testing for my CCNA tomorrow....

[slow99]

I've heard about 120-160 hours.

Why would you be looking into it, though? That'd be quite the career change.

My covered sector is Communications Infrastructure & Data Networking - Cisco, Juniper, Riverbed, F5, Aruba, Alcatel-Lucent, Corning, Broadsoft, Infinera, Tellabs, Adtran, Calix, and Ciena.

The education of the majority of my competitors goes: MSEE and a few years work experience, then MBA and some experience with Equity Research through coursework/internship and possibly an Investment Fund, and then the CFA somewhere in all of that.

[roliath]

I've heard about 120-160 hours.

Why would you be looking into it, though? That'd be quite the career change.

lol no kidding!

it is good knowledge though, and you learn a lot on "how shit works" or how it broke.

[ScottJ]

congrats! I failed it the 1st time I took it too, passed the 2nd time. Lots of material.

[Silverback]

Congrats, I took it the first time with 1 hour of study on the labs and failed it by 5 points. My instructor of the boot camp asked me to take it the day class started since I had the most experience to make sure they hadn't changed the test, as a new version was due to be released.

Took it 5 days later and passed no problem. This was in 2009. It's expired now, but I won't be updating since I'm moving into a management vs technical role.

[06S197GT]

For those of you in the field, how do you like it? what do you dislike about it? I'm about to start classes for a CCNA myself. TIA

[ceyko]

For those of you in the field, how do you like it? what do you dislike about it? I'm about to start classes for a CCNA myself. TIA

What aspect/role are you looking at? GENERALLY there are 3 types that I can think of right now...

Support - Basically IT whooping boy. Can pay okay, but man you'll want to murder someone after about 9 months

Architect - From a support role, this is more "special projects" as opposed to IT whooping boy. Granted, still plenty of negatives

Partner Job - You work for a company that does consulting/architect/engineering...etc services. This is what I've been doing for the last 6 years. Prior I only lasted 5-9 months at jobs.

All of them have up/down sides. All have various levels inside of them as well.

[GeorgeG.]

For those of you in the field, how do you like it? what do you dislike about it? I'm about to start classes for a CCNA myself. TIA

Pretty much like Ceyko described it. If you're just starting out in the field, you can expect to be a whipping boy...at least until you learn how the game works. It takes time and persistence to get through the grunt work...coworkers will sandbag you if you let them. Also, if you're not putting in 50-60 hours to stay ahead of the game, you're coworkers are.

As far as total study time, that really depends on how well you soak in the information, how quickly it makes sense to you, and of course previous/currently working in the field helps too.

[lowthreeohz]

fuck routing protocols and switching, subnetting, etc. i enjoy not having to "study" every freaking day to keep up with the latest and greatest.

[Mikecobra302]

This is so true. When I moved to the network team at my old job I worked with a bunch of lazy ass senior engineers that had no desire to teach or share knowledge. They just let me do the day to day work and had no desire what so ever to help teach and grow anyone other than themselves.

I learned what I could and moved companies. I now work in a great enviroment. I have gone from simple cabling and switching to being the head engineer of all International sites at my company as well as all the basic stuff here at our office.

In the 2 years I have bee here as a network engineer I have by far learned more than the 5 years at my last job. I myself need to go get the CCNA done. I am ranked as a mid level engineer now and have so much more to learn to even sniff the CCIE level guys. I have certs on Cisco VoIP, Extreme networks, Riverbed, etc etc.

CCNA is almost a must to get your foot in the door. Luckily I knew the guys here at my job and they knew my experience. Once you're "in" experience means more than certs. But my boss for damn sure wnats my CCNA and then CCNP done in a year. I keep putting it off, and that's my lazy fault. I mean shit, when I'm configuring MPLS, routing, GRE, VPN, ASA firewalls, etc on a daily basis I think it speaks for itsself I can do the CCNA level. But they want it done. SO I gotta study a bit and just go knock it out.

Congrats man!!!!!! Hope it helps you in your career. I want to move to the vendor side eventually.