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

OnTheCCRoad
I- You got only CCNA cert and you are in 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 guy), and routine things like configuration backup etc. In this position you cannot earn too much money, but it is a good investment for your bright future. If you spend one or two years while preparing for your CCNP, you will have the chance to choose the position, which you desire and also you will get a good income boost. CCNA certificate is a mandatory and foundational step for CCNP.

JustCCNA
II- You got only CCNA cert and you don’t want to invest more on 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 in relationships and you are practical in mind this is exact job for you. CCNA certificate is sufficient for this position. It will be very helpful in your career.

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

NetSecCCNA
IV- You have got 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 got CCNA + more than ten years experience on Windows & UNIX
If you have development skills, project management skills and you have spent considerable number of years in several areas of IT business, then CCNA is not a big component in your skill set, but at least it shows people that you are still in touch with practicalities of network operations and it can help you achieve 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 to Cisco programs in colleges. This will help them to 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 keyword box and click “Search Jobs”.

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

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 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 enough for experienced professionals. If you start from scratch, then 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 good. Whether was rainy. There was a traffic jam. I reached the exam center just 5 minute 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 back 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, don’t hurry
- You need to know 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 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. Questions were mostly meaningful and for me it required just two days to study.

How can I use these credits?
You can use these credits for any training you need. You just have to check the required amount of credits from cisco.com to get trained. For example, you need 29 CLCs (Cisco Learning Credits) for Building Cisco Multilayer Switched Networks training (BCMSN). You can also attend the Networkers online. For the full conference pass, you need 19 CLCs.

Why should I buy CLCs instead of training?
If you work in a small company, you do not need it. But if you are working in a big organization (government, enterprise companies) it can be a real headache for you to participate in training. You should have within the training budget and it must be approved by HR department. This is not a simple process and involves permission from many people.

Otherwise, you have to prepare a kit list which includes hardware, software, SMARTnet and CLCs. All of them will be purchased together. In this way, if the logistics department comes with a wireless project in the middle of the fiscal year or the bosses decided to buy some security products after a security audit, then they will pay for necessary training without much discussions.

For the details please check “Cisco Learning Credits”.