Should Software Engineers Seek CCNA's?

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?"

Comments

Re:Money is the answer

[JM Apocalypse]

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