I know I'm behind on when a lot of people do these, but every year I struggle with if I want to even do one or not. I have some mixed feelings about the whole "what am I doing this year" in part because a lot of what I do every year is driven by whats needed by my job. So I end up changing course based on what partner requirements come up, what projects come up, etc. But this year I figured, why not. But not just to say "this is where I'm hoping to go this year", but also to talk a little bit about planning and adaptation.
A "short" word on certifications and formal higher education
Before we get into the details for the year, here is a short word about certifications and, by extension, education. First, I am still a firm believer in formalized Higher Education degrees. While I know in many ways they have fallen out of style (and for good reason), I still think they offer value. Part of the frustration (and I share this) is the cost. As a parent with a child entering the University system this past fall, I was amazed at just how screwed up the US Federal Student Aid market has become. When I was in college (a state school) 25+ years ago, I got almost enough federal aid to put me through my entire degree program. Yes, I had loans, but I was able to pay for a college career with that. Fast forward to now and there are federal caps on how much a student can borrow through the federal loan program. And that cap is nowhere near what even the exact same degree I got back in my day costs today. While I blame some of that on the rising costs of college (though that has understandable and explainable reasons in a LOT of cases), the way the aid program has been "overhauled" is a bit of a disaster.
Second, I think there has been a misunderstanding for a long time about the "purpose" of a university education. I remember when I had just graduated from Eastern and the Computer Science program was searching for a new department head. I was part of the search committee as I was both a graduate of the program and a university employee working in the technology field. The committee was made up of a variety of different people. There were a couple of students on the committee, and they kept pushing that when they graduated, they should have their MCSE (back then, that was a BIG deal 😆). I (and others) pushed back on that thought. In my opinion, a university degree (at least in technology) is not about giving you direct hard technical skills. While there are some of those as side effects (yes I learned how to program), the bigger purpose of what the classes are there to do is teach you the theory and skills needed to learn and acquire those hard technical skills. So in a computer science degree it's less about teaching me how to write python syntax. It's about how to think algorithmically so that regardless of the language I am writing in (we were learning the cutting edge C++ back then) I can think through *how* the program should work. This skill has been invaluable in my career. If I had graduated with my MCSE, that would have probably helped some for a couple of years, but then Windows changed, the program changed (and went away), or I went into networking and not systems and thus was less valuable anyway. So I certainly understand the desire to have a certification when you graduate to put you on the path towards a career. But that's what community colleges used to do really well. They taught direct and specific technical skills and certification prep. This is also why I'm a bit frustrated by the "degree and certs" programs at some online universities. Again, purely in my own opinion, I think they stand much too much of a chance of "watering down" the degree theory programs into teach to the cert prep courses.
A short side trip on this topic is my frustration with "Cybersecurity" degrees. Cybersecurity is currently a mostly mid-career specialization. It's also a very, very, very broad field. I think too many students are graduating with a cybersecurity degree expecting to jump right into the field as an advanced penetration tester without a great understanding of what that entails, requires, or even means. This I blame on the marketing push to "fill all of the vacant CyberSec jobs!". To be clear, I don't want to keep people OUT of Cybersecurity, I just want there to be honestly and transparency in what the expectations are for people trying to get into the field. Especially when the marketing hype around "make 6 figures in 30 days!" come in. And even more when "the influencers" get involved and push this totally possible but VERY unrealistic mindset. "It worked for me" is one of the most painful, frustrating, and ridiculously troublesome phrases in technology.
With all of that said, I fully agree with and support the removal of degrees as prerequisites for a lot of jobs. Especially entry-level jobs. This is a both/and scenario, not either or. The university degree doesn't equate to a handful of certs. I think that both can be useful for entry-level jobs. I also think both can be useful for higher-level jobs. A lot depends on the role and field you're in within IT. For example, these days, I do a LOT of writing, speaking, and communicating. Not a single one of my certifications has helped with this. It's only through pain and practice that those skills are refined. And falling back on some of the required communication courses in college. I have an understanding of how to format a formal written communication versus a casual one because of those classes. But on the flip side both my degree and my certifications have helped me with technical skills like automation. I am a big proponent of people looking to go into university looking at business degrees or degrees that teach them longer-term theory. I think those will help a person's long-term career overall. A certification is something that will more likely help them with a shorter-term career goal. I could (and maybe I will) write. a lot more about this topic, but for now let's take a look at the certifications side of the house!
My 2025 Certification Goals
One of the most fun ways to talk about certification goals is through an image. Juniper has a web tool (though a little outdated) that lets you choose your current certs, certs you're aspiring to, and the like. As an engineer at a Value Added Reseller, as much as I would like to say I spend 100% of my time on Juniper (close, but not all), I have to go to a self-made version to get the other certs I'm working on, have, and need into a single image. So I give you, the NetSecPlumber certifications 2025 view. This isn't all of my current certs, but close. For a full list, if you're really interested, you can hit my credly public page.
This is up to date as of this morning. This past Sunday I passed the brand new JNCIP-MistAI test. Technically, it didn't launch until Monday, but timezones are fun, and I was asked to take it Sunday evening "for science!" Next up on my list is the Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA). I'm hoping to take and pass the test by the time I go to the Wireless LAN Professionals Conference (WLPC) in February so that my friend from there, Jeremy Baker, doesn't have to shave his head (he promised he'd get his by then or do that, I figured it made sense he should do it if I don't get mine!). After that, I am looking to dive deeper into the Junper Datacenter world! We're doing more and more DC work so it makes sense to get a bit further in that track. I also have a Palo Practitioner cert on there. It's a running joke that "allyn is not a Palo guy" at Nexum, but this is one I'm doing as a favor to someone, and who knows, maybe I'll go for whatever the new PCNSA looks like. And finally, I had hoped to do it in 2024, but I want to get the last JNCIA. Remember that "work reprioritizes things?!" well, that happened to the JNCIA-DevOps last year. So it's back on the list for this year.
I also fully expect that there will be other things I have to get for work reasons, and something new may pop up that I decide to switch to. So maybe sometime later this year, I'll recap those changes or look back on my progress. And who knows, maybe next year I'll look at a JNCIE (doubtful, but crazier things have happened). So what are your goals for the year?! Hit me up on socials (except for Twitter; I'm not really there anymore), and tell me what you think!