CCNA or MCSE??

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I am considering studying for either the CCNA or MCSE certifications, but I am not sure which one is suitable for me.

I know that the MCSE better prepares you to manage servers and the internal LAN network of a small company whereas, CCNA focuses on routers and switches and is more suitable for bigger companies but you need to CCNP as well to be valued. I also heard it is better to do both, but as a relative novice to IT networking I want to know which would be better for me to start off with.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

 

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As you are a novice to IT, I (and most others here) would suggest that you take a look at the CompTIA A+ and Network+ as the starting point for your certs.

The MCSE and the CCNA are not easy certs to gain, and both expect a high level of knowledge and practical experience with the products.

Ultimately though it depends on you, what do you enjoy doing?

 

what simon said... mcse is software and cisco is hardware..

 

*cough!*

Cisco is a lot of Software too!

 

okay let me try explain what i meant.. mcse will show you that you can use a server 2003 OS to create a router while cisco will say use a ' cisco router' - yeah software is involved in ccna (IOS - the cisco OS!)

 

Let be realistic here. Both certs are good to get. It's depend on the type of experience you have to make this certs useful. When you are a newcomer to IT, I would suggest getting the CompTia A+ and Network+. As you become more proficient in networking, go for MCSE to get more indepth on Microsoft product (or Linux+ for Linux platform) on Network OSes.
Then after you have some hands-on on hardware such as switches and routers think about getting CCNA. Why wait awhile before getting CCNA and not now? while your feet aren't yet wet in IT experience, CCNA isn't going to be useful for you when it comes to getting a job that requires CCNA cert + several years of IT experience in networking. CCNA are valid only for 3 years. Within 3 years, your feet will be more soaked in learning client/network OSes, network applications, and perhaps a little bit on server hardware and switches. After that you could get the CCNA without wasting time.
Employers are looking more into the numbers of years of IT experiences+the type of experiences rather than certifications. Certs are a added-value, not a standard requirement to get into most jobs. Build your foundation first (the fundamental) before starting on the roof.

 

I think Krizzy may come in and tell you to do a MS course not CISCO, she is also from Asia, and is a MS Certified Partner... If she does not come in and mention this to you, that i'll be damned!

 

krizzy may have had alterior motives when signing up here, and her posts may be a bit biased, but come on, give a gal a chance.

 

D- I know what you mean by when she originally signed up, ok, she may not known the policy, but although now she is not posting her web address she still strutting her stuff Introduction

...and that was this morning...

Krizzy - Sorry

 

tcm, i know what post you were referring to. i had seen it as well, and admittedly i cringed a little when reading it. but she didn't advertise. it's a start, right? so she still has an agenda, or let's say she is, as i said, biased. so what? everybody is in one way or another.
maybe i'm too naive, but all i'm trying to say is, she had a rocky start, but she may turn out alright. cf memberbase includes many infotech newcomers, some oldtimer sys admins, some programmers, some teachers (i believe), so why not someone employed at a training centre. could be good, no?

 

D- Good point - but the part i never liked about that particular post was it was Jonny's intro... Krizzy could of at least done it on his other thread in Training...

ee01akk - Sorry bout this...

...anway

 

if u want fast to get the cert u better choose ccna because just only one paper to take and this ccna is very valueable if u want many cert, u can choose mcse, for the first time u pass, u will get 2 cert one is mcp and the other cert is the paper u take,after u pass 4 paper u will mcsa and then 3 paper hv to go u will get mcse, each time u pass u will get 1 or 2 cert totolly u will get 10 cert but for on further study for ccna is ccnp, u hv pass 4 paper then u just only get one cert for ccnp.

 

that is not exactly true, bengchong. doing mcse will not get you 10 certs. an acknowledgement printout from the test center that you passed the exam is not a cert, nor does it mean that 10 passed exams equals 10 mcp certs. the path that you describe only gets you three certs, 1 mcp, 1 mcsa and 1 mcse. and being an mcse automatically implies that you are an mcp, so the mcp cert then becomes meaningless anyway.