I took Cisco approved courses through a Cisco Premier Training Partner
about a year and a half ago. I took ICRC, ACRC, CMTD, CLSC, and CIT.
On the first day, the instructor would have everyone say a little about
who they were and what they did. Of all the students in all the
coursed, only two, myself and one other, were there on their own. All
the others were sent by their employers. Most had been network
Engineers for over two years, and several had been Network Engineers
for over five years. Some of the companies represented were Disney,
Universal Studios, GTE (Verison), and various regional and national
financial institutions. In general, the more experience these people
had, the more confidence they portrayed on the first day, but by the
middle of the week, most of these same seasoned and experienced Network
Engineers were understanding the material and performing the labs no
better than those with less (or even no) experience. Many times they
would say things like "Oh, that explains why we were experiencing that
problem on our network" or "Boy, did I find that out the hard way!" or
"We don't use that protocol on our network, so this is all new to me" or
"So, that's why thus and such works that way" or "Can you explain
subnetting again?". On that first day, when we introduce ourselves, I
would say that I had been a PC Tech and had no experience, but was
looking to become a CCNP and find
employment as a Network Engineer and had already completed courses in
Novell. Someone would almost always say "Why don't you get a job, work
a while and have your employer send you?". Often, when they would
introduce themselves, they would talk about how they had been trying to
take this course, but had to reschedule several times because of this
project or that outage, but by the end of almost every course, one of
them would say how they wished they could go through all the courses and
get certified the way I was (except for having to pay for it themselves,
of course), and that even though the course was great, and would help
them tremendously at work, they wouldn't have the time to study and
become certified. The others would nod in agreement. I know there is
no substitution for experience, but I think it is important to remember
that the courses are designed to provide the students with the benifit
of those who have extensive experience. These courses don't exist in a
vacume. The writers of the Cisco self study materials are written by
true Experts. Will courses teach you everything you will come across on
the job? Of course not. But from what I learned interacting with 40 or
so Network Engineers from a wide variety of industries, what you learn
in persuit of a CCNP is valuable and will continue to be.
Well, I have to get back to studying for my Microsoft 70-221 test ...
Scott A. Ramos A+, CNA, CNE, (4.11 & 5.0), CCNA, CCNP
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