Passing the CCNA//
My biggest accomplishment to date when it comes to career progression. The Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) was one of those exams where i always thought i'd pass it easily... ill just need to brush up on a few protocols and IOS commands and ill be there. 6 months later and i was finally ready to take the exam, it was definitely way more intense than I ever could have expected.
The CCNA has large and broad amount of topics that you have to know in depth. It isnt quite as 'in depth' as i suspect the CCNP, but it was certainly more 'in depth' than the AWS counterparts. From the foundations of what makes a frame to understanding Dynamic Routing Protocols like OSPF and EIGRP. It was incredibly tough to memorise all these different concepts.
The exam was made up of a mixture of questions, comprising of labs and your standard multi-choice. The labs made it particularly difficult as you are only allowed a single screen in the exam to navigate the scenario, the topology and the CLI configuration windows. It was added strain to an already intense exam. That being said, i do think labs are a neccessary part of the process, afterall, you have to demonstrate you can do it and not just know it.
As always with these type of mainstream exams, there are is an abundance of different resources for anyone to choose from. I was a bit of a cheap skate and didnt want to purchase anything if i didnt have to. Luckily, Reddit pointed me to JeremysITLab, an incredible instructor who makes the course very memorable, informative and he uses a selection of tools and software to create labs using Cisco Packet Tracer - a must for the CCNA - and Flash Cards. All of this for free. You can tip him for the content created should you use his resources to pass, but this is optional.
The exam was passed late 2024 and i got my certificate around 2 weeks later. This exam was essentially what inspired me to start my certification journey and since then, i went on to obtain two further certificates in AWS Cloud and build a plan to - hopefully - obtain the CCNP ENCOR certification.