CCNA or Comptia Networking+

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notasandwich

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Jun 13, 2011
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I am trying to decide whether to take the CCNA or the Networking plus to advance my IT career

I am currently a level one help desk tech with an A+ and an Associates in computer networking. The classes I took to get the Networking associates degree where geared towards getting the CCNA degree but it has been some years since I finished and I've unfortunately let a lot of that knowledge lapse so I am forced to basically start learning from the beginning again to refresh my memory

My question is which of the two networking certifications would be best for me if I wanted to advance my career to where I can eventually become some kind of system/networking admin. I understand that the Network+ is more broad and easier to obtained and is vendor nuetral but that the CCNA is more sought after, harder to pass and would only be useful if I wanted to specialize in Cisco devices.

Which is better overall? Would it be possible to get both and not look like idiot for doing so? Would it be better specialize in some other vendor-specific networking test and just get the Networking plus?
 
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boosted1g

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Jun 12, 2013
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Network + will do very little to advance your career, there is some sepcific job exceptions but those are not that common.

I suggest CCNA, but if your memory on VLANs, subnetting, OSI model, and things like that are not very good then you should at bare minimum read network + study materials first if not take the test.
 
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bill001g

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Aug 9, 2012
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Pretty much like most things the harder it is to obtain the more value it has. Also cert than never expire kinda are worthless because you never know if some has not forgotten everything.

Even CCNA there are a lot of people with the cert so it has lost much of its value.

I would guess maybe 15% of the CCNA is cisco unique. This is mostly because they require you to configure actual router images. This is to somewhat protect against people who can get the test questions and just brute force memorize rather than understand.

Cisco has gotten much better to remove unique things from their test that no other vendor uses, for example their methods of vlan trunking. They pretty much only cover the industry standard one...although they still like to use the term native for untagged which is confusing.

In general many companies ask for cisco certs ever for other equipment. Once you learn the basics it is not hard to learn the new command for another platform. Thing like routing protocols are standard and if you understand how they work it is easy to dig around and find the commands to implement them.

Pretty much unless you are working for a cisco partner the certs are only used to get your foot in the door. You want to work for a company that has large number of routers and locations or maybe even a ISP. That type of experience is the most valuable compared to working for a company that has a simplistic install. You could then move to a smaller company easily where the reverse is generally not as easy.

Note I do have a bias on this I have had my CCIE in routing and security for 15yrs. I never bothered with comptia stuff but I do have some juniper certs that nobody cares about.
 
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notasandwich

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Jun 13, 2011
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If i where to get MSCE cert I would need to at the very least get an MSCA first. And I would need to know what to specialize in first

Would getting an MTA and CCNA Cert be a good idea? Do they cover different material or would it be redundant?
 
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