Cisco Certification: Becoming A Really Valuable CCNA

Aug 25, 2012 by WrotenEbner109

I’ve been active in the Cisco Certification track for 4 years, working my way from the CCNA to the coveted Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert title, and during that time I’ve performed job interviews and casual conversations with hundreds of CCNAs and CCNA candidates.

The CCNA is an exciting beginning to your Cisco profession, but just having the certification just is not sufficient. A recruiter or interviewer is not going to be impressed just with the cert you have got to have some real-globe information to back it up.

I’ve been down that road myself, and sat on each sides of the CCNA job interview table. With that in mind, I’d like to offer you to you some suggestions on becoming an actually valuable and employable CCNA.

Get some hands-on expertise. I know the trap properly. You can not get expertise until you get a CCNA, and you cannot get a CCNA with out genuine encounter. Well, actually, you can, but do you want to? Working on simulators is fine to a specific extent, but don’t make the classic mistake of based on them. I’ve seen a lot of CCNAs who were put in front of a set of routers and genuinely didn’t know what to do or how to place with each other a simple configuration, and had NO concept how to start troubleshooting.

There are CCNA classes that offer you the opportunity to operate with sector experts on genuine Cisco equipment. Beyond that, you can place together your personal CCNA rack for much less than $1000 by purchasing used routers. Some individuals think that’s a lot of funds, but this is the foundation of your career. Treat it that way. The function you do now is the most essential operate you will ever do. Do it on real Cisco equipment. The capabilities I learned as a CCNA helped me all the way up to the CCIE.

Apart from, right after you get your CCNA (and immediately after that, hopefully you’ll pick to pursue the CCNP), you can constantly get some of your funds back by promoting the equipment. The hands-on experience you obtain this way is invaluable.

Know binary math. Do NOT go the effortless route of memorizing a subnet mask chart for the CCNA exam. I know some individuals brag about getting capable to pass the CCNA exam without genuinely understanding binary math. I’ve noticed individuals folks on the other side of the interview table, and they are not laughing when I ask them to do a subnetting query. They’re not laughing when they cannot explain or create a VLSM scheme. That chart does nothing to assist you realize what is going on.

If you can add and know the distinction in between an one and a zero, you can do binary math. Don’t let the name intimidate you. Become a True CCNA — find out binary math !

Run “show” and “debug” commands. No commands aid you truly realize how items perform in a Cisco network than show and debug commands. As you progress by way of the Cisco certification ranks, you will be glad you began utilizing these at the CCNA level.

Do you require to know these commands for the exam? Almost certainly not. Do you need to have them to be successul in the real planet? Absolutely.

The Cisco certification track has been excellent to me, and it can boost your profession as well, regardless of whether you cease at the CCNA, CCNP, or go all the way to the CCIE. It is the capabilities you create today that will actually make you a networking engineer. Do not take shortcuts or get the attitude of “just passing the exam”.

It’s what you achieve after the exam that counts, and it is the perform you put in before passing the exam that makes these achievements achievable.

Good luck !

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933

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