TO BE OR NOT TO BE?

A QUESTION OF CERTIFICATION

What many of us learned as we embarked upon our IT careers WAS that we sure could have used a mentor. But back in the early 1970s when I got my start there were not so many fellow geeks to choose from. Yup there was a small population of geeks I was exposed to and they were pretty much self-made professionals. The fact is we were mostly selected by an employer by our confidence since most hiring managers did not really understand the technologies they were hiring people like me for. Today we are dealing with professionals that are looking for specialists. The enterprise has grown and now we are called upon to locate very particularly skilled individuals to support parts of that LAN/WAN/MAN/MONSTER!

So when we need is a tool something like the Hogwarts Sorting Hat; A device that will tell you where to go with your career certifications. Would you hear it say “Slytherin” (Juniper), will you hear it shout Ravenclaw (VMWare), will you hear Hufflepuff (EMC) or will it whisper Gryffindor (Cisco)?

TO CERTIFY OR NOT TO CERTIFY, THAT IS THE QUESTION!

Hordes of young people all playing the same game of Quidditch, each with the best tools they can find to give them an advantage. Think about your career journey and those things you would like to add as advantages of your own. Name an IT manufacturer, and you will find a certification that will give you bragging rights to their technology solutions. But what is really in demand? From the perspective of a person that recruits for the major arena hiring Cisco Certified professionals, this is what I have seen. Cisco certifications are still a Golden Snitch grabber’s dream. Yes you still have to work and interview to prove the skills are more than ink deep or keyboard wide. Let me state very clearly for the bleary-eyed; you must have more than a certification or two to land a good job. You can get entry level roles in many cases but a certification alone without any experience is not going to get you the BIG BUCK$!

Why certify?

Let’s go back to my example of the Quidditch match as a game played to beat the competition for a job. What extra enhancements you can make to your game will help if it’s a new broom or better bludger then bring it on! Literally, in a country like India where there are thousands of candidates for every IT job what will distinguish one candidate from another? While I have heard that you can bribe the recruiting agent, interviewer and hiring manager and that works well oft times, but let’s try focusing on the merits of you as a candidate instead. This is no less significant in the USA where record unemployment and the layoffs of many from manufacturing jobs and merger profit attempts result in more players in the game of Job Quidditch. But I have not answered the question of certification yet.

HELL YES

Have I been clear about this yet? Do certify if you can, even if you are in a cushy job now because you may one day find the job market to be a fickle mistress if you are without. There are many employers that will fund certifications why let that option go to waste? If you are in the academic mode what better way to take advantage of your book learning momentum than to add a few IT certifications? The Cisco Networking Academy is so prevalent that you probably have one around the corner from you. Do take advantage of this option as many have. Get you’re A+, CCxx, MCA, RHCA, JNCx or even CCIE certification when and where you can. These are game changers for people with experience. Because at each level you can improve your game skills by filling in the gaps of knowledge you have. Sure these are tough goals but look at your career in reverse as I have suggested many times before. You have about 100,000 hours of professional time if you work for 50 years. What do you want those hours to be worth? How many will you waste uncertain or unfocussed?

One thing is definite and that is you will help defeat the troll of uncertainty if you allow your interests to be supported by training and then raise the banner of certification as your prize. Some of these will lead to loftier certifications and these will serve as mileposts to a hiring manger, showing a steady and confident march towards his office was one of your career objectives.

Where to start?

What do you like doing? My Cisco networking focus is clear in my title as CCIE Agent, so I would suggest you look at Networking and the new trend of Cloud Computing. There are so many elements such as Routing and Switching, Security, Storage, IPT, Unified Communications, Wireless, Service Provider and many levels of these areas you can get lost easily. Where is the demand? Without a doubt it’s in the elements that are integrated into the new cloud focus. This is hot people so begin with any of the above and add the core essential knowledge of the rest and you are going to find yourself in big demand.

Begin at the beginning. Ask yourself what do I want to be at the end of 100,000 hours of effort? What will my goals be? Start at the beginning with what your interests are and that will help ignite a passion for your journey through those 100,000 hours.

BE A GRYFFINDOR!

Eman