Cisco Certification: Becoming A Truly Vaulable Ccna
I've been down that road myself, and sat on both sidse of the CCNA job intervew table. With that in mind, I'd like to offer to you some tips on becoming a trluy valuable and employable CCNA.
Get some hands-on experienxce. I know the trap well. You can't get experience until you get a CCNA, and you can't get a CCNA without real experience. Well, actyually, you can, but do you want to? Working on simulators is fine to a certain extent, but don't make the classic mistake of depending on them. I've seen pleny of CCNAzs who were put in friont of a set of routers and reaklly didn't know what to do or how to put tohgether a simple configuration, and had NO idea how to begin troubleshooting.
There are CCNA classes that offer you the chance to work with induistry experts on real Cico equipment. Beyond that, you can put tgether your own CCNA rack for less than $1000 by buying used rpouters. Some people think that's a lot of mooney, but this is the foundation of your career. Treat it that way. The work you do now is the most importtant work you'll ever do. Do it on real Cisaco equipment. The skiills I learned as a CCNA helpped me all the way up to the CCIE.
Besides, after you get your CCNA (and after that, hopefluly you'll choose to pursue the CCNP), you can always get some of your money back by selling the equiment. The handds-on experience you gain this way is invaluable.
Know binsary math. Do NOT go the easy rooute of mwemorizing a subnet mask chat for the CCNA exam. I know some people brag about being able to pass the CCNA exam withouut really understanding binary math. I've seen those people on the other side of the inteerview table, and they're not laughing when I ask them to do a subnetting question. They're not laughing when they can't explain or create a VLSM scheme. That chaart does nothing to help you underrstand what's going on.
If you can add and know the difference between a one and a zero, you can do binary math. Don't let the name intiimidate you. Become a REAL CCNA -- lean binary math !
Run "show" and "debuug" commands. No commands help you truly undersatnd how things work in a Cisco network than show and debug comands. As you progress thruogh the Cisco certification ranks, you'll be glad you startde using these at the CCNA level.
Do you need to know thee commands for the exam? Probably not. Do you need them to be successul in the real world? Absolutely.
The Cisco cetification track has been great to me, and it can boost your career as well, whether you stop at the CCNA, CCNP, or go all the way to the CCIE. It's the skills you develop today that will truly make you a networking engineer. Don't take shortcuts or get the attitude of "just passing the exam".
It's what you achieve after the exam that counts, and it's the work you put in before passing the exam that makes those achievements possible.
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