Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Finished CCNP R&S! What now?

Hello fellow networkers!

im in my early 20s, live in Germany and as the title already reveals i finally finished my CCNP R&S!
I'm overly happy and excited about it and i got to tell you, it was a really tough path and there were times where i wanted to give up. But you got to keep your head high and ask yourself why and for whom you do it. I do it primarly because some day i want to become an expert in this field and i want to be someone who others look up to and say "this guy networks!". With higher expertise i also expect a higher salary which hopefully will grow as i gain experience over the years.

To my situation:
i have to admit that i am pretty dissatisfied with my current position. I am 2 years out of my vocational training and im currently working for a customer where i solve Layer1 problems. Layer2 is very rare. Even though i make good revenue for my company, i personally gain nothing out of this and it really makes me feel worthless in this atmosphere. Several times have i thought about leaving, but i always think im not qualified enough to applicate for a junior/senior position. Cisco is all i know and is all ive teached myself. Through this certification ive gained a good understanding of routing and switching and im ready for something new which i can put on my resume.

Career path:
- so i was thinkining i could continue my cisco path with CCNA Security. Security is a huge factor in the industry and being able to deploy and manage a secure network (keyword: firewall) is a valuable skill. But after i found out that after cisco certificate revamp 2020 there will only be one CCNA certificate and all others are being dropped, i ask myself if it still makes sense? I still believe that the subject matter is very useful and there is no doubt it would benefit me.

- Programming: Ive come in touch with python a little bit because i had this really monotonous task which i saw no other way than to automate it. It was fun and i will continue to code, but only solely casually.

- WLAN: ive played a bit with WLC and ive written 1 or 2 documentations about it, but i can fairly say, that i have no prior experience or knowledge about WLAN. Is CCNA Wireless an option?

- Other vendors: little experience with HP and Extreme. Dive more into those or other vendors?

- Cant think of any more points, do you have one?

So my question for you: which step do you think should i make in order to benefit my career path the most. I prefer going the security path because i think that this is a useful skill you can apply everywhere and is appreciated.
I am greatly looking forward to hearing you answers :)

Thank you!



No comments:

Post a Comment