CCNA Blog

# 01 Jimeni

I passed my CCNA in May, I’ve been in Tech support for seven years now but I’ve been working for myself for the last four years. I spent three months studying for the exam and now hope to move into networking in an organisation.

I’m really enthusiastic about learning new things and getting going down this new path but it seems getting a job is easier said than done.

I’ve applied for plenty but I think being self employed may be putting people off. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get my foot in the door? I’m thinking of writing letters to some companies to ask for work experience, it obviously means more time with no wages but it might get me the experience required. Any ideas on the types of companies? Just any large company with a Network?

# 02 Rickey

I’d keep hunting.  I know one thing that helped me is I sought out everyone I knew of to try to get something started.  I used all the online tools to help find employers seeking employees in my area.  I would definitely seek out people to volunteer.  That would definitely boost your rep to another company when they see you volunteered to learn the stuff.  I ended up just getting a normal IT job, but in the interview process I showed that I had excellent networking skills so from the get go I was thrown projects with networking every now and then.  It always helps to wear multiple hats.

# 03 Scottyyyc

I was in a similar position several years ago. I just treated my own company as any other company as far as listing experience on my resume. There shouldn’t really be much about it that turn people off otherwise.

Keep in mind, despite everyone’s best intentions, the whole global economy thing is a big issue right now. The fact of the matter is that just about everything has slowed down a bit, and most company’s are being very cautious hiring. I’m in a pretty strong economy in Western Canada, and things are still a little slow. I’ve noticed about 1/2 to 1/3 as many job postings as compared to a year or two ago.

Just keep plugging at er. Remember, try to differentiate yourself on your resume. Don’t just list the kinds of things you ‘did’, mention all of the innovations you brought to the table, and the things that changed as a result of your individual efforts. You really have to go that extra mile in selling yourself. Simply mentioning you installed this, and setup that, isn’t enough right now.

# 04 dmolfetas

Some good advice was posted already. Have you visited any job fairs in your area ? Is the available time being used for pursuing an additional certification ?

Also, consider creating a profile on an online networking site if you don’t already have one.

I, too, am also available for immediate hire which gives me an excellent opportunity to continue studies in R&S through the CCNP.

# 05 Jimeni

Thanks for the good advice everyone, its good to hear other people have been in the same shoes. I’m using my time to study for my MCSA and ITIL foundation. Its not being wasted but I’ll be sure to get on and try to do some volunteer work, would an ISP be a good start? I’ve seen a few offering networking jobs requiring experience and I’ve started asking them if they have any more junior positions or if I could do some work experience.

I’ll keep and it and try to keep my chin up, I just really want to ‘Dive in’ and get working ASAP. I’m certain if I got an interview my passion and work ethic would get someone interested I’m just struggling to get to that stage.

I’ve just joined linked in so I’ll see how that goes. I feel like going for a CCNP without networking experience may not be the best idea so thats why I’m trying to get my Microsoft Cert and then hopefully move back to Cisco if I can land a networking job in between.

Thanks so much for the advice any more would be much appreciated!

Robin Lee :: Jun.11.2009 :: CCNA Q&As :: No Comments »

# 01 ldgotz

I am presently studing to my ccna exame..

One of the videos that I watched was and example of setting up a trunk link

the discussion talked the definition of a trunk being..

 A link that passes all vlan trafic …
then they continued with the tutorial of setting up this trunk link..
and it ended with them assigning a Vlan to the trunk link…

If the trunk passes all vlans.. why would you assign a vlan to it? after a day of searching the web, with no real luck for an answer

other then   ==> best practice..
I came here to ask the question….

Is there a real reason to assign a vlan to a trunk link?

# 02 Chris Buscemi

Because it is a trunk link and is designed to pass all VLAN traffic to the next switch you don’t (actually I believe you can’t) assign that port to a VLAN. The only time you assign any VLAN configuration on a trunk link (aside from manual pruning) is when configuring router-on-a-stick. And the VLAN configuration goes on the router side of the trunk under the subinterface, not on the switch port.

# 03 Conwyn

Normally trunks carry all the vlans  but in voice network you often have two trunks one carry vlan traffic for data and the other carrying the voice vlan traffic. You can also prune so you do not send data for vlan x down a trunk when you know there are no vlan x ports beyond the trunk.

# 04 ldgotz

I understand this concept…
BUT why would you assign a vlan to a trunk…..
yes it can be done.. i did it on the lab equipment,
and in the simulator program….

I Just do not understand the reason for doing it..  if there is a reason.

# 05 Chris Buscemi

From what I’ve seen on my lab equipment, you’re right, you can assign a VLAN to a trunk port. However, as long as the port is in Trunking mode, the VLAN assignment is listed as “inactive” under the show interface (int#) switchport output. Once you code the interface to be in access mode, the access VLAN comes up.

I don’t know of any circumstance where you would even bother assigning the trunk port to an VLAN, given what the trunks are designed to do. Perhaps one of the resident experts here know of some reason why you would. However it is best practice to know what interfaces on your switches are trunks, and to therefore hard code them to be trunks, thereby disabling the VLAN assignment you’ve given them.

Now, in reference to Conwyn’s comments, I can definitely see why you would want a seperate trunk for your VoIP traffic, but that would actually be a seperate physical trunk link on the switch that you only allow the Voice traffic on. And while you can control which VLANs are allowed on the trunk, that is not the same as assigning the trunk port to a VLAN.

So in short, I too don’t see the reason why you would bother, and more over why they would have shown you the process to do that.

# 06 Matt Kerry

Hello ldgotz, Can you post the config that was demonstrated in the video you watched?

# 07  Conwyn

Sorry I mis-understood. You assign a vlan to trunk port because if the other end is not defined as a trunk then this end becomes an access port in that vlan.

# 08 Travis Newshott

Conwyn is correct, assuming the port is configured with DTP to allow it to negotiate the state.  If you hardcode a port to be trunk and disable DTP, the purpose of assigning a VLAN is generally through the native vlan command to tell the trunk which VLAN should be untagged.  This allows you to specify the untagged VLAN to comply with network design standards, security procedures, etc.

When DTP is configured for negotiation, Conwyn is absolutely correct – you set a VLAN to ensure if it falls back to access mode, the correct VLAN will be utilized.

Robin Lee :: Jun.07.2009 :: CCNA Q&As :: 1 Comment »