CCIE vs Job Dilemma ?!

Scenario :



John is a Graduate in Computer Science (BCA - Bachelors in Computer Application)

John is a CCNA, and Has no Experience in Networking Job Profile.

John is a CCIE Aspirant.

John has recently got an offer to work as a Network Engineer.

If you were John what would you do ?

Take up the Job offer and Work.
or
Drop the offer and Go for CCIE.

Cheers,
-VINOD M

If I were John I would take the job in order to get hands-on experience on Cisco equipment.
CCIE is a great certification but you must have the necessary experience to support it.
This is clearly my opinion and John is the one to decide
Cheers

I'm with The_Bezerker 100%.
Experience is everything; indeed I'm not sure you'll manage CCIE without the good grounding of real-world networking. A job does not have to be forever; consider the job as a stepping-stone to your final aspiration of the CCIE. Take the job and get all the experience you can while keeping up with your studies, then when the time feels right, go for the qualification. Once you have it, look for a better job.

Experience is everything; indeed I'm not sure you'll manage CCIE without the good grounding of real-world networking.

I guarantee failure without experience. I know people who know this stuff forwards/backwards/upside-down and still failed their first attempts to pass the CCIE.

The CCNA can be passed without ever touching a Cisco device and only reading books.

Without experience with the device, at least one test will be failed when going for CCNP/CCSP.

The CCIE is virtually impossible to pass without experience.

Cisco is one of the only companies that requires that you know your $hi7 and be comfortable with it to pass.


On another topic, a CCIE cert can make it more difficult to find a job as many companies consider that level 'too expensive' to hire. It can be a real catch-22, so CCIE certification needs to thought out and planned. You cut down your options significantly so real world experience is an absolute must at that level, even if you could pass the test.

There are reasons CCIE's are numbered. It is an extremely difficult cert and those who acheive it worked their a$$ off. They deserve the respect and pay scale that accompanies those 4 letters in their signature.

I agree with you d_jabsd.
But having a CCIE is a plus for some companies that want to be Cisco Partners as the partner program (Premier, Silver, Gold) requires that the company has a number of certified employees.
For example for a company to be a Gold Certified Partner they need to have a minimum of:
4 CCIEs
4 Professionals (eg CCNP)
4 Associates (eg CCNA)
4 CSE (Cisco Sales Experts)

I definitely agree, but there are far fewer Cisco partners than there are companies looking for someone with the knowledge without demanding the paycheck of a CCIE. I'm not saying CCIE is a bad thing, but you have to have significant experience to back it up if you want to succeed.