Cisco Certifications - Are they worth it?

[momalley]

I'm contemplating studying to get some Cisco certifications and curious who here has any and if they think they are really worth anything.

I am currently 37 and a Telecom Engineer/Quasi-Manager for a large heating oil company with a pretty strong background on the Nortel CS1000 product line. This includes Contact Center, Call Pilot, Mini Carrier Remotes, etc.. I currently handle 100+ physical locations with about 1/3 of them being part of our current "voice network". There is talk of migrating to VoIP withing the next couple of years with a leaning towards Cisco but nothing has been decided.

The Cisco Certification path that I'm considering would be as follows:

CCENT -> CCNA Voice -> CCNP Voice

After that I would consider doing the following:

CCNA Routing & Switching -> CCNA Security -> CCNP Security

I do enjoy the telephony side of things and would like to continue down that path but I think supplementing it with a CCNA/CCNP Security would make me more marketable in the future.

Any thoughts?

 

[ja_user]

Is this to get ahead in your current career or get another job somewhere else?

 

[SkyHog]

They're not worth anything as far as learning goes (just like a college degree or any other certification), but certainly useful in proving your worth to an insecure hiring manager.

That said, there is no reason to avoid them. It can't hurt, and could certainly help.

 

[momalley]

Is this to get ahead in your current career or get another job somewhere else?

I've pretty much hit the ceiling at my current employer, only position higher than mine is Director of IT, and I would not be required to get the certs if we do end up going with Cisco.

I'm thinking that we will end up going with Cisco and having the the CCNP Voice certification as well as 2-3 years of hands on experience with CUCM 9.0 as well as migrating a 2000+ node/100+ location Nortel/Avaya voice network to CUCM would make me fairly marketable in the future should I decide to move on from my current employer.

Mike

 

[ja_user]

I've pretty much hit the ceiling at my current employer, only position higher than mine is Director of IT, and I would not be required to get the certs if we do end up going with Cisco.

I'm thinking that we will end up going with Cisco and having the the CCNP Voice certification as well as 2-3 years of hands on experience with CUCM 9.0 as well as migrating a 2000+ node/100+ location Nortel/Avaya voice network to CUCM would make me fairly marketable in the future should I decide to move on from my current employer.

Mike

As long as you keep them current, they may help you applying for another job. Direct experience is more important, but certs can help..

I work as an architect for a company with a multi-cluster 30k+ phone environment, been in it for about 10 years. I took all the classes initially, but have since let the certs expire. It isn't my only technology, so I can't keep up with each vendors certs.. I would probably look to renew the Cisco ones, or more importantly something in the security space... But only if I thought I would be job shopping in the near term.

 

[FSL747]

They use to be big when I did my CCNA and half CCNP back in 02, I'm not sure if it's still the case. I moved to different field. If you don't have Masters Degree already that's one avenue to look at too from good School in your related field.

 

[EppyGA]

I'd rather be good at actually doing the work then having a piece of paper purporting I can do the work.

I worked for a company that was purchased by Cisco and was soon inundated with Cisco folks with all of those certifications. They were pretty good at cutting and pasting stuff from manuals but didn't seem really good at understanding what they were doing.

 

[JimNtexas]

I think the Cisco certs are pretty respected compared to most.

If you have actual experience working with Cisco systems then I'd recommend you go ahead and get some of their certs.

 

[momalley]

They use to be big when I did my CCNA and half CCNP back in 02, I'm not sure if it's still the case. I moved to different field. If you don't have Masters Degree already that's one avenue to look at too from good School in your related field.

I don't have any college so getting a Master's really isn't a viable option at this time

 

[jetedrick]

I don't typically look at certifications, sometimes I go back and look after I have done an interview. It is pretty hard to find good IT folk in Omaha so I can't be too picky but I look for experience; what has the candidate done with their career.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[momalley]

Thanks for the responses......

Experience is always more valuable in the real world, I'm just looking for something that would get me considered when just having limited experience with Cisco even though I've been in the telecom field for 17+ years

 

[JimNtexas]

Thanks for the responses......

Experience is always more valuable in the real world, I'm just looking for something that would get me considered when just having limited experience with Cisco even though I've been in the telecom field for 17+ years

The certificate will get you past the HR screen in a large company, and won't hurt in a small one, given you have real experience in the field. Big company HR's, especially consulting companies, put a lot of weight on certificates. They reduce the risk of the HR person being blamed if the applicant doesn't work out.

I personally don't interview developer applicants who have certificates but don't show real experience to back them up.

In your case you'd pass my screen.

 

[John221us]

They are good to have, especially if you go the contractor route, but I agree with Sam; wait until you are closer to needing it (they expire) and having some hands on experience will make it easier.

 

[denverpilot]

They're an incredible money racket. Get them when you need them to get past HR and then let them expire or make the company pay for them if they're required for continued employment.