As of now, I have about 4.5 years of IT experience and as most recent got my BA in computer network system. My experience is mostly working in the linux realm of things such so light lamp admin when I was at xerox along with some php and web dev which was also very little. I worked in the NOC at Xerox and as of now I work in a NOC for my current company which doesn’t include a whole lot of linux only when things faill and we have to ssh into servers and what not as well escaulating events that require level2 or level3 support.

Now that you have some background info on me, my question to you is:

If I am more passionate about say working with cisco and or juniper networking gear how will obtaining a possible cert in one or possibly both help me in my current position if there is no need for a cert nor do I work with cisco or juniper equipment since we have a separate department that handles this?

If I am not using my certification all that much what value is of it if am not utilizing it. ?

I am also looking for my next challenge and something else to add to my credentials would this be an option since I’d rather not continue my education i.e masters degree?

I hear arguments from both sides of the fence that it is either worth getting certified and the other half says its not. What are your thoughts? I do have some cisco experience I have a semi-lab setup at my house and if I do decide to pursue I will be strictly studying not using braindumps etc.

Also, given a scenario where job X requires you to have 3-5 years experience but you only have a 5 years of overall IT experience (not focusing on any particular tech)and you don’t have any experience working with say cisco specific technology in a production environment what good is the cert if you don’t have the experience working with that particualar technology in this case cisco?

I am not really looking for another job really more of ways to prove my chances of moving out of a NOC position.

Thanks for you time,

You said:
“There are other far more effective methods of voicing your political views, the most important of which is exercising your citizenship and VOTING.”

That only works in places like Canada and Switzerland where there’s
1) more than a duopoly – and
2) in places where duopolies exist in the political system – where the duopolies do NOT have
A) not only their hands in each other’s pockets or
B) otherwise colluding with one another for the sole purpose of keeping the duopoly the way it is.

When all you have is a duopoly, and all the different sides of the duopoly is different versions of the same thing, it’s like they make fun of in V: The Final Battle: two lizards come to power in each of the two sides of the – by then – world duopoly and the parting comment they have to the masses on Earth is:
“You have to vote for one of us – or waste your vote on a third party in which case you might as well stay home and not vote.”

You said:
”By simply not paying taxes, you are not influencing decisions one bit, but instead are causing taxes to be raised for everyone else to pay for the budget anyway.”

However, if more and more and more people did the same, then the Government wouldn’t have a CHOICE but to only spend money they have instead of continuing to borrow-borrow-borrow. Eventually the Chinese are going to say `Enough is enough” and start treating America and the rest of the world like spoiled children or delinquent-debtors living off their increasing amounts of credit.

Except unlike when a person declares bankruptcy – the community at large around them – where both Government as well as business and residential – is by and large unaffected – when a COUNTRY declares bankruptcy – all the other countries with which they have integrated financial ties – takes a very BIG hit.

Look at Germany when Greece defaulted. The strongest economy in the world behind China and they started having problems once Greece went into free-fall. Same scenario in America:
1. we take Canada and Mexico down with us cuz of NAFTA
2. That delivers the death blow to Europe in a 1-2 punch after Greece and Turkey
3. That causes the financial system in China to collapse
4. That takes Japan and the rest of Southeast Asia along with it
5. And we are all back in the jungle scrounging for food and shelter like cavemen.

You said
“Not to mention the fact that in addition to not funding “jet fighters and bombs” you are also not funding education, college loans and grants…”

I didn’t have kids, don’t want kids and should not have to pay for idiot teachers to teach equally idiot kids in retail how to tell me to Google it or call customer service for assistance whenever I ask a question – with the even MORE idiotic customer service agents who ALSO know nothing except how to Google the Web
– which I can do from here.

So, if that’s what “school” and “college” is teaching, then i agree with all the big corporations: Eliminate school, entirely, and start kids working at offices, trades, farms or factories by the time they are 8 or 9 and only teach them what they need to know for their jobs, just like it was in America up til the 1930′s.

You said:

“welfare programs…”

To pay perfectly capable people to sit at home watching cable TV they get free from the Government and either contribute to having or have the babies themselves, raising yet another generation of even worse idiots to perpetuate the system.

You said:
“reconstruction programs…”

Like the newly constructed I-35 bridge that collapsed killing hundreds of people.

You said:
“and a slew of other things that both you and our society rely on. And despite any argument of the inefficiencies of those programs, no one can make a valid argument that we would simply be better off without any of them.”

Yes we could. In Southern Europe none of these programs exist in the first place and they get along just fine. The equivalent of a 5th grade education is considered sufficient for executing daily life, corporations take in children as young as 8 or 9 to teach them on-the-job training, they work there for 30 or 40 years, the elderly and infirm are taken care of by their own families, women stay home in the kitchen where they belong and men work the farms, forests and factories like men have been doing for hundreds if not thousands of years.

You upset the balance of nature – you pay the price.

If we go the route of racism being mental illness, may I suggest a better treatment than antipsychotic drugs: Medically make the racist look like the ethnic group he hates, like Michael Jackson or John Howard Griffin. Only one treatment would be needed!