Just passed my CCNA...

[jclj]

I know this question has been asked a lot, but I haven't found anything fairly recent.

What would you suggest after passing the CCNA....CCNP or CCVP (or something else). I know it has to do with what direction you are interested in, but as far as oportunities out there what would get the most respect, so to speak. Have you been in the same position? Why did you pick the direction you did?

Thanks for any insight.

[Rasika Nayanajith]

First of all congrats for passing CCNA....

If I was you I would choose CCNP as it gives fundemental knowledge in Routing & Switching. Without strong knowledge in this, it is very difficult to excel in Voice, Wireless, ect as everything running on a network which is configured with routers & switches. There are people straight goes to those specialisation (voice, wireless,etc), but they have to get the routing & switching knowledge from somewhere

That is my advise

HTH

Rasika

[John Blakley]

Chris,

I would go as far to say that you should go with what you have access to as far as equipment goes. There are a lot of people that would like to do voice, but they simply can't get their hands on phones, CM, etc. That said, there are people that would like to do security, but they can't get their hands on an IDS. If you have access to more of one thing than the other, it will be easier in the long run if you were to choose that path.

Congratulations!

HTH,
John

*** Please rate all useful posts ***

[jhager001]

I have my CCNA Voice, and I can say that most all of what I have learned about it i've done not through the course, but with self study and packet tracer. You can simulate cisco phones which is a great tool, the gui and sounds will verify the calls can pass and be picked up etc to assure your route paths are working. (Also I believe the Voice test is easier than Security or Wireless so people tend to go with that as an "easy cert")

[jclj]

Thanks!

So is it common for people to eventually get both cert's or is this more of a fork in the road where i should make the decision and stick with it?

[John Blakley]

Yeah there are a lot of people out there with multiple certs. The more you learn about the technologies, the easier it is to jump into another area because you may already learn how all of it is interconnected.

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[fb_webuser]

first of all congrats, CCNP might be a good choice to begin with but why dont u read the Syllabus of each cert. and go for the most desired by you and for opportunities trust me its all fate

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Posted by WebUser Mohamed Nabil from Cisco Support Community App

[jclj]

Thanks everybody. I believe I will go for the CCNP. I am in a position where our phones are Cisco IP, but are hosted. Although, at some point, I'd like to go that "route" and bring our phones inside,  I do think I should get more detailed knowledge of R&S.

Thanks for taking the time to respond!

[johnmkaranja021]

Hi,

In the perfect world the network engineers will deal only with Layer 1 through Layer 4 in the OSI model. Unfortunately from our experience we know that you should have much more skills in order to troubleshoot and fix some more complicated issues which require knowledge from the upper layers of the OSI model. Here is a list of "What to do next?" in order to develop further as an IT professional. And you should not stop when you finish this list!

Learn some LINUX or UNIX operating system.

Learn some Windows too! No, not how to start your Excel. Learn how to administer this operating system. There is a Microsoft Active Directory in probably every enterprise organization and it is THE standard already so you will have to work with it.

Learn some SQL queries. OK, you are network engineer, but it doesn't hurt to learn how to run one simple "SELECT" or "UPDATE" command. "Ping is the king" but ping dies on Layer 3, sorry.

Get more information at this site.

Regards