nothing to scoff at, but a specialization in a particular field will give you additional knowledge and experience that others may not have.
Blake: Will this help you get a job over someone else who only has routing and switching?
Aaron: If you’re looking at a specialized job like voice, your voice cert will definitely be more of an asset than the same R&S cert.
Blake: What if you specialize in voice and then decide to go down some other networking path?
Aaron: Great question! I’ve always preached that networking people shouldn’t be afraid to move to another field if they have to do so. If you decide to change fields at some point, you’ll have to make up some ground on the certs, but the experience that you had in voice isn’t for naught. Experience – no matter what field you were in – definitely has value, and getting the same cert in your new field puts you that much farther ahead.
Quote/Advice
Blake: If you had to give one piece of advice to those just starting out in their Cisco Certification Path what would you say?
Aaron: The hardest part of getting your certs is sticking to a schedule, so find your best place and study regularly. Don’t be tempted to take a day or two off – this always turns into weeks. Keep at it and don’t be afraid to fail an exam or two along the way. The experience you get from taking the exams only helps you when taking the next one!
6. Matthew Norwood
In Search Of Tech
@matthewnorwood
Matthew currently holds his CCNP and just started the Network Therapy blog. I really enjoy it actually and his spin on not writing out the technical details because other people have done a great job at that already. It really is a nice place to go and receive that needed Network Therapy that all of us messed up networking technicians need.
College
Blake: Most job descriptions require you to have a college degree along side your Cisco Credentials, but most universities don’t offer a “Networking” bachelor degree. Which major do you recommend?
Matthew: There are so many different degrees out there that I don’t know for sure which one would be best. I would say that if your goal is to be a technical person for most of your career, a degree in electrical engineering would probably serve you well. Of course, if you want to do any sort of programming, a computer science degree is probably the best. For plain old generic IT people, a management information systems degree is probably okay.
Blake: If you have a college degree what is it in?
Matthew: I have a 2 year degree and over 100 hours towards a BS, but I don’t know if I will ever finish it. There are too many other things I want to do and I have no management aspirations whatsoever. I can honestly say that the question around a degree has never come up. Maybe my 9.5 years of military service, which was all IT related, carries a little weight. Not sure. I have never asked any of my employers about it.
Blake: What is the best way to balance getting a college degree and getting Cisco certified?
Matthew:
These days, it seems like employers are only interested in experience. There are plenty of people with technical degrees that have trouble getting jobs within IT.
Certifications are kind of a necessary evil in this day and age. On the one hand, the sheer number of cheaters out there makes everyone suspicious of everything but the CCIE or JNCIE. On the other hand, employers still like to see those acronyms after your name.
Working on certs while going to school or raising kids is tough. Everyone is going to be different. Obviously, the people who already have experience with some or all of the certain blueprint have a leg up. For those who don’t it can still be done, but it takes a bit longer. The important thing is to be realistic in your goals with regards to certifications.
Specializing
Blake: There are now a number of different Cisco Certifications that you can specialize in. How important is it to be on a specific track like voice, or security?
Matthew: Market demand is going to determine what specializations are needed. I have found that some people just gravitate towards one specialization or another. Some people just like voice or security. Others really like storage networking. It seems like most people start out in route/switch and migrate to other specializations as their job requires. Personally, I get a lot of satisfaction out of route/switch and have no desire to do anything else. If more data center type certs come out, I might go down that road as that would be more related to route/switch than something like voice.
Blake: What if you specialize in voice and then decide to go down some other networking path?
Matthew: There are plenty of people who specialize in something different than what they started out in. Everybody’s situation is different. If you can make the jump from one specialization to another, then I say go for it. Anything is possible with hard work.
Quote/Advice
Blake: If you had to give one piece of advice to those just starting out in their Cisco Certification Path what would you say?
Matthew:
There’s a book I am reading about physics and it has this great quote at the beginning of the first chapter: “Don’t memorize. Understand.” Simple, and yet so truthful. If you want to be a great engineer, you have to have your fundamentals down pat. You also have to remember that you will never ever stop learning. The day you stop is the day you become obsolete. I think that is one of the problems people who are new to IT run into. Not everyone is cut out for a job in which you will never know it all. Everyone wants to make 100k a year or more, but they don’t always realize the time and effort required to get to that level of proficiency. Ask anyone who has passed their CCIE lab about the time they spent preparing and you’ll get an idea of what it takes to be at the top of your game. To me, the best part about what I do is knowing that I will never know it all. One of the hardest parts for me is deciding what I want to learn. My employer may not require me to know a ton about something like fiber optics. However, it is hard for me to use fiber optic cabling and not want to know about things like wave division multiplexing even if I will never see it on my corporate network. The same is true for other things like MPLS. I don’t run MPLS at work. I use service providers that do, but I never see anything in the way of label switching. I still want to know about it. I think it makes me a better engineer if I am familiar with how it works.
In closing, I would say that if you are new to networking or IT in general, define some goals for yourself. Whether that is attaining a cert or just increasing your knowledge level in something. Go out and make it happen. Nobody is going to do it for you. Don’t listen to anyone who says you can’t do something. Remember that the difference between you and the person who has been doing this job for 10 years is simply that they have been doing this job for 10 years. My son gets frustrated at things he cannot master immediately. He’s 6, so his brain doesn’t function exactly the same as an adult. Whenever he tells me that he can’t do something, I simply tell him: “Then you never will.” You have to be mentally strong. You have to put aside the belief that everything is going to come easy or that you are entitled to anything at all. Once you realize that there are no shortcuts to achieving goals, you’ll already be one step ahead of everyone else.
7. Amy Renee
Another Day At The Office…
@amyengineer
Amy holds her CCNP and CCDP Certifications. She doesn’t have a website that I know of, but she does tweet enough valuable content (over 6,716 updates) that I don’t think she needs one. I’m really impressed with Amy, pay attention and you can learn a lot from her.
College
Blake: Most job descriptions require you to have a college degree along side your Cisco Credentials, but most universities don’t offer a “Networking” bachelor degree. Which major do you recommend?
Amy:
“Networking” bachelors degrees are becoming more common, but you are right, often times those interested in networking are forced into a Computer Science or Electrical Engineering program. Either of these will be seen as beneficial with Cisco credentials, but students should not feel tied to them. Employers often look for a degree because it shows the job candidate can complete a long term goal. I have met many individuals in networking whose undergraduate degree was not IT related at all.
Also, I have seen that GPA matters almost as much as the degree. A great GPA shows employers that you are a high achiever- they like that. If a networking degree is not an option, I would recommend choosing a degree that you enjoy and can do well at. Your grades will reflect it and you are more likely to complete the program. Of course, if your degree is not technology related, you will have to display to potential employers that you you possess the skill set that they are looking for. Certifications can help with this.
Blake: If you have a college degree what is it in?
I thought I was going to be an attorney, so I got a BS in Arts and Humanities. After five days of law school, I realized I was on the wrong career path! It was not until after undergraduate school that I attended the Cisco Networking Academy at a local college and received a certificate in Advanced Cisco Systems.
Blake: What is the best way to balance getting a college degree and getting Cisco certified?
Amy: In my case, the certificate program was for Cisco networking so the certification and college work complimented each other nicely. When that’s not the case, it’s really important to try to connect the two, choose projects that give you opportunities to research networking topics, do presentations on networking concepts, interview networking professionals, etc… If there isn’t much success in getting the two to overlap, I would suggest joining a networking group/community. Spend time with people in the industry or training to be in the industry. There are excellent online resources, but getting hands on with the equipment is key. Finding friends who have gear or purchasing whatever gear you can will make a difference, especially if you are not getting exposed to the equipment in your college classes.
Specializing
Blake: There are now a number of different CCIE’s and CCNP’s that you can specialize in. How important is it to be on a specific track like voice, or security?
Amy: Specialization is a good thing, but one should be careful not to miss out on building up the broad fundamentals. I find that many in the industry start out with general networking knowledge and find as they work in the field for awhile they are drawn to a certain specialization. Specializations can be extremely useful in job hunting, employers are often looking for someone with expertise in a certain area and are willing to pay top dollar for it. A student, however, should not feel they have to specialize immediately. I would suggest taking time to learn different technologies, see what one’s passion is. Of course, if a student already knows he/she really loves wireless or voice or security, going in that direction can be a positive thing- I would just caution him/her to keep the big picture in mind – keep a handle on how things work together. The technologies do not operate in isolation, to be a good engineer one needs to grasp the interconnections between them.
Blake: Will this help you get a job over someone else who only has routing and switching?
Amy: I think there are cases where it could potentially give one an advantage. I also do not think it’s required. For example, I was just hired as a voice engineer and my background is general routing and switching. Most employers will look at the whole package. They want to see a candidate that understands how things fit together. If they are hiring for a position in security and you are specialized in security, you will likely have an advantage over someone who is not, but it’s not going to be all that gets you the job.
Blake: What if you specialize in voice and then decide to go down some other networking path?
Amy: My experience has been that a good engineer will be able to transition between the different paths- and likely will transition between them over the years- without much difficulty. Just because you specialized in voice will not mean you have to be a voice engineer till the end of days. You may have to certify in another path to switch jobs, but I know a good deal of engineers who have gone from one path to another. That’s the great thing about networking, if you feel like you need a new challenge, there is always one waiting!
Quote/Advice
Blake: If you had to give one piece of advice to those just starting out in their Cisco Certification Path what would you say?
Amy: Don’t just pass the tests. Play with the equipment, challenge yourself to really understand what you’re working on. Ask questions and get connected with people who have the field experience. It will prove to be invaluable. The certification exams are great, but you’re being trained for a career and that should be the focus.
Some Closing Words
Wow thanks Eman, Ethan, Jeff, Greg, Aaron, Matthew, and Amy! I really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedules to answer my questions. As you can see I bolded some of the statements that stood out to me and from receiving answers from people with many different backgrounds it was cool to see some trends in what they were saying. Some of the big things that stood out to me were:
Get a college degree. It doesn’t matter in what field as long as you enjoy it and get a high GPA (I should probably go back and retake some classes then). I’m a Computer Science Major, while I love programming, I’ve always wanted to study Business, and while I’m entirely not sure what I’ll go back to school for it feels good knowing that having a Business degree can actually be an advantage as a Networking Engineer. I also really liked Ethans words about how a college degree has a much longer shelf life than a Cisco Cert and so your college degree should not be put on the back burner.
Experience will usually always win over certs. Even if you have to start out answering phones it will be better than no experience at all.
Getting your Routing and Switching CCIE is still a great route to go with. You have to keep your certification active so rather than just re-certifying you can just study for another CCIE track and make your way to having multiple CCIE’s.
Now its your turn! Please comment below about some of the things that stood out to you! And Please share this article with as many people as you can. You can use the tweet and facebook buttons at the top! I really think it can help all those just starting out on their Cisco Journey to make college a priority and become the future generation that is going to make networking even better than it is today!
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