Hullo everyone.

I hate to do work type stuff on here but I’m aware that there’s many IT bods on here so I was hoping that I could get a little bit of advice?

Following a recent professional disappointment (didn’t get promoted, much to everyone’s surprise) I’m examining myself and perhaps concluding that I’m a square peg in a round hole at the moment. I am therefore looking at a medium term (3 – 5 years) plan which would include gaining qualifications in IT Security with a view to working in that field. As my background is bereft of IT Qualifications beyond the ECDL I am looking to start from scratch and build towards CISCO and Juniper certifications as a bare minimum.

I would appreciate any advice anyone can give about organizations offering distance learning qualifications, in particular the OU. I’ve looked at their website and it appears to be that they offer a generic degree in computing and I’m left wondering if it is the qualification I should be pursuing, even though I acknowledge that there is a CISCO module within the degree.

Many thanks in advance.

Sorry, can’t comment on the OU courses, but if you are going for some Cisco Quals, also look at Cisco Voice, usually plenty of voice engineer roles about, usually pay a bit more aswell. Not going to be cheap to get to CCNP/ccsp/ccvp level. Try and get some hands on if you can, old kit on ebay can be good, build up a lab, couple routers and switches and access points etc failing that GNS is pretty good virtual sim.

Yeah…I’m well aware that it’s not going to be cheap but I’m happy to pay for good courses. What I’m cautious about is paying alot of money to the ‘University of Timbuktoo’ and ending up with a qualification that isn’t industry recognised.

Thanks for the advice about buiding up a lab tho! Wouldn’t have thought of that myself!

Personally as someone who has done the OU courses and as an ex recruiter I would go for named industry courses. Start from scratch with some home learning then get yourself on the cisco courses properly.

I did web application development at the OU as a means to get some kind of qualification for something I learnt self taught. Was probably not worth it as it is not an industry standard recognised qualification and the course material was maybe 2 to 3 years out of date.

As a recruiter we looked for industry recognised qualifications as everyone and their brother had a generic computing degree. If cisco is the way you want to go you will get your qualification faster and it will more than likely be more up to date.

my long tuppence worth.

I can’t comment on the OU course but I jumped ships from software to networking in 2006 and haven’t really looked back.

If you are starting out physical access to kit will pay dividends. For the sake of a £100 or so worth of kit you will very quickly realise whether its something you want to invest more time & money in.

Internetworking Expert (http://www.ine.com/self-paced/ccna/bootcamps.htm) have some cost effective intro material. Whilst I’ve not used their CCNA/CCNP material I did use their CCIE material & rack rentals which were very good.

Of all the books I have access to the O’reilly Cisco Cookbook gets reached for first on the bookshelf.

I’m examining myself and perhaps concluding that I’m a square peg in a round hole at the moment

Hmm, I’m kind of thinking the same thing. I’d be interested in understanding what process you went through to decide on the focus you have, and also be interested in any inputs on how goes about evaluating what skill would suit best, and/or have the most potential earning capability

in all honesty i wouldnt bother with an OU degree type course. I’d do what others have suggested and do some vocational vendor specific training – like a CCNA/CCNP, you could get it done in a bootcamp type scenario in a few weeks. i honestly don’t think youd see a return on your time and money in an OU degree. Speaking as someone who has an IT degree and Cisco quals, i’d go straight into it that way.

Yes you’d have no hands on, but you wouldn’t after a degree either and that would be 3 years later…

Try it yourself – get a self-paced study guide thing and try it out. Theers plenty of them about – Cisco do their own official one.

Juniper qualifications are *much* easier to get IMO. The courses are hugely cheaper, you can buy the course books on the iStore for 50p each or something mental, the devices to practise on are also very cheap and you can take online or college based exams for a few pounds.

Juniper is just better kit as well IMO.

That’s my advice, follow some of the Juniper certification paths to get yourself into the game, get a job as a junior security/network analyst where you start on basic grunt tasks and move up quickly while you learn the ropes. Then get the company to sponsor you through the more expensive and elaborate examination paths like CCIE if you still want to go in that direction. You need to get yourself into the business as fast as you can, my recent experience tells me there’s a distinct skills gap, I can’t seem to find any hands on experienced, skilled security architects.

I’d also echo the comment above, cisco voice engineers do seem to be few and far between at the moment.

I’m interested in this too.

I have recently completed an OU module (in Java) to help with my work atm. Just 1 module – you don’t have to do a degree. Overall id say it was worth it. As I’m not sure I would of been disciplined enough to learn a certain thing by a certain day.

I haven’t seen many junior networking positions going at all though. Seems a tough area to me to get onto the ladder for.

I like to know what you can do at home networking wise that is credible… messing around with things like squid proxy might help

The Cisco OU stuff is 1k and 1 year IIRC

Royal Holloway uni do a reputable MSc in information security, but itll cost a lot obviously

Yeah, we are having trouble recruiting some senior engineers in our Canary Wharf and London sites, lots of blaggers, but not many good engineers with experience, surprising really, due to the economic situation at the moment.

If you want to specifically go into security, also consider Checkpoint, as its pretty standard in larger enterprise networks. It may be difficult to get your first job, but the usual way in is a netops/noc role, then move up from there.

Gotta agree with MarkSS, Cisco cookbook, is very handy. Also, the cisco router and switch field manuals are pretty good.

Maybe have a look here and ask advice from existing OU IT students.

http://www8.open.ac.uk/platform/your-subject/computing-and-ict

The girlfriend is an OU student and cannot speak highly enough of the OU setup. Maybe have a look at her blog to get a feel for OU life.

http://www8.open.ac.uk/platform/blogs/carrie-being-student

Guys, very emotional at the helpful responses. Really appreciate them all, thankyou all so much.

Agree with everything said above regarding forgetting a degree and going straight for certs. I looked into doing a networking degree and the equivalent level of knowledge at the end of it was comparable to a CCNA, so definitely not worth the time or money.

I also agree with looking at Juniper and Cisco. Juniper are going from strength to strength and making a lot of companies realise that Cisco are not the only big players out there. I would build a lab with a mixture of Cisco and Juniper. Be aware that the command structures between them is very different, so might be worth doing something like a CCNA and CCNA Voice, then doing the Juniper stuff. Juniper do regular offers on course materials and reduced price exams, so create an account and receive email updates.

Plenty of local colleges do the longer 4-part Cisco “CCNA Exploration” courses that result in a CCNA, usually as evening classes. As they’re longer, you get more time to digest and understand the material than a “bootcamp” type one, and there’s plenty of practical hands-on work. It’s a better foundation if you’re starting from nothing and want a general networking course that has some Cisco-specific aspects.

http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/netacad/course_catalog/CCNAexploration.html

I see the OU offers CCNA Exploration as well. Cost is cheaper than the college I used to work for, and it does have some day-school element for hands-on. With the saving you could buy a few bits of second-hand kit off ebay for practice too.

http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/t216.htm

Worth also checking out Jeremy’s site at Packetlife. He offers a community lab which allows free remote access to Cisco kit for practice. Make sure you donate though as it’s a great service which costs to run.

I can’t comment on the OU’s IT courses as I’m studying maths with them.

But I can give you a bit of advice about the changes that are being made to funding/pricing of OU courses: As of Sept 2012 the fees will be increasing pro rata to £5000 for 120 credits, however as I understand it if you are already in the OU studying for a specific qualification then you will qualify for transitional fees (ie cheaper) until 2016.
This page will give more detail about fees in England. If you’re in Scotland or Wales it will probably be cheaper.

Hope this helps.