"nrf" wrote in message [EMAIL PROTECTED]">news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]... > Well, I don't know if it's a waste of time. Consider this. There might be > some newbie guys who were all gung-ho about grabbing a bunch of certs > because they believed that by doing so they would just be handed a > super-kick-ass job (no doubt some training school told them so). Now > perhaps after reading these threads they may be getting a whole new > appreciation for exactly what certs can and cannot do for them, and they may > be rethinking their whole strategy, and perhaps even stop studying and > instead concentrate on building their experience first.
Actually, in the case you pointed out, if someone stops studying to concentrate on building experience first, then I believe you have done those people a great disservice. Many people use certifications as a "foot in the door" into a network career from other careers. We've agreed (many times) that just because one gets a certifications that their not entitled to a high level job with lots of money, but at the same time, a certification can be the difference between getting that foot in the door or not. If ones goal is to use certifications to prove a certain level of knowledge and abilities in an attempt to get into the field, then steering them in the direction of "get experience first, then worry about certs later" is exactly the opposite of what could potentially help them the most. > So you could say > that in these cases, these threads have not only not wasted people's time, > they have actually saved people's time. > > Then of course, there are those guys who've already made up their minds > about what they want to do and don't want to hear what anybody else has to > say (I call them the "certification religion" people). But I'd like to > think that some people do indeed maintain an open mind about these kinds of > things. I am by no means a "certification religion" person. You speak of maintaining an open mind but from your comments, it's easy to see that your blinders are on as tightly as can be. You only see things from your point-of-view, and no amount of logical reasoning will convince you that your point-of-view isnt' always the best for other people. You fail to realize and admit that there are many different ways that certifications can help and can be used in ones career path. You assume that by encouraging one to work on experience and worry about certs later is the best thing someone can do, but many times it's not. I knew 9 months before we moved to a much bigger town that I wanted to change over into networking. So given my experience in desktop/server admin, etc and knowledge of networking, I saw that getting CCNA/DA and working on CCNP would look much better to an employer looking to hire someone into an entry level Cisco job than just my experience alone. In that case the certification was a sign to the employer that I understand what the OSI is... understand the difference between switches and routers.... understand how to log into a router and get into enable mode and do basic commands. That's exactly what the certification is meant for, and that's exactly how I used it. Now, I'm much more into networking, have been doing it a while, and am studying for CCIE lab....... At this point, I'm not doing a cert for anyone else but me. To help improve me... So it's all, again, just a matter of perspective. Mike W. Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=45165&t=44611 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
