Chatter Of The Squirrel

Cisco Certification

June 27, 2008 on 5:37 pm | In Me! |

Been working in IT for years. In a few vaguely related fields.

If I were to describe my field of expertise, I’ld have to say, as a Jack of all trades. If I could design my own name card, I’ld prefer it to say “Resident Genius”.

Although some might say that this is only because I swim in ’shallow waters’.

I’ve never managed to take any certification exams to ‘prove’ my abilities. The reasons are myriad. Local employers won’t sponsor you to take the course. And if they do, they will make you sign a bond for at least a year. If you take the course at your own expense, no one will give you a raise.

Such is the mentality of small IT companies I guess.

But with my time hopping around these companies, I do acquire real world skills. Knowledge that I need on the ground. It’s unstructured learning, but my knowledge covers a pretty large field, and I can always dig my way out of a problem wherever it might arise.

It’s a great way to learn. Unfortunately, I can’t ‘prove’ such knowledge in a job interview… And when applying for positions that’s a little more focused, my book knowledge in that particular field will be found lacking.

Have considered taking some certification before. The most popular around being Microsoft certification, or Cisco certification. And my friends will know that I’m a little anti M$. Met plenty of MCSE ‘professionals’ who can’t get the job done sometimes. Very often you need more out-of-the-box thinking. And all those guys had, was some demonstrable skill in scoring MCQs.

But if I ever had the chance, (read: if I meet an employer who isn’t too cheap to sponsor my training), I would certainly shoot for Cisco’s training on Security.

Have always been interested in locks. Since the days of MacGyver, I took apart locks and learnt to pick locks on my own. Even crafted my own lockpick. But alas it’s still too clumsy for a REAL JOB. But the fascination has always been there. And network security, is just one big electronical lock that is begging me to disassemble it…

Unfortunately my career paths have never taken me down that road.

Perhaps one day I might find the impetus to chart my path. Instead of waiting for pigs to fly, and for my employers to offer me training with no strings attached.

And should that day come, I know that a Cisco certification will be the first step I’ll take.