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Should Software Engineers Seek CCNA's?

Posted by Cliff on from the good-fallback-or-knowledge-dilution dept.

kernel2 asks: "I'm in the software engineering profession and some of my friends are about to enroll on a CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Administrator) course and are egging me on to join as well. I'm trying to decide whether I should do the course or not. On the one hand it might help me understand networking (especially in bigger corps) better and that is something I love (networking). It might also help me diversify and improve my chances of landing a job in these strained and difficult times (and that's primarily why my friends are doing it). But wouldn't it look odd on my CV? I mean why would someone highly interested in software (with a Software Engineering degree) do CCNA?"

3 of 40 comments (clear)

  1. Money is the answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Cisco Certified people get the top dollars in the industry. Their top-notch certification (CCNP, I believe, for Network Professional, but I might be wrong) easily fetches $80K+ around the United States and $100K+ in big cities. That's not pocket change.

    Cisco Certified people, assuming you're through with the certification and actually get it (dropout rate is quite high, lots of hard-working hours must be invested), you're sitting on the money bag.

    For example, in Ukraine a Cisco certified expert gets a paycheck of $25K yearly. That's Ukraine, where the average salary is $200 and anyone in software development is expected to make $500-700 max. The catch? Only 13 Cisco-certified experts (their top certificate) for entire freaking country of 50 mil. people.

    If you have a chance to get free education, go for it.

    1. Re:Money is the answer by JM+Apocalypse · · Score: 4, Informative

      The top-notch certification (on the primary pyramid) is the CCIE (Cisco Certified Internet Expert). From what I have heard, it is an incredibly difficult test, and there aren't very many people who have it (they have numbers ... low numbers!). The CCIE requires several testing sessions, costing in excess of $2000. There are 3 pyramids of certification, and if you want to see it, look in a CCNA book. You could probably find more information on the cisco netacad site: http://cisco.netacad.net/public/index.html

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  2. Associate - Not Administrator by oni · · Score: 3, Informative

    CCNA stands for Cisco Certified Network Associate not Administrator. There's a big difference.