[c-nsp] Cisco Certifications

[David Barak]

--- Kim Onnel <karim.adel at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I'm new to the ISP/networking business here, and
> there is this weird
> concept that i dont get around the scene here,
> 
> Your resume will look ugly if it doesnt have any
> certs. 
> But if it does, instantly the other party will
> think, well son, you
> seem to have certs and thats fine, but that is not
> counted compared to
> practical real experience boy,
> 
> I'm sure y'all look at resumes alot, and do alot of
> hiring, i'd like
> to know how you guys weight Certs when they look at
> someones resumes,
> and how do they weight practical experience,...
> 
> Specially these days, when its all about cheat
> sheets/testkings, and
> people going in there knowing the questions
> before-hand?
> 

<disclaimer> I do technical interviews for senior
networking folks </ disclaimer>

Certs are fine, but they have no bearing on the
questions I ask.  The most important thing you can do
is BE HONEST.  If you put it on your resume, I'm going
to consider it fair game for questions, and if you're
faking, the interview is over.  Examples of faked
things on resumes I've seen recently include:

IGRP: ok, when EXACTLY was the last time anyone used
this in practice?  if it's more than 10 years, leave
it off.  If it's on the resume, I'll dredge up a
question for you regarding the difference between IGRP
and something else...

Appletalk: I've had 4 candidates in the past month
include appletalk on their resumes, and none have used
it within the past 7 years.  One fellow went so far as
to include AURP (the Appletalk routing protocol) in
the list of skills, even though it had been more than
10 years since he had used it.  It's too bad, because
I actually crafted some pretty good questions...
<sigh>

MPLS: If you only have book knowledge of something,
then you don't really know it, and it doesn't belong
in a skill-list.

That said, Certs will get you past recruiters, so
they're useful for that.  However, many of the
intro-level certs test on things which are completely
divorced from real-world scenarios.  An example is
that the CCNA includes stuff about IGRP and classful
networking, and some of the assumptions you have to
make to pass it haven't been valid since pre IOS 11.1
days...


=====
David Barak
Need Geek Rock?  Try The Franchise: 
http://www.listentothefranchise.com


		
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