Ask & Answer: India's Largest Education Community

Hi Reshu,
I am assuming that you are asking me the range of starting salaries for ccna and ccnp in India. The starting salaries may vary to some extent depending on your location, your original graduation and the hiring company. An engineering degree would pay higher than a computer science degree which would pay higher than an information systems degree, at least generally speaking.
Salary is a function of various factors - i.e. (i) the institute where you have completed your B.Tech + M.Tech. e.g. a graduate from a top institute will command a higher salary. (ii) Your work experience - organization and type of work profile (iii) city - a metropolitan city will have higher salaries as compared to smaller cities and towns. (iv) Your current organization - i.e. where you will be joining - an MNC usually has higher salaries as compared to other organizations. (v) Your work profile i.e. Manager/ AVP, etc. Thus one cannot allocate a figure.
You can check more information on salaries at www.payscale.com.
Hope this information helps. Please feel free to revert. Click on the thumbs up or mark it as the best, if you found this useful.
Wish You luck!

It depends on where you wish to see yourself after the course, I mean the career path you are interested in and which one you'd like to specialize?. It can also be a personal decision. Streams available are
CCNA Routing and Switching
CCNA Data Center
CCNA Security
CCNA Service Provider
CCNA Service Provider Operations
CCNA Video
CCNA Voice
CCNA Wireless?
and of course CCNA Cloud
CCNA Routing and Switching is the pathway to start learning and earn other certificates. CCNA(Routing and Switching) is a basic certification, which is started by everyone as Cisco have some requirements to be completed called as prerequisties. CCNA Cloud certification is a job role focused certification and training program that helps Cloud engineers, Cloud Administrators, and Network Engineers to develop, advance, and validate their cloud skill set, and enables them to help their IT organization meet changing business demands from technology transitions. With a CCNA Cloud certification, you will obtain the skills to perform entry-level provisioning and support of Cisco cloud solutions.

Hi Reshu,
Securing a Cisco certification could prove very beneficial for your career. It demonstrates to the potential employers that you have the practical training necessary to successfully perform a variety of IT functions, from working with routers and switches, network security, and storage systems, to implementing wireless and unified communications.
After acquiring Cisco certifications, one can start working as: Network administrator Computer support specialist Network manager Network operator Computer network analyst Skilled IT professionals may also find good career opportunities through Cisco's talent network and its-certified partners.
Hope this information helps. Please feel free to revert. Click on the thumbs up or mark it as the best, if you found this useful. Wish You Luck!

Hi Lovey,
Download packet tracer and start using it
Here are some of the common free CCNA study material links all in one place. If others know of some additional free resources, please add to the list and maybe we can have one long list created.
Workbooks/Study Guides
Free CCNA Workbook free CCNA lab workbook and practice exam
Free CCNA Study Guide - Free CCNA Study Guide free CCNA study guide
Free Cisco CCNA Exam Cert Guide free bootcamp style CCNA study guide
Page on routeralley.com free printable CCNA study guide
Videos (just go to youtube and search CCNA for more)
Chris Bryant Chris Bryant CCNA free videos
CertificationKits a Ciscokits CCNA free videos
Keith Barker Keith Barker CCNA free videos
Free Practice Exams
Practice Exams - CCNA - TechExams.net Free Practice exam (must register on site)
Free CCENT CCNA and subnetting questions Free CCENT practice exam
CCNA Games and CCNA Free Exams Free practice exams and games
Hope it helps. Please feel free to revert. Click on the thumbs up or mark it as the best, if you found this useful.
Wish You Luck!

Hi Lovey,
An MCITP (Microsoft Certified Information Technology Professional) focuses on any of several Microsoft server systems technologies, and documents knowledge of those products and their application in a business IT environment. The entry level MCITP focuses on Windows Server and Active Directory (and related, commonly installed tools,) but there are several MCITP options that include Exchange Server, SQL Server, and Sharepoint, to name just a few. The difficulty of these exams varies widely, and your actual knowledge of the products will also play a role in how difficult you perceive these exams to be. In general, the more experience you have with the actual product the easier they will seem.
CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) focuses on networking concepts like OSI model, subnet math, Ethernet switching, routing, and a basic introduction to routing protocols and would be appropriate for a network admin with a couple years of experience who wanted to demonstrate proficiency in those areas. Relatively recently, many new CCNA options have been added, with the "classic" CCNA having been renamed to "CCNA: Routing & Switching." There are also security and voice CCNA options, which, obviously, focus on network security and IP telephony.
Hope it helps. Please feel free to revert. Click on the thumbs up or mark it as the best, if you found this useful.
Wish You Luck!

Hi Lovey,
The best thing about preparing for CCNA exams is being able to explore and discover new theories and concepts. The final job that you land up with your CCNA certifications would want you to be an expert and have thorough practical knowledge of all networking topics. It is not without reason that CCNA is a globally recognized certification and attracts better jobs and salary. One must study hard and be patient. The rewards will follow themselves.
Things to Keep In Mind before Studying: One should understand the core concept of a CCNA certification to be able to study right. The CCNA exam offered by CISCO includes a variety of topics based on TCP/IP studies to the most comprehensive routing protocols with spanning trees. With so much to study, the exams may look tough to crack. However, it is understood that one should mainly focus on ICDN which serves the base for all types of CISCO CCNA exams. This requires candidates to go through the length and breadth of the topics. One requires both theoretical and practical knowledge in order to crack CCNA.
The CCNA exam requires you to handle about 50-60 question in 90 odd minutes. Regular practice is required to excel in the exams.
Hope this information helps. Please feel free to revert. Click on the thumbs up or mark it as the best, if you found this useful.
Wish You Luck!

Hi Vishnu,
There are two different ways of looking at this. The first is from a personal perspective. Passing the CCNA is not as easy as it once was. The breadth of topics covered is substantial and some of the material is fairly dated. You end up having to learn and memorize a tremendous amount of material. I passed comfortably the first time I took it but I put a lot of work in up front to get that result. I'm working on my CCNP now and while it isn't going to be trivial I'm not nearly as worried. Cisco's current CCNP exam is much better organized and focused than the CCNA which makes it easier to tackle.
As others have noted, you have to pass the CCNA to move on to the other exams. You'll get a decent foundation in networking from the CCNA and if you can pass that exam then the CCNP should be very doable.
Hope it helps. Please feel free to revert. Click on the thumbs up or mark it as the best, if you found this useful.
Wish You Luck!

Hi Vishnu,
No – it's never too late to learn. Additionally, you do not have to get a computer science degree to be a programmer. In the developer and designer communities, many companies are more interested in what you've created than in your resume or where you went to school.
There are myriad resources available to you to start your journey. The two most common routes, aside from obtaining a CS degree, are learning completely on your own or attending a bootcamp. What route you choose depends on a number of factors. You'll want to ask yourself questions such as:
How quickly do I want to get a job as a programmer? If you're not in a rush, then try learning on your own with free and low-cost resources. If you want to make the career change within a much more reasonable amount of time, you will want to look into attending a bootcamp.
How much time can I commit to learning every week? Can you quit your job and go all-in for 3+ months? If so, a bootcamp will get you the fastest results. Do you need to work full- or even part-time while you pursue this career change? If so, then use free resources to get you started. You can also consider a part-time online bootcamp that allows you to commit fewer hours every week without needing to move to a new city.
How much can I afford to pay to pursue this career change? Theoretically, you could pay nothing (except, perhaps, copious amounts of your time) and still get a job as a programmer. You'll want to consider cost per hour when looking at bootcamp prices; how much time you put into learning will greatly influence your outcome.
There are, however, “hidden costs” in either route. If software engineering positions pay more, on average, than your current job, then you may be “losing” income by learning on your own and not switching careers as quickly as possible. On the other hand, if you choose a full-time bootcamp, you'll have to keep in mind the wages lost by not working + the cost of the bootcamp + the cost of relocation, if the program is in.
Hope it helps. Please feel free to revert. Click on the thumbs up or mark it as the best, if you found this useful.
Wish You Luck!

Hi Vishnu,
Papers for Computer Science students:
1. Paxos - http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.824/
Providing a backbone for understanding how can distributed systems
2. Byzantine Fault Tolerance -http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.824
If you have a system of N machines, and X are currupt, what will happen. Also video: Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance
3. Trusting Trust - http://mit.edu/6.033/www/papers/ -
When it comes to bugs / security, we're hopeless. You can't prevent it. You can minimize the consequences, though.
4. Log Structured Fault System - http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/
Gives a lot of insight of how to make systems reliable while keeping them performance
5. Beyond Stack Smashing - http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~norm/508/2
Understanding system vulnerabilities via buffer overflow
6. Hints for Computer System Design - Excerpts from Butler Lampson's "Hints for Computer System Design"
Hope it helps. Please feel free to revert. Click on the thumbs up or mark it as the best, if you found this useful.
Wish You Luck!

Hi Amisha,
I don't know of any other discipline that makes you feel so much like a wizard. Even engineering doesn't really feel that way, because you actually have to do real work fitting things together and what not.
In contrast, when you program something, you're basically just muttering incantations and casting spells. Do it right, and incredible stuff just springs to life.
And the stuff you're manipulating is almost dreamlike. Take a simple bug fix, for example. The concept doesn't quite exist in other forms of engineering, because if you're building something physical, even a small design flaw is difficult to fix. You have to take it apart, whack stuff into position, and usually you just wind up realizing that it would be easier to rebuild everything from scratch.
Whereas for a computer scientist, that's normal. Change a few things here and there, and bam - your updated program bursts into existence. You can do this because manufacturing software is easy (compile and run, or some equivalent) - almost all the work and difficulty is in thinking of it and designing it. It's basically an abstract mental construct.
Hope it helps. Please feel free to revert. Click on the thumbs up or mark it as the best, if you found this useful.
Wish You Luck!

Hi Amisha,
My view is that what is and isn't "science", pure or applied, is determined by method. Pure science is characterized, broadly, by the scientific method. Different branches take it to different extents and in different directions, but they all share a similar core: theories based on observations of the world and tested empirically and quantitatively either through experiments or, at least, observational studies. Pure science answers "what" by observing the real world.
Applied science, on the other hand, is closer to engineering. It's about coming up with specific ways to accomplish some goal. The goal is to take a scientific understanding of the world and use it to develop solutions to problems. Applied science answers "how" by inventing based on scientific principles.
Computer Science encompasses both pure and applied sciences to do with computers and computation, and more.
Hope it helps. Please feel free to revert. Click on the thumbs up or mark it as the best, if you found this useful.
Wish You Luck!

Hi Amisha,
Computer Science is the study of computation. It informs how we create software (ideally). Topics might be: Complexity, algorithms, models of computation, automation. It is arguably a branch of discrete mathematics, and builds upon set theory, logic, etc.
Computer Engineering is studying how computing machines are built. It informs how we build hardware. Topics might be: Hardware architectures, gates, instruction set design, digital communication. It overlaps digital electronics and physics.
Software engineering is partially about understanding how to apply the knowledge gained from studying Computer Science to building products. It's also about understanding how to design, maintain, and manage large pieces of software, how to properly manage a release cycle, knowing the relevant tool chain (from shell commands down to programming languages and operating systems), etc.
Hope it helps. Please feel free to revert. Click on the thumbs up or mark it as the best, if you found this useful.
Wish You Luck!