Job listing - Network / Security Engineer

I am testing for my CCNA now. I've completed the classes at the College of DuPage in Illinois, USA.

I've had jobs in network and desktop support before in Silicon Valley, CA making $52K per year but they are harder to get now without a cert. I am back in Illinois now too so that may have something to do with the difficulty in getting a job compared to Silicon Valley, CA. The last job that I had in Silicon Valley I was on a network and telecommunications redevelopment project that included everything from the CAT5e cabling through the Cisco switches and routers. I also did Microsoft and Linux support and built the 75 systems that the business used .... unbox the systems, installed the desktop or server applications, rolled them out and serviced them.

The first thing they ask you when you apply for employment now is if you have a certificate. I do not know how to get a job without one anymore and I have been out of work getting the certificate. I do not know if it is possible at all to get a decent job if you are trying to make $50k per year or better....in my geographical location. The work when I had a job in IT was not that difficult....a few weeks of very boring stuff, punctuated by a rash of hard or difficult tasks that might last a day to a week.

The certificate is the easy way out for businesses....it is a "weed out." I should have been able to get a job without a certificate given I might not need one for most jobs. That said, there are pure network support jobs where having a certificate would be beneficial. It all depends on what type of opening you are going for.

I am going to take my test in about two weeks. If I pass I am going for a pure network support, network installation opening given that is where I would be able to put it together the most. If I don't get a job immediately I am going to either take more Cisco classes or start in on the MCSE.

QuadZeroRoute wrote:[snip]

You know, I've actually hired quite a few number of people in the past

5 years. Some as interviewer, some who work for me directly, some just as a "interviewing consultant" In all that time, I have *never ever* asked for certification(s).

Certs are good, certs with experience is better. The questions I ask were always standard (none of this fly by the seat of the pants stuff) and fair. But some were open ended enough that people who really knew his/her stuff could expand on it.

So don't despair, there are hiring managers out there who aren't caught up 100% in certs.