Highlighting skills to employers
Highlighting skills to industry peers
Providing value to employers
Providing credibility
Providing a baseline of understanding
Building confidence
Enabling career advancement
Increasing salaryWhen pursuing certification, it is imperative to
understand why getting certified is beneficial in the first
place. Many people pursue certifications as a way to
break into the job market. Having certifications can be a
great differentiator in terms of skillset and discipline.
Pursuing a certification may also be valuable from a
continuing education perspective and to bolster the
candidate’s current job role. Pursuing certifications can
also help candidates evolve their skillsets to keep up with
the ever-changing advancements in the technology
industry. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, new
network operations techniques are rapidly becoming the
norm. Automation and programmability are at the center
of this paradigm shift. Becoming certified not only helps
embrace this type of momentum but also prepares the
candidate for the world of tomorrow.
CISCO CAREER CERTIFICATION
OVERVIEW
Cisco has evolved the way it offers certifications. In the
past, there were many separate tracks for each discipline,
such as Routing and Switching, Collaboration, Service
Provider, Data Center, and Security. Although there are
still separate disciplines, the number of disciplines has
been greatly reduced, and the process candidates go
through to achieve those certifications has changed
significantly. The traditional path for Routing and
Switching was Cisco Certified Network Associate
(CCNA), Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP),