CCNA or COLLEGE? - Become a Network Engineer

hey guys welcome back to network chuck today I want to talk to you guys have been on a very serious question I had to ask myself when I first started my career do I go to college or do I get my CCNA or my MCA or my mCP or whatever you want to get now I'm assuming you want to break into the IP field or you want to accelerate your career if you're already in the IT field if you're on a helpdesk you have to consider either one of those if you really want to jumpstart your career do you go through the process of getting your degree or do you go to the process of getting your CCNA really what will give you the job faster and what will give you the most bang for your buck so first of all let's start with your goal for me when I was faced with this decision my only goal was more money and I would imagine that's pretty much everyone to go including yours so how do you get this money well you accelerate your career and you move up the ladder you become more skilled and you get into a better role that offers that higher salary got it so that's our goal here so when comparing college and reallyit certifications there are three categories I'm going to look at here it's going to be cost time and work so first let's look at cost college I mean do we really have to go into how much college cost yeah they probably should obviously it largely depends on what kind of college you attend are you going to go the online route are you going to a brick-and-mortar college a private college state-funded college things like that have you already completed some college and you're just wanting to complete your bachelor's and you've already got your associates a lot of variables in play here I'm going to try and simplify it because obviously time and tuition can vary so how much does college cost or University a four-year degree it can be anywhere from 6,000 a year with an accelerated program like WGU which is all online and you can do it at your own pace or it can be upwards of nine to $40,000 a year with a standard brick-and-mortar college or either the other online colleges like University of Phoenix and things like that now how much is the CCNA there are probably a little more variables when you consider the cost of a CCNA because you've got a ton of different study materials and then you have the cost of the test itself and people people people learn in different ways I'm going to focus on something that's near and dear to my heart and that's self study those guys who come home after work and you hit the books you watch the videos we're going to focus on the cost of that but if you go the classroom you know Cisco Network Academy or you go to like a college course you can probably equate the cost pretty easily to this as well so we'll start with the with study materials the options are numerous but I'll just pick my favorite that I've used in I find success in first with CBT Nuggets what is that cost well it's not cheap it's about a thousand dollars for a year you can even do six months or you can do month by month with month by month it's like $84 a month then you have your your books which I highly recommend getting a book just so you can follow along so people don't do well with books that's fine for me I found it beneficial to view both the books and the videos the CCNA official certain guideline Barry that gives you the big book through the for both tests about 60 bucks and then your your lab your CCNA lab again this can really vary I sound lab kits online on Amazon for $400 that will give you everything you need to study and complete your CCNA and then the exam cost which was recently increased you'll now be on the hook for three hundred and thirty dollars for the exam so if we this is kind of the premium starting material content and that's going to end up being about 1790 so one thousand seven hundred and ninety dollars for your CCNA that's including all your study material that's including the exam again there are a ton of factors it may end up being cheaper than that because you can go a little cheap on the lab you can go with gns3 which I highly recommend all you need is Cisco IOS which does cost money but you can find online and like I said you don't necessarily need to purchase the books and with CBT Nuggets you could just do six months of CBT Nuggets or you could do month by month and try to complete it within two to three months you can do it that fast whatever the case we're talking roughly two thousand dollars to complete your CCNA versus twelve thousand dollars to complete your we'll say a bachelor's degree in college which obviously is really bare minimum it it's it could be a lot more depending on who you are where you're at what you're doing but I think it's safe to say that the CCNA wins the cost bracket alright so we've covered cost now look at time time is huge time is money I think time is the most valuable commodity in the world so let's look at time go to college first let's assume again that you have a head start with an accelerated program like WGU you already have some college credit or maybe you had some certifications that you could trade in for some for some credit hours so let's be generous and say two years to complete your bachelor's degree okay that's pretty fast for most people if you're starting from scratch or just out of high school four years of standard university so - let's just say a two to four years CCNA again a lot more variables here but I believe that anyone starting from zero from scratch no IT experience they can complete their CCNA within six months I know they can do that now that's starting from nothing I know a lot of you watching this video you already have some IT experience so you could get the certification much much faster than six months two to three months maybe even less if you've already done a lot of this stuff in your current job so let's say best-case two to three months starting from scratch six months and then again let's be honest sometimes life gets in the way sometimes your work schedules crazy you've got a family you've got a baby on the way like IV right now let's be generous and say it takes you a year to complete your CCNA because I can't happen and I've been there to where you just you can't study you're too busy so that's our time bracket you got college which could take anywhere from two to four years with the CCNA you could get it as soon as two to three months maybe six months and maybe worst case it takes you a year okay now I do want to throw this in there that you know getting your degree is one thing it would take you you know two to four years but if you're accelerated and if you're watching this video you're probably a hospital or like I said before you could get more than your CCNA within a two to four year span so keep that in mind when deciding between college and IT certifications alright so we'll jump right into the worst what is the value what does it bring the table for college and your certification how will college benefit your life in your career and how will your CCNA benefit your your your life in your career so the value I suspect we're looking at here is how fast will it jumpstart your career get you into a job you want to be in and get you to start making that money that money you need right now so our goal here get an amazing networking job or you know it's just admin job or whatever you want to do so let's look at college we'll a four-year degree get you a job that we're talking about here assist admin job a networking job that brings the cash that brings the money the short answer no long answer depends is it likely you'll even get an interview as a network admin or assist admin with a four-year degree probably not why because a four-year degree shows that you have general knowledge of ite assuming you went to college for an IT degree but it doesn't necessarily show that you have the knowledge to complete the tasks that job requires universities have always had trouble designing a curriculum to match the the needs of the workforce whereas certifications they're created by the vendors who make the equipment and they tend to release their updates much much faster than a university can update their curriculum so more than likely you're going to be up to date on the latest and greatest if you have a certification over a degree now I do have to mention this as a side note universities like WGU and I know others I think University of Phoenix has even doing this now - they do offer certifications as part of their degrees and they even kind of put them in as the final exam for some courses that obviously does add a bit more value to your degree so do consider but we'll talk about that more at the end now I do want to throw this in 4-year degrees are valuable don't get me wrong I'm not saying college is bad don't do it it is worth your time but when talking about jumping into the IT field and making some serious money it may not be the most efficient path we're talking about what's the most efficient uses your time and your money right now because if you're like me you didn't have time to waste you had to jump into it immediately and college degrees for many industries in many positions it's required to have a degree I totally understand that and it's also different depends on where you live but honestly from what I can tell and from my own experience most jobs in the IT industry don't require a degree at least from the admin perspective or the engineer perspective software engineering I don't really know much about that space I know most guys I've met have at least done or completed a degree in computer science where as far as this admin and and network engineering most don't even care so what will a four-year college degree or four-year university degree land you an entry-level helpdesk position that's pretty much it you know I can be able to jump into a network admin or sysadmin job with just a four-year degree sorry it's not going to happen what will also land you a hell of this position a high school diploma so keep that in mind too you're getting your degree and you got a guy coming fresh out of high school you guys could probably both land that help disposition now you'll probably beat out the high school guy but right now I don't see a shortage shortage up position so I think you're fine now it begs the question will a CCNA land you a amazing job as a network admin or will an MCS a lend you a job as a sysadmin short answer Navy balling answer Ned Vince can someone land a low level networking job with just their CCNA yeah I've seen it happen it's totally possible is it difficult without experience yes yeah it is I make a habit of looking at job boards or job postings daihlia they come in my mail my inbox I've got LinkedIn jobs and I get alerts every day I like looking at what's out there I'm just kind of keeping in mind you know that I my skills are valuable and there are plenty of positions out there a few common statements always see is CCM a preferred or CCMP prefers and then when they talk about a degree cuz most of these jobs they do talk about a degree and they want you to have a bachelor's degree but what it will say is a four-year degree or equivalent experience or they might say a two-year degree with equivalent experience so what does this mean it means that experience is king and with your CCNA it's even better nothing will guarantee you an interview more than having experience in the role you're applying for I know it's a dust statement but it's just true so you may be thinking what the jump chuck this was supposed to be about landing a job with just your CCNA or four-year degree how do I get experience without already having experience so here's the big question how do I get experience in an industry that requires experience to get experience it's quite a conundrum I understand what works for me and my answer is to start at the bottom start at the bottom I'm talking about a help desk position a junior help desk position a help desk technician position these jobs are easier to land that obviously they're easier to land and that's assist admin or network admin roles my recommendation is find a small to medium size company and get a position there why small and medium-sized because they're big enough to have Cisco enterprise equipment or Microsoft enterprise equipment but they're small enough to where there's not so much red tape that you could get your hands dirty with all kinds of stuff and the Cisco realm and start to move up so when talking about work again we've said that worse and value for the four-year degree and the CCNA is how will it help you land a really great job well now the question is because I or explains the experience it is really the most important part what will help you land a help desk technician job and help you rise through the ranks quickly what will give you the confidence to start to move up or prove here you're higher up to your admins that you are ready to start playing dabbling in my area therefore giving you experience because you can put that right in your resume so will a four year degree help you get a help desk technician role yes it probably will will it help you rise through the ranks doubtful to be honest I mean a 40 degree again this proves that you completed college it proves that you stuck with something and it proves that you have a general knowledge of whatever you study it does not prove that you have a deep technical know-how of what you want to do now will a CCNA help you landed help desk technician role yeah I think you will easily well a CCNA help you rise to the ranks yeah absolutely I think it will and I can speak from experience it helps me I started out on a helpdesk junior helpdesk actually I was in a very very bottom and getting my CCNA was key and removing up so let's bring it all in experience is the main thing in landing a really great job an experience will be the main thing in landing your first networking or sysadmin job so real the question is what will help you get that first job as a help desk technician or a service desk technician but also help you to quickly prove your Worth and rise to the ranks my answer CCNA wins that's the worst I've seen so many helpdesk technicians who have four-year degrees and they don't go anywhere until they decide to step up and start studying for their CCNA or the NCSA or their BCP they don't go anywhere but once they start doing that that's when the leadership takes notice that's when their admins take notice and they start to get more responsibility throw it on the resume before they know it they are Network admins they are network engineers so time to sum this up can you start an amazing IT career with a four-year degree yes you can can you start an amazing IT career with a CCNA or at NCSA yes you can so let's look at our three areas we looked at cost time and worth which one cost less well let's be honest CCNA cost left we're talking about two thousand dollars versus 12 to 40 thousand dollars per year one can you get faster CCNA get a lot faster than a degree a lot faster and which one will hold the most value when you're trying to land a job or just move up in your current role I think again it's going to be the CCNA now I must reiterate college is important and I would devote the motions as well I went to WGU and I started working on my degree and then I looked around and I realized that a lot of the people that were working at the same level as me on the help desk had four-year degrees and they weren't admins and I looked at the admins above me and they were working on their certifications already had them and I pretty much decided that I want to be like them I want to start doing what they do if they're successful and I want to mimic their success so I did that and before I knew it I became the gear and network admin and sure to get my hands dirty with Cisco stuffs and switches and routers in the phone system and before I knew it I was the admin and now I'm an engineer I've done it I've gone through this path so I could say it from experience it works and I didn't have to get a degree now again college is important degrees are important so if yours if you're graduating from high school soon or you have and you're looking at what to do college is an option and it's very important and it will lay the foundation for a great career but if you're looking to break into the IT field without putting yourself into a ton of debt and you want to start making money fast I say go for certifications that's your best bet I did it it was successful for me I know plenty of others who have done the same thing no degree and they are also very successful so my two cents go for your certification it will prove its worth and value it will help you get into a better position it will help you get more money times have changed eyes it used to be that you always get a degree always no matter what but the cost of a degree is now astronomical and you end up being in debt for so long it doesn't even matter but you get a certification especially an IT you can start making some serious money more than anybody who has a four-year degree ever would so I cannot emphasize more start studying for your certification pick up some study materials if you're wondering where to start I made a video called seven CCNA CCNP study tips for the new year um you can watch it here I'll put the link somewhere on the screen or in the notes below that's a great place to start get some tips get some study materials and kind of figure out what you should do for a study schedule again self-study it's awesome it takes discipline it's not for everyone so you may want to look at a classroom option which again is oh so much cheaper is in college I mean go to Cisco Network Academy you can go to your local community college it'd probably offer CCNA courses but I highly recommend this path if you're looking at getting an IT anyway and you definitely want to move up the ranks go for your certification guys thanks for watching network Chuck please like the video if you liked it and comment below for any questions or what else do you want to see from me also go to my website Network Chuck comm I post my blog post there I'm what I'm doing throughout the week I'm heavy in voice and heavy in networking so I'm always posting different things how to's different tips and helpful hints for studying and things like that so head on over subscribe don't forget to subscribe here to network chucks to get the latest videos from me alright thanks again guys for watching network Chuck really appreciate you subscribing and watching my videos and stick around I'll be making more stuff okay hi Chloe [Music]

Channel: NetworkChuck

Views: 285,459

Keywords: ccna, ccnp, college, ccna or college, university, wgu, certifications, network engineer, network administrator, network administrator training, system administrator, ccna routing and switching, how to become a network administrator

Id: dmthwYTEL0M

Length: 19min 24sec (1164 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 24 2017