CCNP - Starting out

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Hey Guys,

So I passed my CCNA R&S (as it was) in Feb 2020.

I was then made redundant due to COVID. I secured a 3 month notice period and managed to secure a new desktop support role (My Current role) in May. I also managed to secure my Junos JNCIA.

I am running two offices remotely in Tel Aviv and London and I enjoy my job, however, all of out networking is Meraki devices, and out Networking team are based in the US.

I still want to get into Networking so I am thinking of starting my CCNP. Just a couple of questions:

• If I managed to obtain my CCNP, how would that look on a CV? Every post I see for a network engineer seems to want a CCNP. I would have thought that the CCNA (And JNCIA to that matter) would have really helped break into networking but to no avail.

• For the CCNA, I used Packet Tracer and it done the job (As I passed). Would PT be applicable to for the CCNP or should I have a look at something like EVE or GNS3?

Appreciate all the input and suggestions,

Thanks,

Ron

 

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I'll be honest, I think you're going to need a thick skin and to not take stuff personally if you end up telling other CCNPs that you got that done with nothing more than PT. Some of them will have stuff to say about that. But Packet Tracer today is vastly more powerful than the piece of doodypoop I remember it being ten years ago, so it might well be enough.

This sort of topic comes up often at the ccnp subredit, you might want to check out the many advices given there https://www.reddit.com/r/ccnp/

 

Thanks @FlashDangerpants

I thought that would be the case but thought I would check first
Will check out the reddit link too.

Cheers

 

I have been inspired. As the CCNA is not a req for CCNP I'm going to skip recertifying and head straight for the CCNP enterprise with the automation speciality because the python and Ansible calls to me. It's probably very difficult, but I don't actually care whether I pass or not.

For your purposes, I do believe having some Wireshark on your CV would probably get you an interview somewhere good. It's something that the right kind of manager to devlop your career would find much more interesting than any CCNP that isn't backed with years of exp. And it will give you an understanding of protocols that that will blast you through the troubleshooting scenario questions in the resulting interview.

Full disclosure: I suck at Wireshark, I had to use it for actual troubleshooting for the first time in years a couple of weeks ago and I got super lucky and spotted the problem right away, but I would have totally failed if it was difficult.

 

Thats great news mate. Really cool!.
Not sure what I am going to do as a follow up but aiming for Encore first of all.
Will also get some Wireshark under my belt as well.

Appreciate the input, I really do. I have GNS3 up and running on my Laptop, setting it up on my main machine this evening...then make a start once I am back from Holidays.

 

Hey @FlashDangerpants

How are you getting on?
Im working on setting up some physical equipment with a Lack Rack.
Couple of Switches and a Router. I also have GNS3 setup and ready to go.

Starting up a study group via Teams if you are interested?

Cheers

 

I have to referesh all the boring CCNA stuff before I can move onto the CCNP proper tbh, and then I will do everything the wrong way round because I am really doing this just to prep for a project @ work, so I will skip EIGRP and BGP for the time being and worry about those only if I decide to sit the actual exam.

But before I look at taking the CCNP core exam, I definitely will be implementing stuff from the ENAUTO course so I can get my Ansible and Grafana on, and also look at using APIs Meraki too (Boooo!). So whether I look to sit CCNP or do the DevNet Pro instead seems to be a bit of a coin flip, and I will most likely sit the exams in the wrong order either way.

Going to put my GNS3 system together at the weekend, then I'll probably soak my ears in turpentine to loosen them up for 700 hours of David Bombal!

 

Ha, that sounds like a great plan! I have an O'Reilly subscription through work so going to use that. I think Im going to hit CBT for a couple of months as well and get through that course before hitting the official press.

 

Oh, I am also working on a LackRack too so that will be exciting.