Career Decided: Networking Cisco / Juniper

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Hi,

After working 3 - 4 years in IT doing various roles from Voice, Database, Desktop Support and Networks. I have decided on my career path and I will be persuing the networking route hoping to be a Network Architect in a few years. I have quite a few solid certifications under my belt at the moment, my aim is to soak up as much knowledge as possible in the next 5-7 years while im young and my brain is functioning properly

Current Certification
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MCITP: EA
MCTS
CCNA
Linux+
MCSE
MCSA
MCDBA

I'm looking to do the following and specialise in networks from data / voice / storage / IP but for the first few years I will be concentraining on Design + Routing / Switching to try and understand the foundation and the very basics over the years will move over and start playing with / studying the other subject.

The below certifications is my roadmap for the enxt 5 years or so I know things will change but its nice to have something written down!!

CCNA
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640-802 CCNA - PASSED

CCDA
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640-863 DESGN

CCNP
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642-901 BSCI
642-812 BCMSN
642-825 ISCW
642-845 ONT

CCDP
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642-845 ONT
642-812 BCMSN
642-873 ARCH

CCIE
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CCIE Routing & Switching
CCDE

Now I have two questions, how does the CCIE work? What's the market like for CCIE and CCDP's? Any demand? I'm currently working in the "Voice Networks" market so would it be worth considering the CCVP as well or would it be over the top?

Anyone has any experiance with Juniper? Not quite sure where to start on juniper as well, any other good alternatives / worthwhile reads apart from cisco and juniper? Have alot of research to do in this filed.

Is it worth considering a degree / masters as well?

If anyone has any input I will be gratefull!!!!!!

 

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How does the CCIE work? You take a multiple choice exam and a lab exam and you get certified. That's about it.

With experience, yes. Without experience, no. Only you know where you fall within that scale.

I'll say what I have always said: certify on what you have experience doing. If you have experience related to the concepts covered by the CCVP, then by all means, pursue it! It will certainly make you look attractive to employers by proving you possess that knowledge.

I haven't, but from what I understand, it's not too far different from Cisco.

If you want. A degree can open up doors that are otherwise closed.

Do you NEED a degree to be a network administrator or designer? Absolutely not.

 

Sounds like a plan !

To wet your appetite and keep you focused here's a job ad I got from CWJobs on my morning email :

Senior Network/ Systems Consultant - Juniper – Farnborough

Location: Farnborough, Hampshire
Salary: circa £70k plus excellent benefits
Company: Omnium IT Recruitment
Job type: Permanent
Date posted: 15/06/2009 14:48:43

My client is seeking an experienced Senior Network / Systems Consultant with strong Juniper skills and knowledge. You will have attained relevant Juniper accreditation (or equivalent experience) to JNCIE level in M-series track and Cisco CCNP / CCIP (or equivalent experience). The role involves design, planning and deployment of large Juniper Metropolitan Area Networks, including use of dynamic routing protocols (OSPF, BGP, MP-BGP) & MPLS; Bandwidth reservation methods (RSVP, MPLS traffic engineering, DiffServ), QoS & CoS; Resilient LAN technologies (VRRP, HSRP, ESRP) Virtual systems, virtual routing (RFC2547bis MPLS layer 3 VPN), Virtual switching (MPLS layer 2 VPN / circuit cross-connect, VPLS), Higher layer (L4 / L7) Switching & Load-Balancing.
Desirable skills include: a good understanding of Multicast (IGMP, PIM-SM, PIM-Dense, DVMRP), understanding of VoIP / IPT, wireless networking, Juniper/NetScreen, Cisco ASA/PIX, Denial of service protection and prevention, Intrusion detection systems, SSH, SSL; Good practical understanding of PKI Infrastructure & VPN technologies. Emerging technologies (IPv6, AES encryption),

It is essential that you have experience of network design, configuration and troubleshooting on Juniper M/T series platforms ,Juniper and Cisco pre-sales design and post-sales implementation experience with medium to large scale Internetworking projects. Experience in the presentation of technical solutions. Plus experience of technical documentation writing.

Strong communication skills are a must

Nice salary !

 

thanks for the input lads!!! Yeh very nice salary but hey I bet they want a very experianced designer!!!