Your experience with Cisco Certification (CCNA1)

[wrenaudrey]

Im in uni right now and i am doing a module on networks.
We're basically following the CCNA1 material and the teacher's plan is to cover CCNA1 in 6 weeks and CCNA2 in another 6 weeks.
The CCNA1 certification isnt really part our module to pass but optional. There's 11 chapters that roughly takes 5 hours to read. And we've been given 6 weeks to read all chapters and to expected to be taking the CCNA1 exam in the 7th week.

As its optional, i cant decide whether i want to do it or not. It's the 6th week of uni and the test is next week, i know :lol: typical uni student attitude


Im sure there are people here with atleast CCNA1 certification, so could you help me out?
How long does a certification normally take? eg. How long did it take you to do CCNA1
With passing CCNA1, does that open alot of doors for me in the real world?
If so, what kind of jobs would i be open to with this certification?

Thanks, hoping someone can answer some of my questions

 

[shadow]

I did mine years ago mate, so might not be up to date.

The one I did was a week at Nottingham, then 1 day a week for a few months.
Its a teaching version of the course, so all the modules are fast tracked, but the end result is you get a ccna.

Even now, (10 years later) its still looked on with favor by employers, but then i have 14 years experience to go with it.

In your place i would go for it.

 

[d3rrial]

I did the same thing, even tho it does not directly relate to what I'm actually doing (I'm a programmer) and it certainly did make a difference in my application. I can only speak for german employers tho.

You do have to do a fair bit of reading tho, if you aren't going to cheat. Many people I did this with, together were cheating by just reading the questions and correct answers before taking the individual assessments.

Also the certification costs 200€ if I remember correctly.

It won't help you in day to day work, but it will be looked upon with favor by employers, as shadow said.

 

[shadow]

Perhaps look toward the ip phone qualifications Cisco do.

The hard bit for you, is having loads of qualifications but little in the way of experience, to get round that, i did free work, just to get my boot in the door, only a day or so (careful they don't take the p**s), but from that they will work out that you will be a asset to the company.

Or even contracting, but even that is not as easy to get into as it used to be.