As part of his program at Strayer (Bachelors degree in IT Networking) Jin will also study for Cisco certification. This is a very prestigious certification in the field right now, and one of the harder vendor certs to achieve. Of course Cisco is the leader in network equipment - I don't need to tell you that.
If you follow the link above it will take you to the Cisco webpages for information on training and certifications.
In the Information Technology field it is very important to always keep your skills up to date. Software, hardware, and infrastructure is always changing, and for your career to grow you have to change as well. The best people in the highest demand are those who have a combination of old school skills and cutting edge skills and can make everything work together. For example, I know (oldschool) Unix Sendmail administration, Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange, Blackberry Enterprise Server, and (cutting edge) ActiveSynch for iPhone. Put it all together and it makes one killer email administrator. (shucks, no need to applaud)
I have been IBM certified in Lotus Notes and Domino Administration for many years, and my expertise and experience coupled with the cert have translated into a great career for me. Jin is an A+ certified hardware Engineer, which has also been a real help in his career building. Now that he is getting his BA degree and Cisco certification, I think the sky is going to be the limit for him. He already has a new job title as Network Administrator II at his company, and got a nice raise the other day. Yay Jin!
