There's a claim going around from a lot of influencers in the networking community that the definite associate isn't really in demand yet with employers, But I think we should dig into that a little bit more. Let's go ! If you get your definite associate certification. Do you have a legitimate shot at getting a job out there in the networking sphere? That's what we're gonna unpack in this article, But if this is your first time visiting my channel and you'd like to grow your IT skills in your IT career click that little subscribe in the little Bell. It's free to click and you'll be notified when new content comes available.
All right. I'Ve heard this one before that people out there HR companies t're not demanding the definite associate certification. Yet if you get the cert, That's cool, It supports network automation in general and validate your skills, But no one's really hiring. For that.
I don't really think that's the case. You see it's been my experience that certifications typically come in response to labor market demand. We want to people are demanding these skills and we need to validate that t have them. So vendors make the certification exam for that now. Cisco does feel a little bit ahead of their time. With this, One t've got the dev net associate programs as well as the automation exams at the professional level.
Those automation exams count towards both the CCNP and the devnet professionals. So there's like this huge range of automation, Options that are being certified in now. So you can get definite associate Devon, A professional and you can specialize in security, Automation or Enterprise automation or data center automation, And that would count towards your CCNP. That's a huge opportunity there.
So now you can validate all these skills, But does that actually lead to a real-world job and if so, How much does it pay? Let's explore that a little bit firing up Firefox here, I'm gonna search for network engineer. If I can spell engineer, Write Python jobs just to see what will come up for something, I think is pretty relevant well immediately. I see some pretty interesting stuff.
There are at least a few options here right here in front of me from Google results that have a network engineer with Python network system, Engineer Python software, Engineer, QA and networking protocols in Python. Beyond that, I see some relevant search results down here and indeed and I'll check those out in just a second, But I'm gonna start by clicking on network engineer with Python here in Denver Colorado, And we can take a look immediately well. This is looking for a seven one thousand dollar-a-year pay range for systems, Engineer computer networking nighty.
It must have Python experience now. I think that's another good differentiating thing here is that a lot of the arguments against the Devon associate exam is that this is really a software developer exam it's not for networking, But I'm looking at this job opening right here. That's asking load: balancer experience network engineer, Experience bgp with multicast experience, But also software development with python c to me, When I look at this job posting t're, Looking for a network engineer t're not looking for a software developer, T just want a network engineer who has Software developer skills and, Interestingly, I can see all of these other positions over here that are very similar to that have kind of the same job title I like Python, Automation, Network engineer that sounds cool and their requirements are listed right here as well, That pretty much Identify both networking skills as well as server skills and Python automation skills, But let's jump back for a second all the way back to that initial search result and the job title that I'm gonna search for now is network automation, Engineer jobs.
Well, This is the one. This is the title that I think the end goal is going to be to get to here. I recently saw someone on Twitter that I follow just announced that t're starting their career as a network. Automation, Engineer and I was like well - that's - really cool. I wonder if that's a common title and it took one Google search to find out that boom.
There are over a hundred of these openings right now. So if I jump into network automation, Engineer, Network automation, Architect now I see a lot of very interesting skill sets and requirements that are here and again. I don't see anything here that says t're looking for a software developer who just getting interested in networking, I see kind of the mix of both, For instance, When did you learn about VR FS +, VX LAN? Did you learn that in CCNA? No, I mean you are going pretty far up the stack when you got into VR s: VX LAN bgp. These are things that you're getting into c c and p or above level, But t are also looking for the things like CI CD pipeline's database management.
Now this is actually getting into dev net professional stuff too. So an ideal candidate who's applying for this position, The senior network automation engineer - would probably have both the CCNP and the dev net professional, But I can click on a job posting here. That's in Austin, Texas, Kind of scroll down and look at the responsibilities, And I get really excited when I see that automation engineers have to have multi-vendor skills.
Look at this Cisco and juniper right there so fascinating. There are plenty of jobs out there for people who are getting serious about network automation, Stuff, And I think the takeaway here is that t need to have some experience when it comes to network engineering, As well as some sort of pipe on automation. Getting familiar with those see, ICD pipelines, Source control techniques and all the other tools, The stuff that's covered under definite associate and eminent professional. It's gonna validate that you have the skills that can go along with this. So maybe there's not entry level positions here sure, But those certifications can absolutely lead to Network automation, Jobs and now the question is: are those jobs worthwhile? Do t pay enough to make it worth your time to study for and go for those certifications? Let's thing into that, If I just scroll down on the page that I'm already on, I see a network automation test engineer has a range of 62 to 93 thousand per year and not too surprisingly, A senior network engineers paid 72 to 130 thousand dollars a year.
The bottom ranges are relatively close within 10000 of each other. The top range is here or not, But this one is a test engineer: it's not an automation engineer, Whereas this is a full-blown engineer. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna jump back and I'm just going to change this jobs here in my search to salary, Well, Glass door has network automation, Engineer and the average pay the average base pay here is roughly $80000 a year. If I scroll down a hair, I can see some salaries here like Intel paying in the 110 120 range Facebook paying in the 136 to 148.
You get the idea, It's safe, To say that your range here is gonna, Be somewhere around 65 to 70 at the bottom, And it could be upwards of 140 at the top. Of course. These statistics, These job openings, Everything is in the United States and you'll want to check. What's going on in your region, To see what's available, What's in-demand in your area to you could also, You know, Be the change. You could be the one who sure's that work automation into your area, Which is also a cool opportunity to, But I think this kind of goes to say the definite associate, The definite professional and any of the automation specialties.
This is where things are going. Large institutions are rapidly adopting DevOps practices and applying that to their network. So, You do need to fully understand what network engineering is. You probably should start with the CCNA and really understand how OSPF even works in the first place.
Before you try and automate, But once you've tackled that, And you really want to start diving in to where the industry is heading and you really want to jump into it, You should know that validating your skills for the definite certification or the automation specialties. There's a lot of value in that businesses are demanding it right now and t are paying high salaries for them -. As always, I would encourage you to dig into EveDumps when it comes to training for these certification exams. The definite associate course is out right now.
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