> I've been arguing with a collegue of mine which one would be tougher to > achieve. I told him that it would be much more harder to have a computer > science or a networking degree (you have to take the GRE and complete 2 or 3 > years of school works) than a CCIE, but my collegue think other wise. He > literally believes that having a CCIE is equivalent of having a Ph.d in > Networking. I'd like to hear your thought.
I have a BA and have been blocked for a number of years on my MS in comp sci. The CCIE cert has meant much more to my career than any of the school-related stuff, in a direct sense: it allows me to get jobs/engagements/etc, and none of the jobs i'm interested in have required completion of the MS. If you were more interested in theoretical work, or perhaps with some employers (with dubious ability to evaluate a candidate), the degrees would be much more important. This *only* applies in the field of computer networking, though. If you want to do anything else, the CCIE is pretty worthless. Even in the networking world, the thought leadership doesn't much care about certs - witness IETF, NANOG, etc - nobody there mentions or cares about CCIE. Also, i have found in my career that many CCIEs (to say nothing of the rest) don't have a sound theoretical grounding at all. Things you learn in CS school really are important - queuing theory, optimization problems, statistics, problem complexity, and even (in particular) programming. You don't truly understand network protocols until you've done network programming IMHO. CCIE is a certification for people who like to get their hands dirty with routers. CCIEs are the best in the world at fixing broken networks, setting up new ones, and so on. They're *not* necessarily any good at anything else. This is a big difference from a Ph.D. or MS, which imply a solid, broad theoretical base in addition to an area of expertise. -sd (CCIE #5444) Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=59494&t=59481 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
