Cisco or Microsoft Qualifications?

[TheMan100]

Hello everyone,

I'm not sure what to go for in the future... Microsoft qualifications or Cisco qualifications. From what I can see Cisco is highly regarded and the pay for jobs which require Cisco are much higher paid than those that involve Microsoft qualifications. I want to get the right qualifications which will benefit me in the long-term and provide a good salary.

 

What do you think?

[featured_spectre]

All depends on the role you go for....Vendor Specific like cisco tend to be requested by many places, but not used properly (IE not used on cisco kit)...whereas if a company asks for MCITP then they generally put those skills to use.

 

Comptia A+ will give you a solid foundation for desktop support, where you can branch out to Microsoft, Apple RedHat and other qualifications based on desktop support

Comptia N+ will give you a solid foundation with networking, where you can branch out to Cisco, Juniper and other qualifications based on vendor specific hardware support

[Millgate]

If you want to compare the costs etc then let me know. Also if you want to know what's involved such as how many exams, i can provide white papers on them too.

 

Cheers

 

Luke

[strawberry]

Why not do both? What sort of career do you want?. A very good NM should have all the skills involved in an MCSA or MCITP:SA, prehaps a little virtualisation like the MCITP:VA or a vmware qual, and something network based, the CCENT is good.

 

In regard to your Cisco = more money idea, think of it this way, Most network dudes can do some sort of systems engineering, not all systems engineers have done networking. Also networking is a specialised area, Systems engineers have a much broader area

[TheMan100]

Well, I've been looking at a university course which offers a bachelors of science in computer networking, CompTIA Network+ and Security +, Microsoft qualifications (although it's a bit broad, all it says is Microsoft qualifications) and it also offers CCNA. But I'm just thinking, if I go on this course, would it be worth furthering my knowledge by going to study CCNP straight after? I think the course looks great (although I know experience in IT is favoured), but I think it would help me a lot to get a job in networking and hopefully offer me a variety of things to go in to.

 

I'm hoping to become a network engineer.

[featured_spectre]

Ccnp oddly enough "over qualifies" people from what many of my friends say...

[TheMan100]

Ccnp oddly enough "over qualifies" people from what many of my friends say...

 

Wait, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

[featured_spectre]

bad because you lose out on job offers...people think if you are over qualified you will look to the next place that offers the better chance for promotion...whereas if you were qualified to a good extent (CCNA, MCITP) then they think you are more likely to stay and work towards the next step and be contracted into staying there longer....