Working at the provider level.

[luckyluke3751]

I have recently embarked on a Cisco journey, go me. I have purchased the CCNA books by Wendell Odem and Todd Lammle's  book for the new certifications. I understand crawl before you can walk, and walk before you can run. What are your recommendations for someone who wants to stay in his company, but move into networking? I work for a larger cable company, one of the top 10 in the U.S. and would like to get into more of the infrastructure behind the distribution of our cable internet. Would this go CCNA routing and switching, and then into CCNA Service Provider or service provider operations? What are some of the major distinctions here? What about a next step into CCNP, would the CCNP for routing and switching be worth it, or just straight to one of the service provider options?

Thanks

[rvarelac]

Hi luckyluke3751 ,

Congratulations for your job ,  I work as Cisco TAC engineer , I remember the moment when I earned my CCNA certification a year ago. I   agree with you "Walk before you can run ", CCNA R&S will help you to understand the basics of networking in almost any aspect , but is up to you if you want to continue the R&S path or go directly to something maybe more related to your currently job as CCNA SP.

On the next step , a CCNP certification of SP will be highly valuable for companies , but is always useful have knowledge in R&S, If you think you can and have the determination , I would bet to earn both.

Regards ,