I took Cisco approved courses through a Cisco Premier Training Partner
about a year and a half
ago. I took ICRC, ACRC, CMTD, CLSC, and CIT. On the first day, the
instructor would have
everyone say a little about who they were and what they did. Of all the
students in all the
coursed, only two, myself and one other, were there on their own. All
the others were sent by
their employers. Most had been Network Engineers for over
two years, and several had been Network Engineers for over five years.
Some of the companies
represented were Disney, Universal Studios, GTE (Verison), and various
regional and national
financial institutions. In general, the more experience these people
had, the more confidence
they portrayed on the first day, but by the middle of the week, most of
these same seasoned and
experienced Network Engineers were understanding the
material and performing the labs no better than those with less (or even
no) experience. Many
times they would say things like
"Oh, that explains why we were experiencing that problem on our network"
or "Boy, did I find
that out the hard way!" or "We don't use that protocol on our network,
so this is all new to
me" or "So, that's why thus and such works that way" or "Can you
explain subnetting again?".
On that first day, when we introduce ourselves, I would say that I had
been a PC Tech and had
no experience, but was looking to become a CCNP and find
employment as a Network Engineer and had already completed courses in
Novell. Someone would
almost always say "Why don't you get a job, work a while and have your
employer send you?".
Often, when they would introduce themselves, they would talk about how
they had been trying to
take this course, but had to reschedule several times because of this
project or that outage,
but by the end of almost every course, one of them would
say how they wished they could go through all the courses and get
certified the way I was
(except for having to pay for it themselves, of course), and that even
though the course was
great, and would help them tremendously at work, they wouldn't have the
time to study and
become certified. The others would nod in agreement.
I know there is no substitution for experience, but I think it is
important to remember that
the courses are designed to provide the students with the benifit of
those who have extensive
experience. These courses don't exist in a vacume. The writers of the
Cisco self study
materials are written by true Experts. Will courses teach you
everything you will come across
on the job? Of course not. But from what I learned interacting
with 40 or so Network Engineers from a wide variety of industries, what
you learn in persuit of
a CCNP is valuable and will continue to be.
Well, I have to get back to studying for my Microsoft 70-221 test ...
Scott A. Ramos A+, CNA, CNE, (4.11 & 5.0), CCNA, CCNP
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