Do You Need IT Certifications to Get Started in IT? ft. Jeremy Cioara

NetworkChuck Technology Careers Career & Money

About this video

Chuck interviews Jeremy Cioara, the CBT Nuggets trainer Chuck credits with inspiring his own career as a network and collaboration engineer, about whether certifications are needed to get started in IT. Jeremy describes his newer ‘IT Expertise’ training, built around real-world work rather than passing exams. Drawing on the company he started about six years earlier, he says his certifications — up to the CCIE — had not prepared him for design, planning, and walking into a building to build something from scratch; configuration was the easy part, and cert training can give you too much or too little. He argues people skills and communication are a major gap: successful rollouts go unnoticed or turn negative if IT never tells customers about milestones. Asked what certification to start with, he surprises Chuck by saying cabling — not A+, CCENT, or Network+ — because its tangible, hands-on nature makes abstract networking concepts click, and entry-level hires will likely do cabling and grunt work before touching a CLI anyway. On hiring for his own company, Jeremy says he looks for people who are passionate and ethical, since skills can be taught. Finally, both stress learning how to learn over memorization: Jeremy admits he might not pass a CCNP Switch exam cold today, re-watches his own courses to recertify, and says the knowledge you actually use sticks while the rest evaporates.

Key takeaways

Certifications do not fully prepare you for real-world IT: Jeremy says design, planning, and building from scratch were the hard parts his certs, up to the CCIE, never taught him.
Start with cabling, Jeremy argues: its hands-on, tangible nature makes abstract concepts from courses like Network+ click, and entry-level jobs usually begin with cabling and grunt work, not configuring devices.
People skills are a core IT skill: communicate milestones and results so successful work is noticed and IT looks like a hero instead of creating friction.
Employers hire for attitude first: Jeremy looks for candidates who are passionate, excited to learn, and ethical, because technical skills can be taught.
Learn how to learn instead of memorizing forever: use references and notes, expect unused exam knowledge to fade, and do not feel inadequate — even a CCIE-level trainer re-studies his own material to recertify.

Episode details: published October 18, 2018 · 16:20 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are NetworkChuck’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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