Can I complete an MCSE or CCNA in five months?

I've just finished my exams and hopefully will graduate in October/November this year. Since I have about five months to spare, I was thinking of taking up a course in networking. I have done some basic networking during my degree in the university. I was really interested in it and would like to take it to the next level. Some obvious options seem to be between MCSE or CCNA. Which one do you think can be done within the space of five months? And which one would you recommend, in terms of job opportunities, etc.? Any advice on the matter would be highly appreciated.
The MCSE is a 6 or 7 exam certification. Unless you were willing to put 40-plus hours a week into study, practice and preparation, there's no way you could finish the MCSE in five months. I've heard some tales of individuals finishing the cert in as little as six months, but such efforts invariably involved someone with literally nothing else to do or someone already pretty knowledgeable about Microsoft platforms, operating systems and related technologies.

Thus, given your timeframe, unless you're prepared to deliver some truly heroic levels of effort, the CCNA is your only real choice. Unfortunately, a CCNA by itself doesn't really do that much to improve your job opportunities. As a 1 (or sometimes 2) exam-based entry-level cert, the CCNA is really designed to help people get started pursuing other, more advanced Cisco certifications (either in the Professional program with CCNP, CCDP, CCIP, CCVP and CCSP credentials available, or in the Specialist program with more than a dozen credentials available across a large number of content and technical areas).

Here again, if you had access to Cisco hardware and tools you might actually be able to pursue the CCNA and a CCNP (or other professional level cert) in five months. But it, too, would involve heroic levels of activity, study and practice. That said, it's somewhat more doable than the MCSE in that time frame and probably would help shape you into a more attractive job candidate.

One avenue of research might be to approach your college or university's careers or placement office and ask them for advice. You can probably get access to hiring data for previous, recent graduates in your department. You might even be able to find some data that helps you correlate certifications held to hiring decisions. But at a minimum, you should be able to get the names of companies who have hired recent graduates (and thus, probably will hire more in the near future). By talking to their recruiting and hiring offices, you should be able to get a much more definite sense of how much good earning any of these certifications will do for your cause of finding employment.

Good luck in your research and in your career and certification planning. With a degree on the way soon, you've already completed what some would argue is the most important first step in entering the technical job market.

-- Ed

This was first published in November 2005

Join the conversationComment

Share
Comments

    Results

    Contribute to the conversation

    All fields are required. Comments will appear at the bottom of the article.
    Back to top