Certification or College degrees?
Nigel Clarke
nigel at forever-networks.com
Wed May 22 22:37:35 UTC 2002
IMO:
Certifications are a waste of time. You'd be better off
obtaining a Computer Science degree and focusing on the
core technologies.
Why would you devote your career to learning a vendor's
command line or IOS?
Cisco has done an excellent job @ brainwashing the IT
community. The have (unfortunately) set the standard for
"Network Engineers".
What do you think is more respected, a masters degree in
Networking Engineering or a CCIE. In most
circles it would be the latter.
Cisco's certification program has effected the entire IT
community. Their CCIE's are required to recertify every few
years, thus forcing them to stay true to the Cisco lifestyle.
I've met some CCIE's who don't know any programming languages
or any experience with Unix. It's clear that they are one
dimensional and unfocused.
Why study the same thing over and over? Do you really have X
amount of years experience, or do you have 1 years experience
X times?
Think about it. If you have been in the field for over 5
years and someone new to the industry by way of certification
can handle your work load, that is a serious problem.
If anything certs should be used as a stepping stone or
advancement to new technologies or areas.
Then again, the question of CERTS vs. DEGREES might apply
differently to someone without any experience. I guess it
really depends on what your looking for.
---
Nigel Clarke
Network Security Engineer
nigel at forever-networks.com
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