CCNA with no experience?

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum, but after reading quite a lot on here, I decided to give it a try, since most of what I've read seems like pretty sound advice.

For the last 2 and a half years I've been working in technical support for a major computer manufacturer troubleshooting HW issues, as well as basic SW in Windows XP, Vista and 7 environments.
Now I want to move forward and I decided to start studying towards Cisco's CCNA certification. I have found a classroom course that offers all the hardware needed (something I prefer to studying alone and buying the routers), and in the meantime, since the course is 9 months long, I will also study independently for Microsoft's MCSE.

I currently live in Greece, but for personal reasons I will have to move to London in September next year. My question is this: Based on your experience, if I have these 2 certifications under my belt, as well as 3 yrs experience in working with HW and SW (though no networking), what are my chances of finding a decent job in London? What are the requirements? Is it worth it spending 9 months and quite a deal of money towards the certification, or would I be better off studying alone?

Since I don't know how the IT market in the UK works, what potential employers are after, and who gets the upper hand, I would really appreciate your advise.

Thanks a lot

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Certification is primarily to validate experience and knowledge, it is not meant as a learning method.

What I would also say is that employers will look at experience first, and then see how it matches up with any certifications, warning signs appear when people are overcertified or have certs for things they have 0 commercial experience in.

I would suggest getting your Windows 7 certs if thats what you are currently working with, also base certifications such as A+ and maybe the Network+ if thats what you are interested in, although as another note, a certification does not guarantee you a job, or even an interview.

Good luck though in what you decide!