Five reasons why you have to get Cisco certified

By Sarah Morgan

In a recent study, Cisco surveyed employers of Cisco certified professionals to measure the value of certifications. Aiming to understand management perceptions about certified employees, the study revealed that over 75% of the 200 network managers surveyed believe that their Cisco certified employees possess greater knowledge than their peers without a certification.

What’s in it for the employer?

Employees, who can work quickly, effectively and efficiently are valued in any organisation. According to Cisco’s study, employers benefit from employing certified professionals in the following ways:

• Network-related projects and technical problems get completed and resolved faster – often by 30% or more
• Cisco certified professionals are at least 20% faster in coming up to speed in projects
• Network-related tasks and problems are dealt with higher effectiveness – on average by 40%

In addition to these benefits, employers also highlighted that having Cisco certified employees on their staff has decreased network support costs, reduced network downtime, improved the ability to take on additional projects, and improved customer satisfaction.

If you’re interested in the complete study of Cisco, you can download it from their employer resources site.

What’s in it for you – five reasons why your Cisco cert matters

Having thought about the above mentioned, it is evident why it’s worth employing Cisco certified professionals. But the question more relevant to you is: Why do I need a Cisco certification?

Chris Roessler is a CCNA certified network engineer, who has been working in networking in 2007. As a guest blogger, Chris has recently written an article sharing his five reasons for getting certified:

1. Preparing for a certification forces you to go back and fill the gaps in your knowledge
2. Certifications are financially rewarding and should be considered as an investment in yourself - Cisco certifications boost average salaries by at least 10%
3. You’ll be able to keep up with the evolving technologies – like software-defined networking (Cisco is already preparing training and certification for it)
4. You’ll discover networking best practices and tips, while preparing for your certification
5. With a certification under your belt, you’ll gain greater recognition and get the edge over your competition - 86% of hiring managers indicate IT certifications are a high priority during the candidate evaluation process (CompTIA, Employer Perceptions of IT Training and Certification, January 2011)

To learn more about our official Cisco training courses, check out our Cisco portfolio.

About the Author:       
Sarah writes for Firebrand Training on a number of IT related topics. This includes exams, training, certification trends, project management, certification, careers advice and the industry itself. Sarah has 11 years of experience in the IT industry.