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Certifications, which to persue/ignore

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by o'lorin 1 view

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I am looking at the novell cna/cne and msce certifications.
I do not want to waste time and money on a certification that is not going to help me. Which certifications are employers looking for in the IT/ network operations/admin feild?

10 replies

by lapinga

O'lorin

5mm Singapore seems to be giving great advice today...go with it. I would only suggest that you go for the CCNA (Cisco) cert first. That way you get to see how the protocols are supposed to work, and not the way MS has "improved" them ;)

by wpteh

I will personally advise you to go for MCSE 2000 (MCSE NT 4.0 is phasing out this year 28 Feb). After which if you are certified...proceed on to CISCO certs. Normally in medium-big sized companies will deploy CISCO routers.

5mm.
Singapore.

by rzan

Empployers don't care if you hold hundreds of certification because they all know that paper means nothing without experience. Having a cert does help, but if you can't put your money where your mouth is, then don't bother piling up your certs. I suggest you obtain one cert for now and concentrate on gaining the experience to back up that cert. Certs are not an easy ticket to a higher salary, you have to show that you really know your stuff to back up those certs.

by wpteh

most employers do care about the certifications. Seriously speaking, only your certs will sort of 'proof' that you know something during the interviews.

But of course I don't encourage paper MCSE or CCNA etc, because it will take you far. When you take the certification, do put in effort in it and I believe you will benefit greatly.

Good luck.

5mm.
Singapore.

by wpteh

Some typo from my previous sentence.

What I mean is paper MCSE or CCNA wouldn't take you far in your career.

by debug2001

What should one do to gain job experience if one is in the middle of obtaining MCSE? Any tips on how to make a job change to the job that might improve my overall appeal to employers? I guess I'm asking what should (and can) I look for if I want a better job? I have about 2 years of desktop and Level 2 experience and I passed the four NT4.0 core exams. I know this is a selfish request but I could help from those who have been down this road. Thanks

by wpteh

This may sounds difficult...

Try looking for small companies that contract network maintenance from bigger size companies. Most of the time you will get hands-on on almost every problem that arise. In that situation, your experience will rise greatly and you are exposed to bigger variety of equipment used.

MCSE will be better than MCP and that is possible if you continue to finish off the last two elective. *Suggest you take TCP/IP and IIS 4.0 so you will be a MCP+Internet also.*

Afterwhich if you are really interested in networking field...go for CISCO.

Good luck.

5mm.
Singapore.

by debug2001

I appreciate your prompt and informative comments. Your suggestions regarding MCP+internet are well-taken and confirm my scheduled plans. As time limits preclude me from taking both TCP/IP and IIS 4.0 (they both retire end Feb), I have decided to focus on TCP/IP. I like the idea of Cisco as I recently had the opportunity to set-up a Cisco router. Thanks again.

by wpteh

Good luck in your field of Networking and I am glad if I could be of any help.

Cheers.

5mm.
Singapore.

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