Moving here soon from Portland. CISCO career? (Greenville, Spartanburg: university, shop)

[DjK31]

Hello all.

My wife and I are in our early 30s and moving with her parents to the Fountain Inn area in a few months

After getting settled with a place of our own and becoming a resident I'm thinking about going to Spartanburg Community College for CISCO training. It looks like they have a networking certificate option that includes CISCO courses. I read an earlier comment from someone in this forum that if you can get a CCNA you have a very good chance of getting hired in the Greenville-Spartanburg location. I know that there's plenty of manufacturing jobs around here but its just not my thing.

I'm concerned about experience though. Anyone in the IT department that can tell me whether a certificate from SCC is going to open doors?

I already have a (somewhat worthless) bachelors degree from a university so that most likely will take care of the majority of pre-requisites. I also am teaching myself Photoshop and have some html/css experience, and have considered Web Design but I am not sure what the market is out here for that kind of thing.

[Labonte18]

CCNA has gone downhill in the past 5-10 years. It's nowhere near as impressive as it once was.

I got it 15 years ago and have let it lapse, and there's no need to take a course for it.. Go to Barnes and Noble and get one of the books on it.

[Valien]

The CCNA cert is just a gateway cert and not a guarantee you'll land a good gig. But it's the person and the knowledge behind that gives it power. There are a few companies here in the Upstate that look to hire CCNA's and related - BSA/Concentrix, Windstream, etc.