O/T CCNA Qualification

[SammyBoy]

Quite niche but I just wondered if any fellow Clarets had completed the CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) and could give some advice on what to expect in terms of difficulty, cost, time taken and prospects post-completion? I currently work in IT procurement and sometimes deal with Cisco so I have been giving this a bit of thought.

[Croydon Claret]

Not done it yet but supposed to be taking it before the end of the year. There's instructor led courses available where you take the test at the end. Supposed to be fairly easy to pass once you've done the course, so much so that they guarantee it

£795 + vat
One example
https://www.justit.co.uk/commercial-training/ccna/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[cricketfieldclarets]

You can or could do it at Burnley College.

I started the course 4 years ago but shortly after I started a new role which meant I was working away on the days of the course. Have thought about redoing. I ended up doing ITIL in the meantime which i found very useful. Not easy but definitely worthwhile and opened up even more opportunities.

CCNA was quite tough. If you are good at maths (and logic) then you could pass it without any knoeledge of Cisco at all. Its definitely useful and opens a lot of doors. Maybe ask yourself why you want it. To me it was more about having a more educated understanding of some of the technologies I worked with rather than needing to know the technicalities just to do the job. Just figured more knowledge and awareness gave you a better grounding and more credibility. My boss at the time didnt agree it was a good investment (my own money) given my role. But I dont agree that you need it just as a techy.

The course was difficult though and the fact that the lessons were every monday made it harder for me. I work and learn better with intensive learning.

[claret wizard]

Don't be fooled by the "Cisco" part in the qualification name. It's pretty much a generic networking course that will give you a great grounding in how layer 2 and 3 operate and how to manage your networking environment.

I actually work for Cisco, but it's the higher level courses that move into a more Cisco oriented deployment, at this level it's very broad.

[SammyBoy]

You can or could do it at Burnley College.

I started the course 4 years ago but shortly after I started a new role which meant I was working away on the days of the course. Have thought about redoing. I ended up doing ITIL in the meantime which i found very useful. Not easy but definitely worthwhile and opened up even more opportunities.

CCNA was quite tough. If you are good at maths (and logic) then you could pass it without any knoeledge of Cisco at all. Its definitely useful and opens a lot of doors. Maybe ask yourself why you want it. To me it was more about having a more educated understanding of some of the technologies I worked with rather than needing to know the technicalities just to do the job. Just figured more knowledge and awareness gave you a better grounding and more credibility. My boss at the time didnt agree it was a good investment (my own money) given my role. But I dont agree that you need it just as a techy.

The course was difficult though and the fact that the lessons were every monday made it harder for me. I work and learn better with intensive learning.

Thanks for the reply! Essentially I want to remain in IT and see it as an industry that will only expand but I'm bored of procurement so I'm considering different areas, although I'm not sure which yet. My issue is that I'm basically technically illiterate (we have a team dedicated to that aspect of things) so I feel I will need some sort of qualification to give me half a chance.

I had been informed that CCNA qualified candidates are in demand but to be honest there seems to be a lot of conflicting information online. Like you alluded to, my management likely won't pay to put me through this as it's not directly relevant to what I do. I don't mind funding it myself but only if I'm going to see some return from it - the last thing I need is another useless qualification (I have a Masters in History for that ). Also, what is ITIL if you don't mind me asking?

[claret wizard]

ITIL is a way of aligning techical implementations against business requirements, just google it. There are various frameworks that do the same thing but ITIL is widely used and popular.

If you've a Masters in History then maybe look at doing an IT conversion course, get a degree in CS out of it?

[SammyBoy]

ITIL is a way of aligning techical implementations against business requirements, just google it. There are various frameworks that do the same thing but ITIL is widely used and popular.

If you've a Masters in History then maybe look at doing an IT conversion course, get a degree in CS out of it?

Cheers mate, I'll have a look into all of that in more detail when I get home tonight.

[cricketfieldclarets]

ITIL Can give you a good grounding in a whole host of IT roles. Service management, account management, change management and even project management for example. Or even in procurement. It will open doors in many different areas and job roles. It can compliment other qualifications too.

I took the course as it was relevant and useful for ny role. But its definiteky useful even if not. Also literally the day I updated my profile on linkedin with this I got a ton of job offers. I wasnt looking for a new role but it certainly makes you more employable.

Other relevant stuff depending on your ambition and interest may be something like PRINCE2.

All of these i find not only help in work but can open your mind to how you approach day to day activities.

[claret wizard]

Conversion Courses

https://www.findamasters.com/masters-de ... rse&Sort=C" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Jimmy460]

I want to be ccna certified, but i dont know how to do it ( as i m beginner ).So if somebody could help me out how else can i study and get ccna? Please help me out, i shall b really thankful to you for replying.

[TheFamilyCat]

Not done it yet but supposed to be taking it before the end of the year.

You need to get a wriggle on!

[Croydon Claret]

You need to get a wriggle on!

Failed again

As I'm a programmer, rather than a network engineer, managed to persuade the boss that it wasn't relevant

[SammyBoy]

ITIL Can give you a good grounding in a whole host of IT roles. Service management, account management, change management and even project management for example. Or even in procurement. It will open doors in many different areas and job roles. It can compliment other qualifications too.

I took the course as it was relevant and useful for ny role. But its definiteky useful even if not. Also literally the day I updated my profile on linkedin with this I got a ton of job offers. I wasnt looking for a new role but it certainly makes you more employable.

Other relevant stuff depending on your ambition and interest may be something like PRINCE2.

All of these i find not only help in work but can open your mind to how you approach day to day activities.

Hey cricketfield, quite a while since this thread but I remembered your contribution and thought I'd resurrect it. After spending 12 months pondering/procrastinating I've decided that ITIL is better suited to my job/ambitions than CCNA. I've looked online and there are loads of places offering the course, where/how did you study ITIL and would you recommend it?

[cricketfieldclarets]

Hey cricketfield, quite a while since this thread but I remembered your contribution and thought I'd resurrect it. After spending 12 months pondering/procrastinating I've decided that ITIL is better suited to my job/ambitions than CCNA. I've looked online and there are loads of places offering the course, where/how did you study ITIL and would you recommend it?

Now then.

I did it in Leeds (trinity something or other building I think) but cant for the life of me remember the organisation that I used. It was probably 4 years ago now. I gather that most sessions are broadly the same though.

Mine was 2.5 days intensive learning and 0.5 day exam.

With a bit of knowledge beforehand from my role and plenty of homework beforehand I found it easy enough. But definitely need to put the effort in.

The sessions were quite enjoyable. Was on a course with loads of people from different backgrounds and companies / roles etc.

Depends what you want to do. But I was in service management at the time and it 100% helped me in my role. And has since I progressed into a different area.

[Walton]

They do the exams at City Exchange in Leeds, overlooking the Trinity shopping centre.

I worked in the same tower for 4 years.

[cricketfieldclarets]

They do the exams at City Exchange in Leeds, overlooking the Trinity shopping centre.

I worked in the same tower for 4 years.

Thats the one.

[jedi_master]

CCNA is a qualification that opens up a Hell of a lot of doors and allows you to essentially walk into most network engineer jobs as it’s proof enough that a degree simply doesn’t provide in your network knowledge. ITIL as mentioned above is also something you should definitely consider, but as an extension to the CCNA not in place of, it’s a far more broad subject matter as cricketfieldclaret has gone into above.

I personally manage the Major Incident Management (MIM) function for BT and insist upon all of my team getting ITIL qualified if they are not already. It is a fantastic framework in the fundamentals of service operations within a managed services arena.

[JarrowClaret]

I did ITIL foundation a couple of years ago found it quite easy if i’m Honest but I did have to work quite a bit, don’t ask me any of it though!! I work for Dell (EMC at the time) and the training I did was internal so not sure on the cost of that my exam which I paid for and then claimed back was just short of £200. I didn’t have to attend a test Centre I did mine at home remotely

[cricketfieldclarets]

I did ITIL foundation a couple of years ago found it quite easy if i’m Honest but I did have to work quite a bit, don’t ask me any of it though!! I work for Dell (EMC at the time) and the training I did was internal so not sure on the cost of that my exam which I paid for and then claimed back was just short of £200. I didn’t have to attend a test Centre I did mine at home remotely

Yes the hardest bit on the test i found was the similarity / closeness of answers on the multiple choice.

[JarrowClaret]

My Company exams are similar so i’m Used to it I also did a Microsoft server course ( can’t remember what it was called) about 5 years ago never took the exam but the practice ones were similar as well. I agree though they are worded to trip you up which is not right in my opinion.

[PhilC]

I did my CCNA and CCNP (Routing and Switching) years ago and having the qualifiations definitely helped my career, but the experience of desiging, building and supporting the networks day to day were far greater than the qualification in the end.

In terms of training i reccomend getting a free 10 day trial of Pluralsight, its an excellent service and you can download loads of training videos. I would also recommend this https://www.cybrary.it/course/cisco-ccna/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; . Im also sure the cisco labs and website will be good.

Having a CCNA and ITIL will help you understand the basics of infrastructure and service management .... but if you are after making a futureproof technical career then the real money is being an AWS and Azure Certified Architect or Engineer. Learning scripting languages and automation in AWS is where most companies will be migrating their IT too in the next 10 years and the need for a CCNA qualification will diminish as AWS and Azure perform all the networking for you.