There are many upcoming students wanting to try a hand at IT. When a large company gets thousands of resumes every day, it is of utmost importance that your CV stands out in that pile. One way of doing it is by getting an IT certification. Cisco is a platform that offers almost any IT credential that you can think of. The organization gives you the opportunity to get ahead in your career and gain a competitive advantage in the increasingly growing field.

Cisco Certification Path

Cisco offers a range of certifications. There are Entry, Associate, Professional, Expert and Architect levels. These certificates allow its holders to have a keen grasp of the networking and IT courses.

The lists of certifications you can achieve is:

• CCT (Cisco Certified Technician)
• CCENT(Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician)
• CCDA (Cisco Certified Design Associate)
• CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate)
• CCDP (Cisco Certified Design Professional)
• CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional)
• CCDE (Cisco Certified Design Expert)
• CCIE (Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert)
• CCAr (Cisco Certified Architect)

These certifications will build a strong foundation for your skills to excel. By learning the basics for CCENT, you will be able to manage, install, troubleshoot and maintain a small enterprise branch network along with network security.

With the help of CCT, you will have the skills required for onsite service and maintenance of Cisco switches, routers and operating environments prepaway.com.

CCDA enhances the foundations of your network knowledge further. This certificate is for network design engineers. This will go over designing basic campuses, data centers, security, voice and wireless networks.

CCNP is a professional-level credential. It will prove that a specialist is good at working on planning, implementing and troubleshooting local and wide-area enterprise networks.

It will include working with the professionals on more advanced security, wireless, voice and video solutions. CCDP will be focusedon increasing the knowledge of network design concepts.

CCIE is an expert-level certification. The professionals will deal with working and planning on more complicated network infrastructures. It is extremely well renowned and known for its difficulty standards.

CCDE is intended for the individuals with an impeccable understanding of the expert-level network designs. It requires a lot more technical knowledge. Lastly, CCAr is an architect-level credential. It revolves around producing technical specifications for the network to support business objectives.

Preparation Options for Cisco Exams

When preparing for any certification exam, it is better to choose a method that is most comfortable for you. If you have a way of studying that you don't enjoy, you will end up not wanting to study at all.

Cisco is aimed at making the entire process easy for its candidates. There are plenty of ways from which you can study to help you pass your certification test.

• Classroom training:One way is to attend a class training session. This means is that you will be in a class with a professional who will be able to explain and teach you the skills required. He/she will equip you with the information that could be on the exam and teach you how to attempt the questions. These specialists provide tips and tricks to get a better score. A classroom setting is a great way of learning as you have to get up and physically go to a class. You put yourself in a setting where you can't slack off and will have no option but to study.
• E-learning:Many people taking a certificationexam already have a daily job they go to. This means that they don't have much time or energy to go to a class after work. This is where e-learning helps these candidates. They can study the course at home, at their own pace. They can learn whenever they find the time, instead of following a schedule. If you are someone who has difficulty in understanding and needs more time with the course, e-learning helps with that. Here, you can re-read the course as many times as you like, you can spend a day on a particular topic, or a week without having to feel embarrassed or judged.
• Study groups:When you study alone, you miss out on many of discussions you could have had to enhance your knowledge. Study groups do a great job at combating this problem. In a study group, you don't feel the pressure because you can have conversations and debates with your peers to learn from them and teach them in turn. This is an excellent tool for additional help along with self-study. Study groups broaden your understanding of the course while remaining in a comfortable setting.
• Cisco Platinum Learning Library:Cisco also offers a platinum library membership that you can use to get technical experience in the field you choose. The learning library allows you to practice tests and check the knowledge you have attained. It even allows you to schedule the examsso you won't be able to forget them. The library has various types of practice questions from drag and drops to multiple choice and you get the option of choosing the best one for yourself.

Recertification Process of Cisco Certification

Most of the credentials you get, need to be recertified. This recertification process indicates to your current or future employer that you are familiar with the new trends that have emerged in the IT industry. You can renew certificate as many times as you like over the years, but make sure to do it before the renewal period is up, after which the credential becomes inactive.To recertify, you don’t have to take the certification exam all over again. You can sit for another higher-level test, which will automatically renew all your lower-level credentials. The lower certificate will have the same expiry date as the new higher-level one.

Depending on the certification you choose, the price can range from anywhere between $300 to $350 for the written test. The CCIE practical and lab exams cost$1600 for each attempt that you make. Full payment is to be made 90 days before the test to hold your reservation for the Cisco certification exam.

Conclusion

The Cisco certifications are the most sought-after credentials for any IT professionals who want to boost up their resume. These certificatesnot only allow you to be recognized globally as being efficient in your networking field, but also be in demand. Therefore, you will receive many benefits.