Advice on where to begin!

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Hi, I'm after a bit of advice please. I'm a network manager at an academy and am shortly being made redundant, I am Microsoft certified (MCITP) but have limited knowledge of Cisco. Most jobs I'm looking at require Cisco qualifications therefore I'm looking to get some Cisco certifications, my question is do I have to start at CCENT or can I go straight to CCNA?

Ideally I'm looking at attending boot camp rather than online courses so would appreciate recommendations on training agencies, I used Firebrand for my Microsoft training.

Thanks

 

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Surely only you can answer as to your skill set but as a network manager I would honestly expect you to be CCNA certified with a view to being more CCNP\CCIE level (certainly the network managers I have all met fell in to that kind of skill set).

One thing you don't mention is whether you want to stick with being a network manager or something else?

 

Can you still take CCENT or is CCENT retired? I also would like to start taking cisco certification but not sure where to start. any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

As a newly minted manager (very hands on techy really) I can attest to the fact that as a specialised manager I am expected to know the stuff my guys are on about, yes I have a few VCP's but actually I am working towards my VCAPs still when in theory I don't really need to.

It's better in my opinion to have a really good manager who understands technology but then realises he doesn't need to know everything.

I have to admit that I do wonder whether I will take a step back next role and go do more techy stuff again because the management side can be quite time consuming and dare I say it... boring. That's not to say I have had it easy, my management experience in the last 9 months as included an engineer who quite simply disappeared off the face of the earth, never to be seen by us again. Another engineer decide right at the last minute that he was going to stay working for his current employer because they just upped his salary by 15k (3 days before he was due to start with me after having gone through hoops to employ him as he did a disappearing act after his interview (apparently went away on holiday for 2 weeks without telling anyone at the agency and him begging to be employed by us after that became known).

 

Jim it's not just your place, our architecture guys are all hands off.

I was also told when I was promoted to manager that I was expected to be hands off but due to the size of my team that they would understand me being a hands on manager.

We are going through a fairly major architecture change at our place, looking at potentially ripping out all the VMware work we did over the last couple of years and replacing it with OpenStack, not my preference or choice and obviously leaves me somewhat at the mercy of the underlying virtualisation stack (looking to be RedHat, again skills I don't have).

My current team are all VMware accredited enginners so things as a whole are looking somewhat bleak for us but it could also be another thing to add to my CV. It's just somewhat frustrating to be told that the project you delivered failed.. when in actual fact it didn't at all. OpenStack isn't ready for what my company want to do but getting steered from the top to do it, even tho there are people there who have experienced it failing before.

Like you I am unsure at the moment.

 

Well, it really depends on what you're comfortable with... I think it's easier to go with CCENT then ICND2, but at the same time, if you already have experience with Cisco equipment, then CCNA exam might be the better choice.

The bootcamp training is typically aimed at those who have the experience of the topic being taught. So depending on your skillset it might be really difficult or you will get through it quite easy. It's also expensive, so make sure you get the most out of it. Don't rely on it alone just to pass the exam. Take your time to really understand the topics.

 

A true solution architect role is always going to be hands off... unless the role is very dynamic... I work as a consultant, and sometimes I act as an Architect, other times and Integrator, SME, etc... I've worked for a very large manufacturer in the past and the Architects there were all hands off. Their role was more focused and tied in with the Director/VP. Their job was to have one foot in the business and the other in IT and work with the leadership team to come up with a solution. But the implementations were either outsourced to a consulting firm or to the internal IT team.

You really have to like it to be good at it. Personally, I love architecture and if I did it full time, I'd be fine with it. I don't mind doing diagrams and writing documentation, but at the same time I have a full blown lab at home, so I am never really hands off per se.

 

The OpenStack stuff sounds like a fun project, but to rip and replace VMware with OpenStack? that I am not so sure about. I am sure you'll face challenges that will make you think outside the box ;)

Like you said, good to have on a CV. I am also wondering, why not just do small scale deployment, see how you guys like and move from there? Doing one big rip and replace would be a HUGE risk, unless I misunderstood

 

The Technical Architects at your current place do the low level designs right?

 

Well, don't feel discouraged... I mean I have colleagues who've done their VCAPs and they are not technical anymore, that's what the labs are for ;) ...

You can always start with VCAP-DCD which is more design oriented and ease your way into DCA at some point later on. I know Craigie is not much hands on anymore either, but he's done his VCAPs, just labbed a lot and figured it out.

 

For sure! Also there are Hands on Labs which are free

If you have any lab design/config questions, don't hesitate and let me know if I can help out in any way.

 

Sounds good!