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The CCNA is an exciting beginning to your Cisco career, but just having the certification simply isnt enough. A recruiter or interviewer isnt going to be impressed just with the cert youve got to have some real-world knowledge to back it up. Ive been down that road myself, and sat on both sides of the CCNA job interview table. With that in mind, Id like to offer to you some tips on becoming a truly valuable and employable CCNA. Get some hands-on experience. I know the trap well. You cant get experience until you get a CCNA, and you cant get a CCNA without real experience. Well, actually, you can, but do you want to? Working on simulators is fine to a certain extent, but dont make the classic mistake of depending on them. Ive seen plenty of CCNAs who were put in front of a set of routers and really didnt know what to do or how to put together a simple configuration, and had NO idea how to begin troubleshooting. There are CCNA classes that offer you the chance to work with industry experts on real Cisco equipment. Beyond that, you can put together your own CCNA rack for less than $1000 by buying used routers. Some people think thats a lot of money, but this is the foundation of your career. Treat it that way. The work you do now is the most important work youll ever do. Do it on real Cisco equipment. The skills I learned as a CCNA helped me all the way up to the CCIE. Besides, after you get your CCNA (and after that, hopefully youll choose to pursue the CCNP), you can always get some of your money back by selling the equipment. The hands-on experience you gain this way is invaluable. Know binary math. Do NOT go the easy route of memorizing a subnet mask chart for the CCNA exam. I know some people brag about being able to pass the CCNA exam without really understanding binary math. Ive seen those people on the other side of the interview table, and theyre not laughing when I ask them to do a subnetting question. Theyre not laughing when they cant explain or create a VLSM scheme. That chart does nothing to help you understand whats going on. If you can add and know the difference between a one and a zero, you can do binary math. Dont let the name intimidate you. Become a REAL CCNA -- learn binary math ! Run show and debug commands. No commands help you truly understand how things work in a Cisco network than show and debug commands. As you progress through the Cisco certification ranks, youll be glad you started using these at the CCNA level. Do you need to know these commands for the exam? Probably not. Do you need them to be successul in the real world? Absolutely. The Cisco certification 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. Its the skills you develop today that will truly make you a networking engineer. Dont take shortcuts or get the attitude of just passing the exam. Its what you achieve after the exam that counts, and its the work you put in before passing the exam that makes those achievements possible. Good luck ! Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933 |
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