The CCNA or CCNP or mcsa or any other IT certification? Should you self study, Or should you do another method? Let's talk about that now before we get started, I got a copy, So you can find some, But some exciting things are happening soon. I can't tell you too much, But there's gonna be a giveaway from a big partner, Big training partner, That has an amazing training and I'll be doing some cool things with them here very soon, So stay tuned actually never mind. I forgot, As I was checking my mail, That I had a bean box coming so looks like we're having the tarasana blend.
First of all, I've missed you been about three weeks since I made a article. So my bad, But we're back. We'Re talking about networking we're staying, Excited, We're staying motivated, Let's get some certification and let's talk about studying for your CCNA, I get a ton of questions every day.
Should I self study what material should I use? Should I do in your classroom, Or should I go to a boot camp, There's a lot of options right now? There are only three types of training. You can get variety, There's a self-study option. There's the classroom option which can be done through, Like you know, Going through a college degree program or you're like taking a specific class for like the CCNA or CCNP, And then there's this kind of third option, Which is kind of the same as the second option. It's the boot camp, Which can kind of be like a hybrid between the classroom and the self-study option, Because you're going to a classroom situation but you're you're doing like a week or two week course and then it's up to you to kind of figure out. The rest, But you know, Let's say it's kind of a classroom.
It's you know it's kind of its own category, Because you're not really taking a prolonged course you're, Just getting crammed full of information so which of these options is the best. So if you've been reading my articles for a while, You know that I personally used use and used a self studied for my certifications, And I have a really really good reason for that. But we'll go into that here in a sec.
So when you're thinking about getting into IT or you're, Getting your next certification or you just want to learn something new, There's really three things. You have to consider when you're choosing your study course or material or degree or whatever. What have you it's your time? How much time you have available to yourself? How much time can you study? Are you currently working full time? Are you a student? Do you have a family and those things matter right? The second thing is the money I mean. Each of these options has vastly different requirements for your wallet. Do you have a just a ton of money to blow? Is your company offering to pay for it, Which, If you're lucky enough to have that that's amazing, But some of us might be tight on money? So we have to make it really really, So we kind of have to tighten our belts with our study materials and then there's a third thing you have to consider is kind of the X Factor and we'll go into that here in a sec.
It takes a lot of takes a lot of grit, It takes a lot of organization and while you may be reading this and going , I don't have any of that. I went through high school in college and I I sucked at all those skills like that's not me. I think you need to learn those skills and doing self-study for CCNA or any of these certifications will teach you that, And I think that's important, Because I am like you, I I was the guy who, If the assignment was due in a week on Monday, I Was staying up at 3 am on Sunday doing it, I mean I was last-minute Larry for everything.
So let me tell you a little something about IT. If you're already NIT - you probably have already experienced this. If you haven't a little worried about you there, But if you're already in an IT career being NIT, Is like a constant, Ongoing self-study session, Because you will never know it you'll never reach that summit of oh, I know networking or I know servers, And I do Not need to absorb any more information, No every day in your job, You're going to be learning something new every single day, Some days, It's just like a few tips and tricks like oh. I didn't know that.
that's interesting. While some days your boss, Meehan's you projects, Say deploy, Net scalars or here, Deploy f5 or . Here's a new Nexus switch learn data center and you have to learn that and you have to do sometimes t'll give you training, Sometimes t'll, Send you up to a class, My first real IT job was not like that. T said here. We need you to do this, Learn it we're not gonna bring in some augmented IT staff we're not gonna, Send you to training which needs you to learn and deploy it and .
It is being able to learn new things if you are not good at learning new things or if you are just you don't want to you shouldn't be an IT. I'm sorry, That's just not what should happen. You have to love to learn new things, But since you want to get an IT, I'm assuming you already love to learn new things. I mean wow, That's why you're here right so self-study! It teaches you those valuable skills that you'll need on the job.
That's why I think it's the best path, Because once you learn how to self-study and you get your CCNA you're gonna be doing self-study on the job once you're there. That's that's the x-factor. I was talking about that's what I think is the biggest reason for self-study, Because that's what you'll be doing on a day to day on a day to day basis, If you want to be a great engineer, That's a vital part of it is that self-study, That's Stuff discipline that organization to get in pick a material finding the answers googling around finding some good material and teaching yourself these things. That's so key! That's why I love these training partners like EveDumpsI&E, That's, What's unique about iti! Think now, I'm sure it's! It's not, You know, Only unique the IT other professions require you to on have an ongoing education to keep teaching yourself things, But IT is different because IT is because IT is always evolving. There's always something new to play with always something new to deploy.
Always some new threat coming out, I mean security news I mean seriously. It's almost depressing. Our lifetime is safe, Anymore wpa2. Everyone says oh wpa2, If you're not on wpa2 you're in trouble.
Well, Now, No one's safe or just at the at the mercy of our vendors to release software updates to release us from the crack in the crack. Sorry, Sorry, I got off on a tangent there, But that's why I am a huge proponent for self-study. It teaches you the valuable skills you're going need on the job, It's kind of like a dual teaching situation, Because you're learning what you need to know as far as technology switches, Routers, Microsoft, VMware juniper - I mean I don't care what you're learning, But it also teaches You the skills you need, While you're on the job, To absorb more information and because that those skills are vital.
Those skills are so vital and also, I think you learn more when you're doing self-study when you're, Just being you know, Told information in a classroom setting. I feel like you're just kind of passively learning, But when you're doing self-study I mean it's all on you to absorb the information to find the information so . You may have a article training course you're reading Jeremy, Chara or Keith Bogart or Keith Barger and you're absorbing the information but you're also encouraged to say: this training material may not be everything you need.
You need to go look at the exam topics and find this information on your own. You need to dig deep, Google around get in the forums and that's what self-study teaches you being an? It is not a passive profession, It's it's a very exciting, Dynamic career and you are always going to be doing something new, Always learning something fresh, It's so fun, Which is why I love networking networking. Just it's going through. Some amazing changes right now.
It's really fun to be in networking. Now: let's talk about, Price price can vary and you can you can find this information out on your own. You can google it.
You can go, Look at price lists. I can tell you right now. I believe - and I can say I can that guy I can safely say this. I think a self-study is way cheaper than any of the other options versus classroom versus bootcamp.
Now, If you're in a program like WGU you're, What in that degree it's important for you, A CCNA is part of the degree program. So that's kind of cool, But you know what t do and the degree program when I was go through WGU and I didn't finish it by the way. But what I did get my security plus during that program and you know what t gave me for training material or for classroom material that gave me CBT Nuggets.
T gave me Keith Barker's security plus training, Which was awesome and that's what I use to get my my security plus, But that was that was that's WGU. So if you are winning a degree, I would find a program like WGU because t had that self-study self-paced mentality, Which I think is vital for but price is going to vary vastly between these. But self-study is the cheapest option. I believe now you may be sitting here and don't beat yourself up, But you may be thinking. I am NOT a good at self-study right now.
I need someone to sit in front of me. Keep me disciplined. Keep me accountable and teach me networking . That's fine! That's fine as long as you eventually learn how to develop the skills to teach yourself. That's fine, But you're gonna paid for it.
Now, If your company's gonna pay for a boot camp for a classroom, Go ahead and do it man, That's that's! Free just go ahead and do it, But if you're like me and you're paying things out of pocket, You need to make sure you're not wasting your money or you may not just have the money. So whatever money you have, You have to make sure you're spending. It wisely so I know kind of rambling, But to sum it up, Self-study, Cheapest option. I think boot camp will probably be your second cheapest option.
That can vary because I know a lot of boot camps can be kind of expensive and depending on. If you have to fly to them or things like that and the classroom community colleges t t may offer a really great deal, And especially if you do like Cisco net Academy, I've never priced it out. So if you know, Can you please let me know in the comments how much that is if you've already gone through that or if you looked at into it yourself, Those I think it could vary and I think classroom versus boot camp go back and forth. Now, As far as time, This is gonna solely depend on you and with self-study. It's really gonna be how much discipline you have, How organized you are and how much time you have to work with, Because if you're like me and you had a full-time job and you had a family doing that, Self-study option was difficult.
But it taught me so much and I dug deep now you may be just you may be unencumbered, You may be coming fresh out of high school and you've got no obligations. If you aren't one of those who you know got good grades, I would say you do self-study and knock that sucker out. Because time is it's gonna really benefit you here. So self-study time can really vary. Some really just are not good at managing their time, So you're gonna be spinning idols of time doing it and you know your passes and suddenly you don't have your your certification, I'm gonna be honest here.
This is real time from Network Chuck. I have been working on my CC and P. I think for almost three years now, Just because I let stuff get in the way, So as much as I'm a proponent for self-study. That's where it's kind of kind of the dark side of self-study is that it's totally up to you it's on you, So you can put it off as long as you want.
So I got my route. I got my switch, But my t shoot. I haven't done it yet now why? Why would never Chuck not completed a certification? There's a lot of reasons right. I'Ve had opportunities, Come up were studying. Something else was more important for me, Or my job just became really demanding, So you have to factor those things in so if you were to do a classroom or a bootcamp you're kind of like forced to study, You're forced to learn and those like strict guidelines, Those strict timeframes could be really great for you, So that's that's a real benefit for who maybe you're working at a company who's gonna, Send you to a bootcamp or he's gonna. Send you to a classroom situation and t're gonna.
Allow you to study on the company dime, Where you couldn't really request time off for self-study some some companies I've heard of that happening for like CCIE candidates. T need like a week off to study that happens. That's the downside! It's self-study! You could end up extending it for a long time, So just be thinking about that and what kind of person you are. I know this article is kind of all over the place. I just wanted to kind of touch base on on self-study. Why I'm passionate about it, But you know: there's those real downsides to it and you really have to be the right type of person to start doing it.
I think it's, I think every person should learn how to do it because, Like I said being an IT, You're gonna be self studying all the time for a lot of things so get used to it. Guys, That's about it. Like I mentioned before, There is a giveaway from a prominent IT vendor coming up, So stick around subscribe and that'll be coming out soon. I'll also be doing something very cool with the same company I'll be working directly with VIN on some cool things. So it's gonna be exciting if you haven't already hit that subscribe, Button hit the bell to get alerts on new articles coming out from me. Follow me on Twitter, Facebook.
You know all the social media stuff and my website network check comm. I lost a ton of resources for you starting out if you're looking for you know how did you start with your CCNA or if you need some like python resources, That's all on their networks, Comm and also all you have been pounding it grinding. It out getting your certifications and you passed Congrats. That's amazing ride that motivation.
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