As the Vice President of the Learning and Certifications organization at Cisco, I have the privilege of hearing amazing success stories and stories of people changing their lives and careers via Cisco training and exams. I am able to see, firsthand, how learning, certifications, and being Cisco certified have helped thousands of people in the tech industry transform their careers.
At the highest level, Cisco training and certification programs offer a path to the technology career you have always wanted. Investing in yourself is a gift you’ll never regret! Throughout the years, the way individuals consume and retain content continues to evolve. These developments require the learning industry to adjust and up-level, which leads to greater opportunities for those interested in an IT career. Modern learning technologies specialize in ‘meeting the learner where they are,’ giving anyone (even those with the most basic tech knowledge) the ability to become an expert in collaboration technologies, CyberOps, automation, or more traditional technologies like enterprise networking and data center.
Whether you are beginning your learning journey, taking courses through Cisco Networking Academy, or a seasoned security engineer looking to learn new skills in NetDevOps, the time for you to take advantage of the modern learning experiences and fast-track your career is NOW.
Stories of Success
Part of our job is to tell our customers about the benefits of training and certifications through formal campaigns and marketing. However, the most powerful form of marketing is true, real-life stories that come from you… our learners, right here in our local communities. That is how we know we have reached success.
We work tirelessly each day to ensure that being Cisco certified is one of the highest forms of qualification in the IT industry. Here is what Kevin Brown has to say about how his Cisco certification positively impacts his day-to-day work life:
“People always want to know who they’re talking to. They want to know if you’re qualified,” Cybersecurity Expert Kevin Brown said. “Certifications give you instant credibility. The people I speak with know I’m knowledgeable and skilled before a single word even leaves my mouth.”
Continuing education, learning in general, and being Cisco certified is more than just simply taking classes and exams… it’s about changing your own life and making a difference in the lives of others.
We read every story and are honored that each of you is alongside us on this journey to success. Whether you choose to share your learning and certification successes on social media (use #CiscoCert to join the conversation), participate in a Community on the Cisco Learning Network, or leave a comment below, keep the stories coming.
Your inspiration and dedication truly are what keep me and the Learning & Certifications team going.
Happy Learning!
Par Merat
Vice President, Cisco Learning & Certifications
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Studying in networks and achieving my cisco CCNA certificate totally changed my life. Currently, this certification improved my working life 100% and that is why I decided to continue with the CCNP. This changed my life. Before, I was a bellman for four seasons hotels.
Amazing, thank you for sharing!
Being a part of Cisco Community inspired me to learn more and go from CCNA to Specialist in one year. It is a personal achievement for me and I am proud to be a Cisco Certified Specialist. Cisco Learning is a great spot to learn, meet new people and be a part of the community. Way to go CISCO!
Thank you, and more support for the community to come!
Great read and I totally agree. My certification journey started in hopes of elevating my career, but I learned that the power isn’t just in the certification but the knowledge I gain working toward the cert. I’ve found that continuing to pursue new certifications helps keep me sharp as the technology changes. I always feel ready for new challenges in IT and the certifications earned don’t just show proof of knowledge they also show proof of the desire to continue to learn.
Completely agree, thank you for lending your voice!
After leaving the Military I started work in IT. I was working on routers and switches but it was not coming together. So I decided to study for my CCNA. That was the missing link I needed. I was a bit intimidated at first, but as I studied and read on, everything started to fall into place. Now I could talk the talk and walk the walk. Now I’m a CCNP and for now, I’m looking to move ahead to the CCIE. Again intimidated, but like before, things will start to fall in place. It’s been a great journey with Cisco. 🙂
Thank you for your service! keep us posted on your CCIE journey.
My certifications have allowed me to advance me career in education, without it, I would not be teaching in the field I currenly in and love. This credential gives me the chance to share with others my knowledge and passion for what I love.
My certifications have broaden my scope of IT. Having a better understanding of network technologies through the help of the Cisco community, gained valuable experience in the shortest time possible.
Glad to hear the community support!
Great read and totally agree. Certifications improved my working life 100%. I do also feel that certifications earned don’t just show proof of knowledge they also show proof of the desire to continue to learn and have allowed me to advance my career.
Excellent, Very good approach from Cisco
Since I got my CCNA 2 years ago, my life has changed. Many opportunities have opened to me, and I’m sure many more will appear
“Continuing education, learning in general, and being Cisco certified is more than just simply taking classes and exams… it’s about changing your own life and making a difference in the lives of others.”
That’s something I would use as a quote to a lot of people who ask me, why they should learn XY
It’s really not exaggerating to say that getting my CCNA changed my life – after that I never stopped studying! Several CCNP’s later I’m now getting ready for CCIE 🙂
Keep going and keep us posted, we want to help!
Seeing other people successes is inspirational to me and makes me want to learn even more. A rising tide lifts all boats, and as we learn together we achieve together.
Very inspiartional!
Very useful encouragement to keep pursuing the Certs.
I agree with the comment about
“The people I speak with know I’m knowledgeable and skilled”
but more importantly for me is that I know that I am knowledgeable and skilled.
I am very happy to be part of this wonderful community
certify me in cisco, it helped me a lot in my professional career giving me the opportunity to work in many companies
This is awesome. Thank you Cisco
I would like to say thank you to Cisco, I passed my first CCNA on March and joined a ISP as a network engineer! It’s totally changed my life! Getting a certificate is not my goal, but I am quite enjoying learning and I am sure I will dive in more advanced technologies in future!
Thank you for leaving a comment, we’d love to hear from you as we evolve learning.
Read this is a great way to inspiring me to reach all my 2022 goals/certifications, thank you !!!!!
Thank you, I appreciate hearing from you!
Great read and I totally agree
As an advocate of certifications and continuous education, I couldn’t agree more – certifications are a wonderful vehicle for learning and career development. I must say I owe it to certifications for helping to push me to continue learning and achieving goals, thank you Cisco for providing some of the best certs out there!
Totally agree. Certifications helped me a lot in advancing the carrier. Even today I would like to pursue new certifications in Cisco and other related vendors.
This is an inspiring article. Thanks for sharing.
Gettting certified and being a part of a community that is so big has dramatically helped me in developed into the better Network Engineer over the years
Good article. Certifications have opened some doors for me…
Educating myself in Cisco Certification gives me the go ahead in handling lot of Network and Security related issues. It provides the enabling ground to understand the fundamental knowledge needed for my day to day activities.
After I archieve CCNA my knowledge level was so much higher, that my working life was so much better.
The fundamentals learned in the course helped me better understand the IT problems and challenges.
I would advise everyone to get the CCNA certificate as soon as you start working in IT.
I was so proud upon successfully obtaining the CCNA certification! It took me a few tries since I was still new to networking, but that made passing the exam even sweeter. That certification marked a pivot in my career and was the missing piece needed to make the jump from desktop/laptop technician to network professional.
Obtaining my CCNA and CyberOps Associate have changed my life significantly. They helped me move up the ladder at work. Now it’s time to tackle my 1st CCNP!
We’d love to hear more about your journey, keep us posted!
This is awesome. Thank you Cisco
I agree, that certification is really important to achieve your goals and I’m happy being part of the Cisco Community and my personal achievements that is hard to reach without being certified.
Thanks to cisco, today I have a good job!
Certificate is a lad to success. I am building it.
This is an inspiring article. Thanks for sharing.
A great read and fully agree with it. Certifications have opened lot of door for me
I was noticed as a Key Asset to my Organization due to Continuous Learning & Development, Cisco Certification Definitely gave my employer the Confidence to allow internal based growth instead of the expenditure of constant external consultant hiring to get work done, this allowed my peers to also get Cisco Certified as the Output of my Work spoke in margins for the Training Provided, My Knowledge from just a Single Area Network in a single organization to being trusted to work on large enterprise level networks, with annual revenue removed from the number of consultants hired being poured into Training and Development Rather. Just Saying that the CCNA change my life is an Understatement as I know Gaze Upon the Stars Quite Literally in hopes of Building the Networks to the Moon, Mars and Beyond!
Amazing! Thank you for sharing
CCNA led me to other certs, and eventually to taking my prior experience to opening my own IT school.
I love hearing all the success stories! I am also “starting over” in a second career, learning a lot from Cisco with DevASC and DevIoT as my first two certs!
Cisco certifications helped me to move forward in my Career, After I got Certified many opportunities showed up for me . Im looking forward to continue working and getting more Cisco Certs!
I knew what I wanted to do when I was very young; something to do with IT! I was in fact pretty sure I wanted to do networking when I was 16 and still in secondary school / high school. I started practicing for CompTIA exams and ended up passing three of them and later started studying the Cisco CCENT and CCNA, passing all 4 of them whilst I was still in education (College at this point) without any industry experience. I then found my first job, which I’m pretty certain was all down to my certifications, albeit more importantly the knowledge I had gained from them! I then achieved my CCNP R&S certification after failing the 300-101 (Route) and 300-135 (TSHOOT) once each and passing CCNP Switch (300-115) first time (I love layer 2!). Today, I am 21 years old and have yet to do another certification (COVID played a huge part, as well as my job) but I am striving for more certifications and never stop learning
Thanks for the article and I look forward to continuing to apply for the recertification exam and have a lifelong learning mindset.
My certifications have allowed me to advance me career in another country, without it, I would not be doing what I love, Networking Engineering.
My certification has allowed me to advance my career in public service. Without it, it would not allow me to have the current position. This credential gave me the chance to share with others my knowledge and passion for what I love.
My dream was be an Network Engineer of success and my journey don’t finished. Since that I took my CCNA and CCNP my live changed today I’m working like Network Engineer and I become dad !!! This is real life and I always believe this day would come !!!
Good read.
Personally, Cisco certifications helped me a lot in gaining in depth knowledge of networking, and forcing me to study areas that I did interact with in my day to day work, which I otherwise probably wouldn’t study.
I totally agree with you
I took a CCNA R&S course and certification exam while in university because at the time I was not sure what I was really interested in. From that experience I got my first job in the field, and from then on it was a gift that never stopped giving.
Studying for certifications gave me knowledge to better understand real world problems and solutions. Passing the exams gave more confidence that allowed me to advance my career, and take on bigger more challenging projects.
I’ve been in networking for 20 years now and neglected certifications, however I got the chance to study and get CCNA certified last december. I got CCNA and it made me feel positive about myself. I continued on to do Enterprise Wirelesss Design specialist recently, and hope to pass Enterprise Core to attain CCNP soon. I already feel like my stalled career is back on track through engaging with these training opportunities.
I’ve been working on Cisco certifications for many years and they’ve been great for providing a framework for learning new skills. The training materials are great and I’ve continued to use them as reference over the years. They’ve also been helpful for meeting Partner certification requirements.
After achieving CCNA certification, my confidence improved and I felt much more valuable as a person.
Working towards CCNP now and will continue to learn and conquer
Learning is a never ending job, Cisco Certifications help to keep it enjoyable and organized
Cisco Learning helped me a lot in getting new skills for my job and going forward, thanks for all these possibilities.
Achieving a CCIE certification allows me to go into a meeting with new or potential customers having my credibility already established.
I earned a university degree and lacked work experience in IT. I applied to entry-level opportunities, and I intended to work at an IT help desk. Not long after earning the CCNA certification, a company hired me for the physical security of a facility that houses equipment for several tenants. I worked on the third shift there for months, and I continued to study networking whenever I had time. This will continue as I work towards increasing knowledge of networks designed for a variety of complex purposes. I intend to gain work experience that is not limited to the physical layer of networks.
Earning my first CCNA module back in the college days allow me to have the job and life I have today
it’s been rough and pleasure trip with cisco certification
Certifications provide that clarity towards a standardised roadmap of learning where you can be assured that you’ll have at least some of the hard skills needed to survive in today’s working environments.
El haber logrado inicialmente la certificación ccna fue un gran logro personal, pero el tener la ccnp además de ser un gran triunfo para mí me abierto muchas puertas
There are so many Cisco paths now – Collaboration and CyberOps are my interests but the material is very hard to get hold of and expensive.
Still I would like the opportunity for greater incites. Maybe introduction bite courses would help to keep pace with it all.
I still remember the moment of thinking whether I should have taken CCENT exam or not. Before that time, I was not a network guy. CCENT or CCNA was a giant challange that I thought I could not defeat. Then, I booked exam and went ahead take it. I still remember when I looked at the result page of CCENT exam, my eye was dazzeling and suprising that “Congratulations!” on it. Then later I passed CCNA and ENCOR exam recently. That’s a journey that I’ve never regreted to go and the rewarding that the exams give me is worth a try.
While styding for CCNA i realised how much fun it is, to have all this network knowledge. This certification was a huge step for me im my proffessionel carrer and i can’t wait for to continue my learning path with DevNet and CCNP.
Working in the military as a Net Admin for 5 years has made the transition into a civilian IT job easier. Cisco has enabled me to understand networks.
Certification goes both ways! What I mean by that is, each certification earned not only gives you instant credibility and shows others the skills you’ve achieved; it also give you yourself a great sense of achievement and knowledge, and the drive to learn more!
I took an interest in Networking many years ago, but it took me awhile to finally go for CCNA certification. The cert helped me deepen my knowledge, and also helped get me a promotion at my job almost instantly! Every certification I have pursued has been worth it.
Each process is very motivating to follow the certification path.
Great story and I am glad Cisco has so much open information that encourages learning. Other vendors lock everything down so much that it is quite difficult to learn at times.
Getting certification in my carrier is just like medals for me, it gives me the feeling of getting recognized for my hard work and dedication.
Great read, thank you
thank for motivation to keep going. CCIE, this is the way
I got my Devnet Associate two years ago and have tried to keep trucking down that path, with Devnet Professional a year later. Hoping to be ready for Expert next year, but maybe that is a bit aggressive.
Thanks for sharing.
Great stories, great community!
After graduating college I immediately started studying for the CCNA and seeking employment. I found an entry level position doing general IT work and continued to study for a CCNA. Once I passed the CCNA, I began looking for related positions to the knowledge I obtained from it. Within 6 months of being certified, I was able to find a much better paying job. It’s an opportunity that I wouldn’t have gotten if I didn’t have a CCNA. I would encourage anyone, especially those still in school, to come out with a Cisco certification if possible. It will expand your knowledge, value, and opportunities in an industry where entry level is highly saturated.
Es un excelente articulo, parte de mis logros han sido en base en los programas de capacitación para presentar mis certificaciones y actualmente estoy en preparación para un CCIE.
Great to see all the learning support around network automation. Would love to see some source of truth and automation content around Nautobot!
Certifications have been the best way to transition from domain to domain, which is why I love them.
Seeing successful stories makes me feel so grateful and looking forward to the future.
Excellent, Very good approach from Cisco
This is awesome. Thank you Cisco
siempre quise ser un administrador de redes, con esfuerzo todo se puede hacer.
Inspiring none the less.
Thank you for this opportunity to learn unconditional from cisco academy