Cisco’s family of professional certifications include five basic classifications. Each certification category contains several career specialties. Knowing the certification and career basics may help you decide which career is the best fit for you. Below, we will take a brief snapshot of each category.
The Cisco CompTIA A+ certification is for IT administrators, technicians, and field services technicians whose job duties involve installation, preventative maintenance, networking, security, and troubleshooting various networks.
The Cisco CCENT certification is typically for entry level network technicians. Help Desk Technicians and Network Support Technicians are examples of careers that involve installing, operating, troubleshooting, and basic security tasks for small enterprise branch networks.
The Cisco CCNA category is for network associates who work with medium-sized routed and switched networks. Careers include Network Administrators, Network Installers, and Network Engineers who also implement and verify connections to remote site in WAN environments.
The Cisco CCNA Security certification is for Network Security Specialists who install, monitor, and perform troubleshooting duties on Cisco network security devices. They also develop security infrastructure and work to minimize security threats.
The CCNP certification is for Level II Network Engineers and Network Technicians who work with LANs and WANS, manage routers, switches, and edge applications that combine voice, security, and wireless features into a network.
To maximize your opportunity in any of these exciting careers, you should take advantage of training events and self-study tools such as Testslive exam engines. Testslive produces the most potent Cisco exam materials that, when combined with training resources, will put you on the fast track to reaching your IT career goals.