What certification should you pursue after CCNA

Once you have obtained your CCNA, you are ready to move on to the next level, professional certification. For years, Cisco had a professional certification, the Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) certification. Over time, Cisco has expanded this level of certification to include Cisco Certified Security Professional (CCSP) and Cisco Certified Voice Professional (CCVP).

With security and voice being the two fastest-expanding areas of today’s networks, some new CCNAs consider adding CCNP after CCSP or CCVP without going through their resume.

Although it’s early to get Cisco security or voice certification, the best thing you can do for your networking career is get your CCNP certification first, then decide on CCVP or CCSP.

Why? Because CCNA is just the tip of a huge iceberg when it comes to routing and switching. This is a very important achievement, and CCNA really is the foundation of your networking career, but you need to add to that level of understanding routing and switching before moving on to more specialized areas.

OSPF and BGP are two examples. You learn about the principle of OSPF and some of the basic and intermediate configurations of that protocol in your CCNA studies, but the knowledge you gain of OSPF in your CCNP studies is invaluable. As for BGP, there is no BGP in the CCNA curriculum, but in today’s networks it is a good idea to have some BGP knowledge. It is also good for your career.

I know it’s a big temptation to go after security and voice certification without focusing on CCNP. Do yourself a huge favor and add the tremendous amount of routing and switching knowledge required for CCNP to your knowledgebase, and then you can move on to CCSP or CCVP. Even better, you’ll be better prepared to climb the biggest certification mountain – CCIE!