Network Engineer

BTW:  the MCP XP is pretty easy, but you need to focus on only one at a time, which may prevent you from achieving the lofty goal of getting all of these in one year...

cool thanks man it might not be one year however long it takes the Comptia ones should only take a month im doing server plus now then CCNA, then CCNP

IT Project+ is just Project+ now and focuses on PM skills ala PMP.

Seems pretty ambitious for a 1 year plan.

If I was the hiring IT manager and saw 0 to CCNP in 1 year, I would be thinking "paper tiger", brain dump certs.

Good luck.

Yea, but the 6+ years of experience will count when interviewing...  A lot of techs think that having paper certs just does not cut it, but it is my belief that you need a mixture for a career path to really work..  for instance, I have worked with some techs that have no certs and it shows, as they just don't get the little things that make a good network (or computer) engineer...  The certs do teach you things you will not get from just experience, and Visa Versa!

Oh, I absolutely agree!  I have been working (off and on) to get my CCNP for one year now, and still do not feel ready to sit for the exam...    as I mentioned above, to get all these in a one year time span is beyond the average, or above average technician...  

The only real tough ones there are the Cisco exams, the others can be crashed pretty quick.
I think im going to keep working on my CISSP :)

RPPreacher:
But if you were a recruiter... then you would see a candidate that meets qualifications, is gonna make some $$ for everyone and make you look good in the clients eyes too :)
Im MCSE, alot of ppl go psshhh everyone has that... it dont mean nuttin... try it once and apply it then lol i dare ya. youll see why MCSE is reguarded as a college equivalent (obviously not PHD lev). But still, it shows determination and skill... regardless of wether you have professional experience. As a matter of fact, many places like to be able to hire a younger, sharp minded technician out of school that has not yet been moulded. Smaller companies that have limited budget and are in a critical phase of growth probably wouldnt give you the time of day... they want to hire the man with a pocket full of pixy dust.
But still, whats he to do... aww damn i wont get 100k the first year out of school? well screw this then lol ill just work part time at McD's

The real trick is learning what you want to be doing in 10 years. Ive always focused on technical skill. certs, white papers, mass testing labs, forums... blah blah anyways the point is i realized that while i do want to be extremely skilled... i want to be rich too! (well i would like to be able to buy a house atleast lol). and the general rule is your not gonna get extremely wealthy working for someone else.
I should have been going to school for business and marketing... im still considering enrolling in college for that.

>But if you were a recruiter...
Most recruiters are idiots.  One of my peers got a call from a recruit.  They asked if he had his MCSE.  He said "Which color?"  She said "Umm.  Which one is best?"  He said "Pink.  I have pink."  She said "Oh good, they requested pink."

>youll see why MCSE is reguarded as a college equivalent
Maybe degree mill college equivalent.  I personally consider MCSE equal to a student driver license.  I'd rather have someone with 6 months experience and no MCSE than an MCSE with no experience.  And since I do the technical interviews for my company...

>it shows determination and skill...
No.  It shows the capacity to memorize.

>Smaller companies that have limited budget
Yup.  See it all the time.  That's my bread and butter.  I come in and do all the stuff that the "younger, sharp minded" MCSE couldn't do to save their life.

>I should have been going to school for business and marketing...
Maybe.  Maybe marketing the "value" of an MCSE.  ;-)
Actually, that's not a bad idea (business school).  I'm about 2 semesters away from my MBA.  It has helped my income considerably.

Oh and I feel fairly qualified to speak on MCSEs.  I just finished my MCT.

I have to agree again with Preacher...  MCSE is not the equiv. of a true college degree..  you won't see an MCSE (only) going iinto management at any larger firm, unless they have been there a very, very long time..  (I must admit that I do have some bias here, as I have several degrees, including 2 bachelors in business from true accredited universities, attending 6 in the past 35 years..)  Now, all this depends on the career path you wish to walk..  if you are fine with remaining a general technician, do not want management responsibilities, and are satisfied with the limited income range of your career path, then that is great, and more power to you....

I have also experienced some mishaps with MCSEs..  one story regards an MSCE we hired in 2000...  interviewed by an HR dept and NON-tech dept. head..  It was very obvious from the start that experience was something they missed, as when he opened a server up, he could not tell a PCI slot from a SCSI connector (I am exagerating here, but you get the point...)...

lol you have to have a good hiring process to weed those out, thats HR's fault. But how did he get the interview and job? probably by having a good resume and qualifications... such as the MCSE (obviously they didnt go by work experience!). It is not a true equivelant to BS level college degree, but it qualifies you to apply as meeting those requirements.

I have a MCSE and have been the service dept manager for just over a year now (and this is not exactly a small company lets just say). This is my 2nd year with the company.
Get yourself in the door by having a good resume, then do a good job. if you do good enough, anything is possible. getting hired is the hardest part.


lol while were on the subject of incompetent tech's. We hired a guy one time fresh out of school, i asked him to add 2 RAM chips to a mail server... he ended up breaking half of the surface mount completely off the board! ive never seen anyone do anything like that before lol. he wasnt even a big guy! must have used his foot too :/
but yea, that was a little dissapointing

keep in mind theres always 2 extremes... everyone is always 'OMG MSCE NOOB LEARN LINUX' or something to that effect. Dont forget there are way more non-noob MCSE's. I have 11 years professional experience and am management... i hold a MCSE, A+ and HIPAA and would most certainly be insulted if you dared to bash on me as a stereotypical "memorization capacity" MCSE. do i have cisco cert or a cissp, no... but i have studied them and i work with network security nearly every day.

and besides we are way off subject now lol
the whole point of bringin up the MCSE was the ideal of having furthered your education showing ambition plus self motivation... not the technical skill it represents.

Nolan, i would do the Cisco certs last as they will consume most of your time.
and instead of the CCNP, get a CCIE <----

Thanks, and the best with your continuing studies..

FE