The more hiring managers I meet, the more I hear that CCIE Routing and Switching has become a comodity. Although the job boards and LinkedIn make it look like it, the truth is that your cert should match your work experience. If it does, then it doesn’t matter to you because you’ve utilized your cert effectively.

This means that if you are going to be a triple CCIE, that’s fine. But you must focus your work experience. You cannot have 10 years experience in both VOIP and traditional networking. It’s impossible. If you are going to be the student who never wants to leave school- that’s cool. But recognize that if you are going eventually work, the certification will only take you so far.

My friend made a good point at lunch this week. He said there are the people who get their ccie’s and then there are ‘The CCIE’s.”

“The CCIE’s” are the guys who knew right from university that they were going to distinguish themselves. Maybe they did the lower certs or maybe they didn’t, but they knew where they belonged in the network world.

Which one are you?