Check Point or Juniper??

[Gavrilo]

I am currently CCSA/CCSE in NG+AI and NGX but have still considered going for the CCSE+ in NGX as it is a senior certification but I just cannot figure if it is still worth it?

Firstly, because we have now jumped to R65 and I don't believe there is a CCSE + R65 and anyway could I take it from the NGX R60 CCSE or would I now need NGX R65 CCSE to get a shot at it?

Secondly every one of these sites seems to be full of people who want to use brain dumps; maybe they like collecting letters after their names? In my experience employers are starting to view Check Point accreditation in the same way as they do Microsoft.

I am studying towards and intend to take my Juniper JNCIS-FWV in late June because I work with them and any Juniper Networks certification seems to have a lot of credibility.

So my question which may be rhetorical; is should I stick with Juniper and what I already have with Check Point or is there any value left in the Check Point accreditation program?

I would value the opinions of others

Regards

Gavrilo

[sebastan_bach]

hi in the security market being multi vendor gives u the edge for sure. there no point for waiting for the checkpoint certs to upgrade to NgXR65 as most of the concepts remain the same and the gui as well of checkpoint. since u are already weorking on NGXR65 that should not be a problem.

ccse + and the provider-1 are valuable certs in checkpoint especially in big environments provider-1 is sure to be there.

juniper very valuable in todays market as it is growing rapidly in the enterprise security market.

i myself being ccie security working on checkpoint and netscreen .

best is to keep both the certs it will surely give u a edge.

if u know the stuff then what;s the harm in giving the exam and getting a letter in ur name as u said.

no offenses just my views.

regards

sebastan

[MarioL]

There are dumps for almost any exam you can think of. To me most certifications are pointless, but in the job market they are important.

[Yasushi Kono]

Originally Posted by Gavrilo

I am currently CCSA/CCSE in NG+AI and NGX but have still considered going for the CCSE+ in NGX as it is a senior certification but I just cannot figure if it is still worth it?

Firstly, because we have now jumped to R65 and I don't believe there is a CCSE + R65 and anyway could I take it from the NGX R60 CCSE or would I now need NGX R65 CCSE to get a shot at it?

Secondly every one of these sites seems to be full of people who want to use brain dumps; maybe they like collecting letters after their names? In my experience employers are starting to view Check Point accreditation in the same way as they do Microsoft.

I am studying towards and intend to take my Juniper JNCIS-FWV in late June because I work with them and any Juniper Networks certification seems to have a lot of credibility.

So my question which may be rhetorical; is should I stick with Juniper and what I already have with Check Point or is there any value left in the Check Point accreditation program?

I would value the opinions of others

Regards

Gavrilo

Hi Gavrilo,

I am also certified for Juniper and I think, it is definitely worth to have knowledge on other firewall products than Check Point. I have to admit that Netscreen is not convincing me much but the more you know the more valuable is your credit in the IT industry!

Kind regards,
Yasushi

[cciesec2006]

Originally Posted by MarioL

There are dumps for almost any exam you can think of. To me most certifications are pointless, but in the job market they are important.

That is very true, except Cisco CCIE or Checkpoint CCMA. Those are
valuable certs because lab is required.

[chillyjim]

WRT the Juniper cert. If that's what you are working on mostly, it (should) be worth having, the same as CCSE/CCMA if you're in a Check Point shop and CCSP if you are in a Cisco shop. The CCIE Security is still, as far as I can tell, a more "respected" cert than the CCMA, but they are also very different certification.

In my case, now that I am not working for a Cisco partner, I have let my CCSP/CCDA/CCNA/CCetc. lapse because its not really worth it for me. Now If I had completed my CCIE-SEC that I would have keep up.

[MarioL]

That's very true, certifications that have lab exams are more likely to represent ability to perform. There are still many people with those that to be honest just aren't that good, they are shall we say OK.

I'm probably being a bit negative here... but I always had a bit of a grudge for the "Certification man" ;)

[cciesec2006]

Just because you're CCIE Security or CCMA does not mean you an
expert in security. If you're CCIE Security, it means you're "cisco"
expert in security products. That's about it. Same thing goes for
Checkpoint. No more no less.

A certification says to the employer that someone is willing to take
the time to learn a vendor's product and motivate enough to sit
in a lab exam (not to mention burning some changes in order
to achieve this). If I were an employer, I would definitely hire
someone with a college education and certification over someone
with experience.

Experience is something you can acquire over time. Education
and certification is something you have it or you do not.

That's my opinion. Others may feel differently.

[Gavrilo]

Interesting comments all.

Well I thought I should let you all know I went for the JNCIS-FWV exam on 24th June and passed to my own amazement......I really thought I was going to fail during the test........but muddled through.

These Juniper exams are NOT easy, they make you think and I would also be very suprised if you can find a brain dump out there that has more than a very few of the actual questions.

With regards the comments on tests with Labs, Juniper have Labs for all their Profesional level and Expert level exams. I guess that means they are far better than Cisco?.........I would say I feel like I have actually achieved something which I did'nt when I passed my CCNA and Check Point exams in the past.

Finally, I do think JNCIS-FWV is based on real life and asks questions about the things you need to know for your job, like "Determine which is correct from the following snoop output". Many is the time I have had to work my way through snoop outputs but a brain dumper would not have a clue.

Regards

Gavrilo