If the OP sounded like he wanted this career path then I’d say stick out the test. But it doesn’t sound like he does.
What exactly is your question OP? Whether to continue studying this? Whether to take the test? How much does the test cost? What is the EXACT name if the certificate, and who is offering it? No acronyms please.
(Note: I’m an ex-Computer Science prof. I’ve seen a lot of people waste their time trying to get CS degrees.)
Do not waste your time anymore on this.
A CCNA, as mentioned, has value. But it’s only part of what is needed to have an actual career.
You clearly don’t have either the aptitude or interest for this field.
Go do something else.
Weather to continue studying this. It costs 150 dollars per try, have to renew it every three years. The one I am planning on taking is the Cisco certified entry network technician test, which is part one of the Cisco certified network associate test. Cisco is offering it.
Well, at least Cisco is a legit company. For a hundred fifty bucks, I say take it. Passing it will give you some options you don’t have now. Failing it will give you some answers you don’t have now.
As others have said, having a CCNA certification without relevant professional experience will get you nowhere.
A standard career path for many IT folks is:
- Initially, a couple years doing help desk (installing operating systems on user laptops and desktops, helping them with basic word processor/spreadsheet/email application issues, etc…)
- A couple years as a junior server-monkey, babysitting servers and making sure they don’t crash, making sure the server software works properly, etc… Alternatively, an Operations Center staffer.
- Moving up to senior server admin, branching out into other areas such as database admin, application admin, network admin, etc…
Obviously, not everyone follows this path, but it’s a typical career track. You sound like you’re trying to jump directly to step 3; if you don’t have relevant work experience, you’ll find getting a Network Admin job tough, even with a CCNA cert.
What’s giving you trouble with your CCNA studies? Is it the concepts themselves that seem confusing (IP subnetting math/routing tables/routing protocols, MAC addressing/ARP/VLANing)? Or is it more the Cisco-specific implementation that is confusing (do I run that command in the global config or interface config? Was I supposed to use a subnet mask or wildcard mask? What was the exact syntax of that dumb command anyway?).
If you’re having trouble with the Cisco command syntax, eh, it happens. It’s a memorization exercise; just keep at it. If you’re having issues understanding the technical routing and switching concepts, however, that is a more serious problem. If you’re just not getting the difference between RIP and OSPF, how the switch determines which switch ports to push data through, and other such things, you may not be cut out to be a networking guy. At the very least, you may need more real-world, hands-on experience before attempting the certification.
IT paychecks can be nice, sure. But like any job, if you’re just not suited for a particular job, or you can do the job but absolutely hate it, someties you’d be better off working a different job.
Well, mostly it was subnetting and I am not perfect when it comes to Mac addresses either. I really haven’t gotten to either RIP or OSPF yet, although I briefly read about them. RIP v1 was an ancient way of determining the best route a packet should take. It never took connection speed into account whereas OSPF takes into account the speed of the connection. RIP V1 just counted the number of HOPS it would take to the destination. RIP v1 is just as about as old and ancient as hubs.
Syntax is the easy part for me.
And this certificate, if and when you pass the exams, is the thing that will get you a job that will enable you to bring over the young lady from Tanzania whom you have not met but want to marry?
I don’t know about “trapped”, but it might be a good idea to sit down and have quite a serious think about things.
Something isn’t right here. Even if you’re only studying a couple nights a week for a couple hours a night, it shouldn’t take you a year and a half to get through the material. There simply isn’t that much material. The fact that you haven’t “gotten to” the routing protocols yet, which is a major test topic, is somewhat concerning.
Subnetting can be tricky, especially if binary math and powers of 2 aren’t natural to you (NOTE: memorizing the sequence 2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024 will serve you very well in IT). Even there, though, I’ve found that showing how subnetting works by showing the binary 1’s, 0’s, and boolean ANDs first, and only then using the decimal representations, this tends to clear things up. But the major topics are switching and routing, so even if you can’t split a Class B into 16 (or 14) subnets, it shouldn’t be a huge deal.
Whether you lack proper motivation to study a couple times a week, your mental makeup is not suited for computers/IT, you lack sufficient technical experience to really get what’s going on with switching and routing, or something else entirely, pursuing a CCNA kind of seems like a dead end in your case. I think you need to take a step back and ask yourself what you really want out of a job/career.
You go to school to learn. One thing you can learn is that your chosen major is NOT what you want to be doing the rest of your life. So yes, DO find something else to learn or another field of work.
You will spend 40 hours a week at your job. That is a BIG hunk of your life! Money is not everything, find something you will be happy doing. Then you will LOOK FORWARD to going to work!
What do you like to do for fun?
Is there a paid job doing anything like that?
Do not go into IT if you think you’re going to be doing 40 hour weeks. Think closer to 60. I can imagine it happens somewhere but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it, and I’ve been at it for more than 20 years.
The moment you start watching a clock is when you start falling behind.
The money can be very good but you’ll have to earn it.
(de-lurks)
CCIE Routing and Switching, CCNP Collaboration (previously Voice), Avaya ACSS checking in.
Your CCNA will get you far – it is far more difficult than other standard certifications, and lately Cisco has really driven it up a notch including what was once CCNP material into the CCNA. You should not go direct CCNA, but understand the material and go CCENT01 and CCENT02 though. Straight CCNA certification is for those of us that just need to re-take it (been there).
With your CCNA (CCENT01 and 02) however, you master the fundamentals of todays networks (think IPv6, Frame Relay (ok, MPLS, EVPN etc), OSPF, EIGRP, etc. etc. - The CCNA is tough these days, and it needs to be – networking is way too important for many organizations to have it run by script kiddies.
That said – RIP?
Seriously?
RIP was taken off the CCNA like 10 years ago. You seriously need to update your training materials dude. Are you also studying token ring (pass the buck - mike)? These days the very minimum is multi-area OSPF and EIGRP on the CCNA.
I am sorry – but I doubt your story bro. A CCNA (this is entry level stuff man) would take a normal, averagely intelligent person, max 6 months if you take the CCENT01 and 02 path. If you haven’t figured it out after 18 months this is not the career you think it is.
(re-lurks)
Industry Certifications are great, but the only thing that’s going to make you money is experience, so there’s no way around grinding for a few years in low-level positions. If you’re a good tech, study, pay attention and work hard, you’ll move up and make more money.
(de-lurks)
Just reading this again - you also need to read up on link state versus distance vector routing protocols. Just a helpful hint 
(re-lurks)
Agreed Winston - but a CCNA (these days) will tell an employer that you understand, truly, how a network works on the most basic level. I would gladly hire a CCNA certified kid, pop him/her in my team and trust the the seniors would be able to get rid of some of the more - simple - jobs and not fear for the worst. And if the kid is willing to learn, listen, and follow up - well these days there’s a very good salary waiting for such an individual.
Juts my 2 cents…
As someone who just wrote and passed his first CCNP exam (ROUTE) yesterday I say stick with it.
It took me 4 tries to pass my CCNA when I first got it about 10 years ago. My problem was I was trying to get a Cisco Cert while working for a company that was 95% Nortel networking equipment. I was lacking the “hands-on” experience. Luckily I found a simulator by a company called Boson. it was pretty cutting edge back in 2006. That was the missing piece for me.
I let my cert lapse then 3 years ago I wrote the CCNA combined exam and passed first try with no studying. BUT our company had shifted to 96% Cisco about 6 years ago so I have way more experience.
My brain isn’t wired like most people, I have a hard time reading a book and memorizing that content. I’m more of a learn by doing kind of guy. That’s why I’m looking forward to the CCNP TSHOOT exam.
Anyway I will say this for Certifications, where I work our Network department has 12 bodies in it, we manage ~3000 L2 Cisco devices, ~300 L3 Cisco Devices and ~100 Cisco firewalls. We have two CCNP’s and 4 CCNA’s. One guy has no certifications, but he’s working at an CCNP level. I just have my CCNA, but I’m considered a network architect at our company because of my years of experience (and knowledge).
I designed and implemented a DMVPN network with OSPF running over it with 40 remote sites connecting to a Primary and Secondary Datacenter. The Datacenter’s are active-active and the sites fail-over automatically to an alternate data center when there is an outage. This network has $1.5 Billion/year of transnational traffic flowing across it.
And then we hired a co-op student once, he actually had his CCNP and he didn’t know where to plug a console cable into a 2960 switch! He was worse than useless.
In most cases I put years of experience up against certifications any day of the week. Cert’s help, but sometimes don’t mean much. I haven’t busted my but to get my CCNP because there is no monetary gain for me at my current job. I am going for it now to keep up with some of my peers.
Yeah, I think Help Desk is a little low for a CCNA, even one with little actual experience. Will depend on the company, of course, but it’s not unreasonable to think of starting in the NOC with that. Mind you, it may well be a contract position, hourly salary, starting out by watching the alarm board, cutting tickets for the alarms and passing them on, and as the new guy you get the weekend night shift–but it gets you in.
I recently got my CCNA. It took me 8 months long to study the material because life and full time job(financial industry) got in the way. I think you need to have an ambition to become a network engineer not just because of the pay. Technology is evolving quickly, the CCNA today will not be the CCNA tomorrow. :eek:
As others have said, most companies will ask for at least 1-2yrs experience to get in as a network engineer unless they are looking for Entry Level Network engineer which is very rare.
I am still looking for an opportunity to get in IT field with just CCNA. I have applied for helpdesk position and have gotten a call, but I failed the phone interview because CCNA does not teach you technical stuff like, what PST is or what can you see inside a windows event viewer. I Ace’d the CCNA stuff questions though about DNS and ARP, but apparently they are looking for someone to fix up a desktop when it breaks down and basic knowledge with Windows OS for helpdesk purpose. I think that falls in CompTia A+ certification. I have built 3 desktop in my life, I know what each component does and fix if it breaks down.
I am currently in a situation if I should go for A+ cert or continue my CCNP studies, but this time with a real router and switches just so that I know how to plug into a console port like what McDeath_the_Mad said. LOL!
just my 02 cents.