Education / Certifications
Associate / Bachelor’s / Master’s Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science or a related discipline
CCNA / CCNP / CCIE certification or equivalent experience required
CompTIA Network+ certification

Technical Skills & Experience
Experience in an ISP / Enterprise / Academic environment strongly preferred
Expert knowledge of networking technology and concepts
Demonstrated experience with Cisco Switches, Routers and Firewalls
Experience with the configuration of Routers, to include IP addressing, routing and Access Control Lists
Experience with the configuration of network switches including VLANs and VLAN Trunking.
At least 5 years’ experience in operating large routed and meshed VPN
At least 3 years’ experience in troubleshooting, operating and maintaining both IPSEC and SSL client supporting VPN
At least 4 years’ experience with the configuration of network firewalls including access policies and VPN tunneling
At least 6 years in a lead role as a network administrator in a Cisco environment
Experience with network monitoring tools
Some experience with voice, telephony and VOIP systems

Nontechnical Skills
Experience in vendor negotiations
Strong leadership and interpersonal abilities
Strong documentation and/or technical writing skills
Ability to write reports, guidelines, and procedure manuals
Communicate effectively in both oral and written forms
Detail oriented and ability to work independently or as part of a team
Ability to use good judgment, problem-solving and decision-making skills
Have the ability to handle multiple tasks at the same time
Proven analytical, evaluative, and problem-solving abilities
Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment
Ability to work in a deadline-driven environment and respond to multiple priorities
Excellent organization skills
Excellent customer service skills
Ability to read, analyze, and interpret corporate guidelines, standard documents, design templates
Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions
Ability to work well with people from many different disciplines with varying degrees of technical experience

Requirements
Valid driver’s license
Green card or U.S. Citizenship required for this position
U.S. citizenship required
Must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information
SECURITY CLEARANCE REQUIRED: Must be able to maintain a clearance at the TOP SECRET/SCI level

Working Conditions
Willingness to work irregular hours on both weekdays and weekends
Willingness to put in extra hours as projects and priorities dictate
Willingness to sitting for long periods, speaking on the phone
The position may require travel to other domestic and international sites
Shift work is required
Ability to lift 50 lbs.

Let’s have a look, which jobs openings are on the job boards to take advantage of a CCNA certificate.

OnTheCCRoad
I- You have only a CCNA certificate and you are on the way to be a network professional
This means that you are beginning your journey to become a network expert. You can work as junior admin in an environment where experienced network professionals work. You will do some daily task including monitoring, hardware installations (as the second staff member), and routine things like configuration backup. You cannot earn too much money in this position; however, it is a good investment for your bright future. If you spend one or two years at this step while preparing for your CCNP, you will be rewarded for your efforts with a good income boost and job security. CCNA certificate is a mandatory and foundational step for CCNP.

JustCCNA
II- You have only a CCNA cert and you do not want to invest more in it
If you say, “CCNA is enough for me and I don’t want to waste more of my time and money for certifications”, then you can find a job in a mid-size company as system/network admin. You have to look after windows servers and maybe some other systems. You can make an acceptable amount of cash and work in an environment without too much hierarchy. If you are good at relationships and you are a practical kind of person, this is the exact job for you. CCNA certificate is sufficient for this position. It will be very helpful in your career.

MsCCNA
III- You have CCNA + some Microsoft certifications (like MCSE) + experience
In this case, your dominant skills are system administration skills. You already proved yourself in this area and can work in a Multinational Enterprise branch as senior system admin. You can handle network administration tasks with your CCNA certificate or better, in very large structures, it will let you lead a team composed of both system administrators and network administrators.

NetSecCCNA
IV- You have CCNA + Security certification (CISA+GIAC) + 3-4 years’ experience
You can work as System Security Engineer in Enterprise environment or you can work in a consulting company as information security auditor. Your CCNA certificate will let you have more expertise on network related issues and support your success.

ArchCCNA
V-You have CCNA + more than ten years’ experience on Windows & UNIX
If you have development skills, project management skills and you have spent a considerable amount of years in several areas of IT business, then a CCNA is not a big part of your skill set, but at least it shows that you are still in touch with the practicalities of network operations and it helps you to achieve the Enterprise Architect position.

Illustration of CCNA Career Paths

As a step or as a component, CCNA is a valuable item in your personal inventory. It is worthy to get it and anybody can get the certificate, but you need other skills and experience to utilize it to the maximum extent. Initially you cannot expect high paying jobs, but with some experience, you can climb the ladder of success. For students, I strongly recommend participating in Cisco programs in colleges. This will help them make an easy start for their careers.

If you want to see real jobs for CCNA holders, go to our job board and write CCNA in the keyword box and click “Search Jobs”.

If you would ask, “How much money can you make with a CCNA certificate?” my first answer would be “No, CCNA itself does not make money for you.”

To get the answer of “What is a CCNA worth?” as $ dollar figures, please have a look at below links.
Salary Survey Report for CCNA Certification
2006-2007 TCPMag.com Internetworking Salary Survey

I am sure that it is not the main goal of this web site to find a new job for you or the best employee for new openings. However, it is good to be aware of the skills that people are looking and it is beneficial for both the employer and employee.

I used to attach a recent job posting on my freezer door. It is not that I am looking for a new job or higher pay, but it just reminds me that there are many alternatives and I can jump anytime. Now I am checking online job listings like Craigslist. This is why I really impressed when I saw Simply Hired has an offer to add this job board to my site.

For the employer, this is one of the best places to find amazingly talented network professional. Our visitors are network professionals who have spent years working on networking and internet. As an employer, you have to only make an attractive offer that they cannot reject. You can post it here if you want to hire a talented network engineer.

I will appreciate you very much if you can leave your opinion.

Two months ago, I heard that 640-801 exams will be expired and Cisco added one more milestone to career path as CCENT. I told my wife about it and she gifted me an exam fee to take up the exam. I had all this pressure on me.

Preparations and exam
I managed to get two days off, one day for preparation and one day for the exam. I also spent the last three evenings for this purpose. I did not attend any Cisco training class and use only CCNA Prep center (Exam Study tab) for preparation. This web site is very useful and the content provided is sufficient for experienced professionals. If you start from scratch, it will be good for you to attend a Cisco CCNA class, but not a CCNA bootcamp. This is not a big deal. Don’t waste your money.

Exam day did not start very well. The weather was rainy. There was a traffic jam. I reached the exam center just five minutes before my reservation. A cute girl told me that I can start two hours later because of some technical problems. I spent that time in a café (well-known chain), near the exam center. I realized again, these cafes are not as good as people believe them to be (tables, pictures etc. fine but what about the taste). When I returned to exam center another cute girl told me that they are just downloading the exam. I had to wait 15 minutes more. Cable paths caught my attention, I easily came to know that bad materials were used and it was installed by an inexperienced staff.

Lectures / Lessons Learned
- Time is enough, do not hurry
- You need to know the basic configuration of RIPv2, OSPF, EIGRP
- Basics of routing algorithms
- Be able to configure NAT
- Be able to configure DHCP
- Understanding of ACL
- Basics of wireless network, how WPA works
- No questions like binary equivalent of something
- But be able to calculate subnets
- Match given IPs to given topology/schema
- Differentiate the terms MAC, IP and TCP/UDP ports
- How a packet travels within the network (ARP, encapsulation)
- OSI layers vs. TCP/IP layers
- Chose the exam center with pretty girls , they keep you lively!

In general, exam went better than I expected. The questions were mostly about useful subjects. It requires just two days to study for me.