Certification Path dilemma

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Hello All,

I am phasing a dilemma regarding the certification path that I should follow. I have just passed the cisco CCENT/ICND1 thanks to the fantastic study material of ITPro.TV. I have a passion about security and I would like to follow the certification path that would enable me to learn more about this field. At the moment I am getting experience from work however I would like to improve my knowledge and keep getting qualified (but mostly gain the knowledge that a certification has to offer).

My dilemma is: Should I continue for the CCNA R&S or should I go for CCNA Cyber Ops or a similar security related certification? I have already passed my Security + also. Thank you for your help in advance!

@Konstantinos-Tsialemis,

This does depend on what your next career step is going to be.

The CCNA R+S is essentially the standard CCNA. It earns you much credit in the field itself. This is a solid certification showing solid networking & networking infrastructure skills which is valuable to any organization.

The CCNA CyberOps is to help you work as an entry level analyst in a SOC (Security Operations Center). This is much more specialized field. Technically, the CCNA CyberOps doesn't require any networking knowledge beyond the fundamentals of networking. This is deceptive though. Here you'll learn basic skills working in a SOC and use the tools analyst would need to become familiar with in a Cisco centric SOC as well as a few open standard tools out there too. This is new popular certification.

If you've already achieved the CompTIA Security+ and on the way to the CCNA R+S. I would work that way personally. Then I could focus on more security related skills using other courses here in our library. Don't get me wrong the CCNA CyberOps is a valuable certification but it is targeted. Most people will look and assume you've got the solid networking and networking infrastructure skills too, which may or may not be the case with this certification.

Thank you very much for your answer Ronnie, that makes things a little bit more clear to me. I agree that CCNA R&S is the fundamentals and everybody would ask for it. I think I will continue with the ICND2. I would like to focus on the security field but also I am very keen on improving my linux skills. I had a look on Redhat certification for that. I would appreciate if you could suggest certifications that I should be looking into for these two aforementioned fields.

Thank you in advance for your help!

@Konstantinos-Tsialemis,

ITProTV has someone on staff to help you to plan exactly that. Our career concierge is whom members can setup one on one interview to help them to plan out their certification goals and career paths. Please just browse to our website and ask them how to contact the Career Concierge, you just have to click on the chat button you'll see floating on the lower right corner of our site. They'll schedule you with them or pass you off to them.

Thank you for your help Ronnie, I will do that.