the challenge is over.

About this video

Chuck wraps up a 30-day challenge in which he challenged viewers, his employees, and himself to earn a Juniper certification, the JNCIA. He says he and Cameron both passed, and explains why adding a second vendor’s certification is a ‘cheat code’ for an IT career. First, go broad: employers no longer run a single vendor, so job postings list mixed environments including Cisco, Juniper, and Palo Alto, and a certification teaches how to use a technology properly rather than just figuring it out. Second, go deep: rarer, more specialized skills are more valuable. He suggests moving beyond the JNCIA toward Juniper Mist AI and then the specialist-level JNCIS, and cites a Discord member who works at Disney and used his Juniper skills to get there, arguing rare skills open rare opportunities. He stresses the foundational networking skills are the hard part; adding a complementary vendor cert on top is easier. His non-technical employees quit the challenge because they lacked that foundation and he would not pay them eight hours a day to study. Because exam cost is a barrier, a quiz created by the Disney employee can verify Juniper knowledge for a sticker instead, and the winner of the Mist AP is announced as Robert Steely from North Carolina.

Key takeaways

• A second vendor certification such as the JNCIA complements a CCNA because most employers now run mixed Cisco, Juniper, Palo Alto, and other environments.
• Certification study often reveals you were using a technology wrong and teaches how to do it properly, beyond Googling or watching videos.
• Specializing in rarer skills, such as moving from JNCIA toward Mist AI and the JNCIS, can make a candidate rarer and more valuable to employers who need those skills.
• Foundational networking is the hard part; adding a complementary vendor certification on top of a CCNA was, in Chuck’s account, not very hard in 30 days.
• Beginners without IT foundations struggled in the challenge; a knowledge quiz was offered as a lower-cost alternative to the paid exam for earning the challenge sticker.

Episode details: published October 7, 2022 · 7:19 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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