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Getting Cisco
Certified It’s
possible that you’re one of those people who like to
understand hot technologies, and that you picked up this book
for fun and personal growth .
It’s more likely, however , that you read
it for work or business-related purposes . Whatever your
reasons for wanting to master Cisco technology , there
may be a day when you’d like to quantify what you know ,
both for yourself and, perhaps more importantly , for
potential employers . Cisco’s
program of certifications can help you do that in
a way that is immediately recognized
by the technical and business com Mounties. |
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The Brief History of
Cisco Certifications You don’t have to be very old to remember the days when the
network administrator for a small-to-medium business might be the person
whose desk was closest to the printer. Or maybe the office manager’s son
was “into computers” and had taught her a few tricks. But as
internetworking became more complex and required increasingly
sophisticated equipment and design, it become obvious that the business
world needed a labor pool of qualified technicians whose knowledge and
skills were up to date with the technology. Vendors of computer software
and hardware started to develop certification programs in order to insure
that customers could find reliable people to help implement their
products. The first certification offered by Cisco was the CCIE (Cisco
Certified Internetworking Engineer), a notoriously difficult level of
certification that often required (and still does require) years of
experience, thousands of dollars’ worth of training, a torturous lab
practical, and multiple attempts at the exam in order to pass. Given the
rigorous nature of the exam, very few CCIE candidates actually passed. )
Of course, those who did were properly worshipped.) Eventually, Cisco
developed intermediate levels of certification for those who were not
quite ready to tackle the daunting CCIE exam, but who still had an
interest in identifying themselves as Cisco-knowledgeable. This system of
certifications became known as Cisco Career Certifications. . It
should not come as news that there are more
tech-related out there than there are people
to full them . A quick survey of the employment-related Internet
sites will tell you that companies are
suffering form a shortage of qualified computer professionals
. Human Resources departments are having to employ
creative strategies in order to hire and retain desirable candidates . A
great deal of this wealth of employment opportunities
can be attributed to the need for businesses
to “get wired” or Internet and
intranet-connected . The bureau of Labor Statistic’s Occupational
Outlook Handbook specifically designate businesses’
growing demand for “networking”
as a major factor in the proliferation of
computer-related jobs. A college degree-in any field-does not guarantee a job, nor
does it guarantee that the person holding the diploma is capable of doing
the job. Perhaps you know someone with an advanced degree who is
underemployed, or even unemployed altogether. Many of the people working
in the technical field have traditional college degrees in Computer
Science or a related field, but with the constantly shifting nature of
internetworking technology, the knowledge gained while obtaining a
four-year degree could theoretically be obsolete by graduation day. While almost every major tech company offers certification
programs centered around its products, all certifications are not created
equal. Cisco has worked very hard to make sure that its certifications
retain their worth in the marketplace. All told, the Cisco Carrier
Certifications program is among the most respected in the field. While the Cisco certification exams are focused primarily on
the use of Cisco products, there is enough theoretical content that
employers can assume candidates have a good general internetworking
knowledge. The payoff for completing a certification program is manifold,
and the possibilities include
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