Any network engineers on here? I have had ccna routing and switching on and off for 10 years and after doing it 3 years ago, moved on to ccna voice and passed. I recently recertified using icnd2 exam, so kept ccna voice and r&s alive. I really want to step up and study and take the ccnp route exam now. Main reason is i have been at the same level for a long time, second reason, a lot of network jobs seem to be aimed at ccnp accreditation. The problem i have is limited exposure to 'real/production' networks as I'm not really a network practitioner. That being said i have an awful lot if exposure to lots of different technologies, Linux, sql, Windows server, sip, voip, vmware, cisco switches/routers, ip multicast, hp servers/chassis based blade, voice recording. I'm considering getting into something a bit more focused, like network engineering.
Any advice appreciated.
I design service provider networks. What do you want to know? Passed ccna in 2001, ccnp in 2002, ccip in 2005, also passed ccie written in 2010, but never took the lab. I recerted these every year until this year, and will now let them expire, meaning that i will only have a jncia qualification left (along with my still valid mcse in windows nt4 😂). These certs are just a way in the door, and i know many ccna/ccnp/ccie who are total blaggers. Most of the good engineers i know have no certs at all these days. You can always spot the blaggers as they always have on their cv routing protocols - rip, ripv2, igrp, eigrp, ospf, isis and bgp, and have also worked on tcp/ip, ipx/spx, appletalk and banyan vines 😂. As you say, you will probably need ccnp to get in at a decent level net eng, but then its all about experience and real world knowledge for me after that. However, you would stand a good chance if you have a solid understanding of automation i.e. python, ansible, salt, as that is where the job is going, and people don’t just eant cli jocks anymore. Also, you can simulate almost all network operating systems with vm’s these days, so easy to get experience. You can build an entire isp using juniper vmx on a laptop. Have you thought of doing something different like aws architect? That is the wild west, and where the money is at, and if i could be arsed, that is what i would focus on myself