advice: New CCNA. What now?

[hewitcm]

Saturday I helped my girl move her stuff into a storage unit while she is waiting to move into her new place, went to a wedding, and passed ICND2 which gives me my CCNA. On Sunday, I was beat and wanted to relax, but I also found that I was bored. For months, all my free time and energy went to studying for the CCNA. Now that it's over, I found that I didn't know what to do. I am going to take a little bit of a break, but I want to jump into studying for my next cert before too long. My question is which would be best to get into?

I am working as desktop support, which is fine, but I am kinda bored with it and want to move ahead. The problem is that I have less than a year working in IT. I was planning to start the MCTS: Active Directory. I find networking more interesting, but if that is best for my career, I will forge ahead with it. Should I take CCNA security or wireless certs to stick with that realm? Or maybe go towards the CCNP route already?

Basically, I am asking what would be best for my career at this point. I do want to specialize in the Cisco world, but early on maybe it's best to have some MS stuff, too.

 

[Lexluethar]

If you are interested and like networking i'd stick with that.

To get some Server 2008 R2 experience i'd suggest taking the 70-642 - it's networking infrastructure for server. I think that plus your CCNA would be extremely valuable as CCNA shows you know routing and the hardware, 70-642 shows you know how that routing protocal can be applied to a server environment.

I'm studying for 642 right now. I'd suggest the MS publishing book for this, make sure to get the second edition as it covers the new R2 information.

 

[hewitcm]

hmm, that does sound good; I wasn't even thinking about that. For some reason, I automatically thought about getting the Active Directory cert first, 70-640 I believe. If they are not dependent on each other, that gives me something completely new to consider. I will really have to think about this. Definitely couldn't hurt to have an MCTS. I just need to consider how much time I am willing to put forward for it. As always, thanks Lex.

 

[Lexluethar]

The 70-642 would give you the MCTS title as well AND it connects in with network.

 

[hewitcm]

I actually want to be a Cisco specialist and go thru all of their certs at some point. I guess this is the real question I need to ask. Does it do me good to know MS server stuff even if I want to specialize in networking? It is not really what I'm interested in. I am starting to get anxious to study CCNA wireless and security disciplines already after reading about it. But should I study MS servers to be well-rounded? Is it something that everyone should know beyond the basics regardless of where they are at since it's such a common thing? That's what I really need to be asking. I'm hoping that some desktop support experience and a CCNA can land me an entry level network job, but I don't know how true that is.

Right now, I still have the Cisco bug and want to learn everything about it. If after that, I don't feel ready for the CCNP material yet because of lack of experience, I will study for MCTS. My concern is that I won't be versatile enough to land better paying work in the mean time.

 

[Lexluethar]

If that is the case continue with your Cisco certs.