Network+ or CCNA? Where to Start in 2020!

should you get your CompTIA Network+ certification or should you go straight for the big dog the CCNA got a lot of thoughts on this one so let's get going [Music] what a monumental question what a monumental topic that were we've got to cover here should you go for the CompTIA Network+ exam the exam that really introduces the fundamentals and sets the baseline of networking for you or should you go for the number one certification in the land the Cisco Certified networking associate the CCNA I mean I just love this question I love this topic because it's so big and it's so massive and it really is a question that I struggled with when I was deciding what to do when I wanted to get started in IT I knew that I wanted to start with networking because without a network nothing works right what works does the systems work you know does email work know who is screaming whenever the network goes out literally every one so the networking portion is where I knew I had to begin my career and here's how I kind of decided to tackle it truthfully I got a subscription with CBT Nuggets a long time ago this was years ago I watched the first two or three videos of the network plus with Keith Barker and I was hooked that was it I was done for I knew that I had to study the network plus first and I'm so glad I did because the Network+ exam is no joke I barely passed that exam by the skin of my teeth and I studied for it for 3 or 4 months I bought equipment off of ebay and I lab dit I tried to do whatever I could to learn it I read the textbook that Keith Barker wrote I felt really good about it I took it I passed it on my first try that exam is no joke you guys I was in the middle of that exam going like I'm not feeling very good about this like I might not even pass at the very end you click Submit it pops up on the screen you passed whoo that was a celebration that was a good day for me but I really put a lot of effort into learning those core fundamentals for that exam and that set me up for so much success in the CCNA I mean when I have those fundamentals I really knew the differences between layers 2 3 & 4 the big dogs that you need to know in the OSI stack I really knew those down so at that point learning the CCNA was oh well this is just the command you type to do that and of course Jeremy charas training is like it can't be beat when it comes to CCNA training so coupling this this strong foundation with an incredible trainer and you know the the commands themselves on Cisco you know you can spend 30 minutes learning why you've got to type something and then it's just one command that's kind of a theme that you find you know when you get into things like you know maybe ether channels pretty easy to configure spanning-tree it's like one command to rule them all right so anyways what should you do that's the question that's why you're here right what should you do it depends on how much time you have it depends on how much money you have because these exams aren't cheap it depends on you know what how much experience you have in computers in general when I got started I didn't even know what an IP address was like I knew like fundamentally it's an address for your computer to use the network but I didn't actually know how to decipher like the subnet mask how hosts were arranged I didn't know what DHCP or DNS was so and I also recognized fully that this is a marathon it's not a sprint and if I was gonna do this I was gonna do this at my own pace and I was gonna do this right and further I kind of recognized that it cost money to make money so I was going to buy books I was gonna buy equipment I was gonna pay for the exams myself and I did and I just took my own time in my own pace and ultimately I just took things at the methodical one step at a time so if you have the luxury of time if you have a little bit of cash or you're willing to invest in yourself my recommendation is to do the Network+ exam before doing the CCNA if you have no networking experience if you have some networking experience if you are comfortable understanding like IP config and what DNS does then I would say you're probably ready to tackle CCNA but you may have heard of this thing called cert pocalypse there's a new CCNA coming at the end of February and unless you are really really going to cram in the next couple months you're probably gonna find yourself in a boat where you'll have to wait for the new CCNA that brings a different challenge because this is a new exam so there's now this like dilemma that you have because there's not going to be textbooks for this new exam right off the bat there's not going to be practice exams for this exam right off the bat there's not even going to be chat rooms or chat sessions that are going to help you right off the bat with the exception of CBT Nuggets CBT Nuggets has a slack community where people can help you and chat with you there's also the live streams like Jeremy Chara and Keith Barker Jeff Kish other trainers at CBT Nuggets do live streams to help you study for the CC and CCNA exam so a lot of people are rushing to get this certification exam done and out of the way before the new one rolls in because they don't want to have that two or three month gap where we're waiting for the resources to get caught up for the new exam so if you were starting out right now it is December 15th the day that I'm recording this if you are starting out right now in networking my recommendation to you is probably take the Network+ that we've given yourself two or three months to prepare for the Network+ build that foundation of networking and it also gives that cisco gap that lag time for like textbooks and practice exams and more chat and communication channels to come up i that sprek amend ation there is you know you've got enough time to get your network plus before diving into the CCNA and by the time you get to the CCNA you're now ready to tackle it full strength because there's textbooks there's practice exams as well as the CBT Nuggets training but if you do have some networking experience you know what like I would start preparing for this new CCNA now because look that's the end goal right so why waste time on network plus you're already comfortable with it's not a certification that's really going to get you that first job the way a CCNA will so my recommendation to you is just start tackling CCNA content now because you can see from the old exam to the new exam which topics remain things like spanning tree are always going to be there oh SPF is always going to be on the exam so why why delay learning those now when you know that you can learn them right now ultimately a goal for you in 20 20 or 20 21 whatever your pace is would be get the CCNA because that is the the certification that rules them all that's the best-known certification that there is and again I would highly recommend at least getting a trial for CBT Nuggets and starting to learn the content there as well as getting involved in the slack community because that community is phenomenal for helping you learning networking in general I personally use that slack community when I was learning CCNA we would share running configs with each other and say like hey why isn't this working it was really cool collaborative effort so that's my take on getting a network plus versus the CCNA my experience having no experience at all was to start from the network plus build that base foundation so that you can roll into the CCNA and really crush that exam so thanks for stopping by y'all I'll see you in the next one

Channel: Data Knox

Views: 32,793

Keywords: Technology, IT, Networking, Cisco, Training, Certification, Engineer, System, Network, Career, tips, troubleshoot, Network+ or CCNA, CCNA vs Network+, should get ccna, CompTIA Network+ advice, networking advice, ccna advice, ccna training, network+ training, ccna 200-301, network+ n10-007, cbt nuggets ccna, cbt nuggets knox

Id: Wb1A6LkYy1g

Length: 7min 42sec (462 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 23 2019