Our CEO bought tickets for all of us and then went to the show with us. Our project manager even took the time into account for the weekly schedule. *That's* the type of planning I like to see...
Ah yes, the good old days of the 10 to 4 dee-fence contractor job (two hour lunch and one hour smoke break included, natch).
OK ok, that was harsh, but those of you who work for a defense contractor know at least a few folks with such "innovative" work skills.
Even so, any time I see one of these "har dee har har lookit me over here snug as a bug in a rug with my dee-fence contractor job while HTML slingers walk the streets coding for $2 crack hits" posts, all I can think is "playah hater, no guts no glory".
Ever stop to think that some of us who took advantage of those.COM opportunities don't necessarily need to be running back to work right away? Nah, probably not, we're ALL losers, of course.
Why am I not surprised that I would read the threads on this article and see the CCNA get reamed by every poster who has an opinion?
Perhaps I'm biased, having just wrapped up my CCNA and CCDA tests, but I'll say it anyway; those were *difficult* exams. Specifically, the CCNA had some nifty twists to it. The new CCNA 2.0 exam (640-607) just came out last Tuesday. I can bet you that if you hold a current CCNA or CCNP and walk into 640-607 cold, you will flunk it.
I have ten years experience in telco and networking, with five years in cisco environments. My most recent projects involved working specifically with cisco solutions (a redundant network architecture for an on-line university ASP, and a global network buildout for a company in pre- to post-IPO transition, respectively). Raw "hands on" knowledge would not have gotten me through 640-607.
I had taken the prep for 640-507 a while back, and indeed that one seemed pretty light. -607 is set up as a "weed out" test, it would seem. I ended up doing very well on it, but I needed all but 5 minutes of the time given to finish it.
The CCDA, I think, tests you on how well you read, take notes, and pay attention. Short of the emphasis on CiscoFusion, it's actually a fairly generic "can you design a network that provides a proper business solution for the client" test. The concepts can be applied anywhere. Maybe that's why I'm seeing job reqs place more emphasis on having the CCDA in addition to the CCNA or CCNP - it's a good indicator of solid grounding in vendor-independent network design concepts.
Anyway, I plan on moving to the CCNP/CCDP level fairly soon, as I now have the pre-reqs in place. There really isn't any reason not to straddle both disciplines up to that point - getting the design side along with the tech side only involves an extra exam. Don't plan to pass the CCDA if you prep for the CCNA alone, though - the exams are different enough to trip most people up.
That aside, the only other certs I have are the Legato LCE, and some "Master Level" Brainbench certs (which I see people slamming as well - whatever, I'm proud of my scores). Throw in a couple of tech degrees (Comp. Sci. and Aero Engineering w/ my EIT/FE exam passed), and I think it's all pretty well rounded.
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Our CEO bought tickets for all of us and then went to the show with us. Our project manager even took the time into account for the weekly schedule. *That's* the type of planning I like to see...
Just because it's low tech doesn't mean it's unimportant.
Ah yes, the good old days of the 10 to 4 dee-fence contractor job (two hour lunch and one hour smoke break included, natch).
.COM opportunities don't necessarily need to be running back to work right away? Nah, probably not, we're ALL losers, of course.
OK ok, that was harsh, but those of you who work for a defense contractor know at least a few folks with such "innovative" work skills.
Even so, any time I see one of these "har dee har har lookit me over here snug as a bug in a rug with my dee-fence contractor job while HTML slingers walk the streets coding for $2 crack hits" posts, all I can think is "playah hater, no guts no glory".
Ever stop to think that some of us who took advantage of those
Why am I not surprised that I would read the threads on this article and see the CCNA get reamed by every poster who has an opinion?
Perhaps I'm biased, having just wrapped up my CCNA and CCDA tests, but I'll say it anyway; those were *difficult* exams. Specifically, the CCNA had some nifty twists to it. The new CCNA 2.0 exam (640-607) just came out last Tuesday. I can bet you that if you hold a current CCNA or CCNP and walk into 640-607 cold, you will flunk it.
I have ten years experience in telco and networking, with five years in cisco environments. My most recent projects involved working specifically with cisco solutions (a redundant network architecture for an on-line university ASP, and a global network buildout for a company in pre- to post-IPO transition, respectively). Raw "hands on" knowledge would not have gotten me through 640-607.
I had taken the prep for 640-507 a while back, and indeed that one seemed pretty light. -607 is set up as a "weed out" test, it would seem. I ended up doing very well on it, but I needed all but 5 minutes of the time given to finish it.
The CCDA, I think, tests you on how well you read, take notes, and pay attention. Short of the emphasis on CiscoFusion, it's actually a fairly generic "can you design a network that provides a proper business solution for the client" test. The concepts can be applied anywhere. Maybe that's why I'm seeing job reqs place more emphasis on having the CCDA in addition to the CCNA or CCNP - it's a good indicator of solid grounding in vendor-independent network design concepts.
Anyway, I plan on moving to the CCNP/CCDP level fairly soon, as I now have the pre-reqs in place. There really isn't any reason not to straddle both disciplines up to that point - getting the design side along with the tech side only involves an extra exam. Don't plan to pass the CCDA if you prep for the CCNA alone, though - the exams are different enough to trip most people up.
That aside, the only other certs I have are the Legato LCE, and some "Master Level" Brainbench certs (which I see people slamming as well - whatever, I'm proud of my scores). Throw in a couple of tech degrees (Comp. Sci. and Aero Engineering w/ my EIT/FE exam passed), and I think it's all pretty well rounded.