Career

2011 In Review

Near the end of 2010 I set out some goals for myself to complete in 2011. Did I complete them? Hell no. But I’m not necessarily bummed out about it. In your professional career, you go where your career takes you. Sometimes it takes a different path. My career is still along the IT path but it has somewhat shifted a bit.

My major goal for 2011 was to get my CCNP RS. I attempted my CCNP ROUTE but failed on my first attempt. No problem. I’m still studying for it now and will probably sit on the exam before March 2012. It’s still on my list of goals!

When I look back at 2011 I see it as a maintaining year for our network. Not too many implementations. Lots of troubleshooting and optimization. I did work on lots of planning and project management. Learned quite a bit there but nothing of a large scale.

I’ve had growing interest in more implementations for new systems and have been training myself in that area.

2012 will be an interesting year for me and I’m not going to create any major goals this year. What I want to do is see how my career plays out for a while. Let’s just say I’ll create some small goals :)

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Education VS Certification VS Experience

There are various discussions and point of views on what kind of approach to take for an IT career in networking. When I first started my career I asked Google which path should I take. Unfortunately, experience wasn’t in that equation as I didn’t even have an IT job to begin with. Searching on forums came to three methods. The three methods of growing into the networking field

  • Education through a college by obtaining your Associates or Bachelors degree.
  • Certification by passing vendor exams such as the CCNA, CCNP and CCIE
  • Experience through working in the field.

Which method is the best approach? I believe taking a step in combining education and certification is a good start. Reasons involve getting a solid foundation in the technology that you will be working with.

I got my education at ITT Technical Institute. I may have fallen for the marketing material but I knew exactly where I wanted to go and wanted to do it the fastest way possible. I graduated with a Bachelors degree in Information Systems Security. During my 4 years at ITT Tech I learned about core networking, cabling, wireless spectrum, terminology, etc. They gave me the chance to make mistakes in lab environments instead of production environments. I also learned how to educate myself when needed. The most important aspect of an education degree is foundation.

After I received my foundational knowledge I took it upon myself to start applying for IT jobs. At the time I only had fast food and retail experience so I aimed at getting a job in a computer shop. It got me one step closer to working with actual computers. During this time I also studied for the Comptia A+ certification which helped land me a position doing help desk.

Working in help desk gave me the opportunity to work with a team of other technical individuals. Allowing me to pick their brains and learn how the company solves issues. I met with the network administration staff and created a professional relationship with them. Conversations led me to pursue the Comptia Network+ certification. The knowledge obtained from the Network+ reinforced my foundations from ITT Tech.

While I worked in help desk and tech support I was able to learn so much by asking questions and educating myself on my own time. At work, I would massage the relationships I had developed with other technical staff.. those at the position I wanted to be in.

In IT you must have the hunger to learn and find solutions. This attitude paved a path for my career. Within 4 years I found myself in a Systems Administrator role managing a whole network. As a sysadmin I started pursuing Cisco certifications by acquiring my CCNA and currently I am studying for my CCNP.

In summary, I was able to get to where I wanted to be by taking the scenic route. I got an educational degree, acquired certifications to beef up my resume and gain experience through my employer. My career is still a work in progress and I am actively improving my knowledge and skills.

The certifications were a way for me to add new knowledge and skills so that I can perform tasks required for my job. I don’t view certifications as a way to collect pieces of paper to look good to employers. I see them as a form of education. A more direct education which increases your skillset once actively applied.

My opinion is that it doesn’t take one or the other to get somewhere. You need to use all resources.

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Frustration Sets In for CCNA/CCNP Engineer

I came across this post on the Cisco Learning Network today and couldn’t help feeling this individual’s frustration:

I have a CURRENT CCNA routing and security cert(working on CCNP Security), a bachelors degree in computer engineering(EXPIRED CCNP ROUTING AND SWITCHING CERT) and experience but still it is had finding work as a cisco engineer or tech, my MAIN QUESTION is why doesn’t cisco insist that company’s hire only people that are certified to work on their equipment.

I HAVE EVEN APPLIED WITH CISCO FOR LOW LEVEL JOBS SO AS JUST TO GET IN THE DOOR BUT STILL NO SUCCESS.

I srongly beleive without cisco giving some guidelines or sugestions on who works on their eqiupment cisco certs are going to become useless because how can one do all this studying and managers  refuse to hire all because they have someone they know and will rather train on the job.

CISCO DO SOMETHING TO UPLIFT THE CERTIFIED TECHS/ENGINEERS HARDWORK.

ANY HELP IN FINDING ANY IT/CISCO JOB WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

I see many problems with this.

Don’t rely on certification

CCNA’s are everywhere now. To even set yourself apart you need to maintain that CCNP status and even go for the CCIE to get noticed. But if you don’t have any relevant experience you will not get passed HR.

Don’t rely on Cisco

Cisco is in the business of making money. They supply the products and evangelize people to use their products (Cisco certification). They have no way of telling companies what they should be doing. There are also plenty of engineers who have no certifications but know what exactly they are doing. I’ve worked with these individuals and I have to say that they look like CCIE’s in my mind. If Cisco handed out MVPs as Microsoft does (maybe they would call them MVE, Most Valuable Engineer) I’d be recommending some people.

Hard/Soft Skills

You need them both. In this economy, companies are very picky. You may have the certification but how well are your communication skills? Do you work well with others. Are you clean? Yes, first impressions are important.

Job Hunting

What does your resume look like? Is it a cookie cutter template you downloaded from one of the top 5 search results in Google? Try to make yourself stand out. Use websites like Dice.com, CareerBuilder.com, Craigslist.org, SimplyHired.com, Indeed.com.. there’s so many. You can also work with a recruiter to fill a contract position. I’ve come in contact with a few recruiters lately looking for engineers.

Network

Tap into your network. On and off the Internet. Learn to leverage your contacts. Respect them.

Attitude

There’s a difference between wanting and needing a job. The individual above sounds like he is in need of a job. Sure it sounds like it is out of frustration but he could have approached it differently and get better responses.

The truth is that it’s difficult right now. Many people are out there looking for a job so you need to distinguish yourself. Do what no one else is doing.

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