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.

I used mainly Cisco learning network. Some practice question sets gave an impression about the exam. There are some preparation documents too. I also found some websites most of them were prepared for BSCI exam that could also be helpful for the new route exam. Of course, these statements were valid until exam date.

To keep it short I will summarize my findings.

• It would really help to have official training documents for ROUTE exam (at least the book CCNP ROUTE 642-902 Official Certification Guide)
• Things like BGP properties , OSPF LSAs should be memorized (to know something about them is not enough)
• You should make some configuration examples on a lab or simulator on every subject
• You should examine all related show commands (I mean in lab or simulator environment)
• Some of the questions can be time consuming, You should be steady, sure about your answer and do not pause after answering

I am not sure if I will be able to enter this exam again before my CCNA has expired. However, I am sure I will continue to study on these subjects as I mentioned above. This is something more than certification for me now. I realized that I am dulled in years and I have to fix this immediately.

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

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.

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”.