ccie’s annual salary

Gold certificate: CCIE (Cisco Certified Internet Expert)

Representative: Ma Yankun, currently the technical director of a well-known domestic technology company

Certification fee: 2002 Annual certification costs nearly 90,000 yuan

Certification steps: Generally, you must first obtain CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Engineer), CCNP (Cisco Certified Senior Network Engineer), CCDA (Cisco Certified Network Designer), CCDP ( Cisco Certified Senior Network Designer) 4 certificates. The CCIE exam is divided into written exam and laboratory exam, which last for at least 1 year.

The "gold content" of the certificate: Before taking the certificate, I worked in a small integration company with a monthly salary of 5,000 yuan. After getting the certificate, I entered my current company with an annual salary of 150,000 yuan.

Ma Yankun, who is now the technical director of a well-known domestic technology company, shook her head when she mentioned the IT industry she accidentally entered. To use the old-fashioned lyrics, "It's not that I don't understand, it's that the world is changing too fast." Take the CCIE exam that I passed now as an example. When I first passed the exam in 2002, there were less than 500 students in China. And now this number has almost tripled.

The qualification certifications in the IT industry can really be described as a dazzling array of things - too many! Almost every well-known IT company has its own product certifications.

Among them, CCIE (English abbreviation for Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert) certification is launched by Cisco, a well-known manufacturer in the network field. The company has launched an engineer qualification certification program for network planning and network support of its products, and requires its agents in various countries to have such engineers to improve the quality of service to users and establish a qualification certification system for Cisco product network engineers.

During the period of rapid technological development in the late 1990s, Cisco Systems' CCIE (Cisco Certified Internet Expert) certification was one of the rare and coveted honorary marks in the IT industry. It is said that those successful CCIE candidates (that is, those who passed the CCIE experimental exam within a week) had to try their best to avoid companies and recruiters who were hiring them with high salaries.

"Whether these rumors are true or not, it is definitely not the case now." Ma Yankun said. The increase in the number of people taking certifications has directly led to the shrinkage of CCIE's gold content. However, CCIE is still a "stepping stone" to high salary in the eyes of many people. Because in many companies, CCIE has become a must-have certificate for recruiting engineers.

Annual salary increased from 60,000 yuan to 150,000 yuan

Ma Yankun, who now has an annual salary of almost 200,000 yuan, recalls passing the CCIE three years ago and still feels how wise her decision was. . After passing the CCIE certificate in 2002, there were no more than 500 CCIE certificate holders in China at that time. Ma Yankun became one of the company's six CCIEs and was promoted to the company's senior technical engineer, with an annual salary of about 150,000 yuan. From an annual salary of 60,000 yuan in 1999 to 150,000 yuan in 2002, Ma Yankun relied on CCIE to increase her salary by nearly two and a half times.

When I first learned about Cisco certification, it was September 1998. At that time, Ma Yankun, who had just graduated from Tongji Civil Engineering Department, left his major and entered the IT industry, which was very hot at the time, working in a small integration company. Work, monthly salary is about 5,000 yuan. I knew almost nothing about Cisco before working. However, after working, I often came into contact with Cisco products. After listening to some Cisco lectures, I learned that there is such a thing as Cisco certification in the industry.

At that time, there were only about 80 people with CCIE certificates in China. At that time, companies were really scrambling for people with CCIE certificates. "Because Cisco requires domestic manufacturers to have professional CCIE qualifications while distributing its products, network experts with CCIE qualifications were talents that many system integration companies were competing for at the time. Some companies even offered hundreds of thousands of At a price of RMB 10,000, I rented people with CCIE qualifications from other companies. Seeing this, Ma Yankun decided to take the CCIE exam.

“Generally speaking, before taking the CCIE exam, you must first take the CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Engineer) exam. ), CCNP (Cisco Certified Senior Network Engineer), CCDA (Cisco Certified Network Designer), and CCDP (Cisco Certified Senior Network Designer). Of course, if you have a good foundation, you can directly sign up for the CCIE written test. If you pass the written test, you will be fine. Laboratory exam. "But Ma Yankun, who graduated in civil engineering, had to start from scratch, starting with the basic certificate of Cisco certification, and CCNA/CCDA are relatively basic things, and you can slowly go to school. But fortunately, Ma Yankun learned some basics in school. Knowledge.

In June 1999, Ma Yankun began to read an imported photocopy version of the CCNA Study Guide published by the Electronic Industry. After reading it for 3 months, he participated in the first domestic company to obtain the Cisco "Senior (Senior)" level. Our training partner, Xiaotong Network Technology Training Center, offered 5-day CCNA training at a price of 5,000 yuan. In October 1999, we passed Cisco's lowest level certification, CCNA.

After that, Ma Yankun began to prepare for CCDA. In October 1999, he bought the sybex CCDA Study Guide (USD 75) from abroad and read it for a month. Then in November, he spent another 5,000 yuan to participate in the 5-day Xiaotong Study Guide. training and passed the CCDA exam in December. "Perhaps it was because the review time was relatively short. The CCDA exam was very difficult at the time and I thought I couldn't pass it. The result was a pass point of 802 and mine was 837." Ma Yankun now feels that she was luckier at that time.

During the examination period, Ma Yankun quit her job at the small integration company in order to participate in training, read books and take exams by herself. It wasn't until February 2000 that I found a job as a network administrator for a small advertising company, but after working there for a few months I felt there was no progress. I resigned in June of the same year and joined my current company.

"The reason why I was able to join the current company is because I have CCNA and CCDA certificates, because the company had just received Cisco's silver certification at that time." Ma Yankun recalled.

Ma Yankun’s current company obtained Cisco’s silver agent qualification in September 2000, and then obtained Cisco’s gold certification in 2001. Therefore, after joining the company, Ma Yankun can prepare for the CCNP and CCDP exams while working. After successfully passing these two exams, Ma Yankun began preparing for the CCIE exam in 2001.

"The written test is generally easy to pass. The key is the IELab (laboratory test). I prepared for the experiment for more than half a year before signing up for the test." Although he prepared for more than half a year, Ma Yankun still took the test three times before passing it. take an exam. In July 2002, I received the CCIE certificate that I had worked hard for for almost 4 years and became one of the company's 6 CCIEs. My annual salary also increased to 150,000 yuan.

The exam costs nearly 100,000 yuan

In Ma Yankun’s eyes, the CCIE exam is very difficult because a person, no matter what level he is, needs to take the exam at least three times to pass. The LAB part means that this certification exam must last at least one year to complete (each LAB exam must be at least 1 month apart). In fact, due to the large number of people taking the exam in China, the queue has been waiting for more than 10 months since the beginning. At that time, there were about 10 CCIE test centers in the world. Only Beijing had test centers in China, and there was also Singapore in Asia. Ma Yankun took the exam three times, twice in Beijing and once in Singapore. She spent nearly 10,000 yuan on three round-trip flights, accommodation and meals.

Another expense that cannot be ignored is the experimental exercises before the exam. To test by yourself, you need to buy experimental equipment. A laboratory needs at least 8 routers and 2 switches. The price of a router at that time was 5,000 yuan, and a switch cost 10,000 yuan at that time. "I could have used the company's equipment, but there were many people queuing up in the company, and I couldn't get in line." So Ma Yankun had to buy second-hand experimental equipment or borrow it from friends or customers. Even so, Ma Yankun still spent nearly 10,000 yuan. .

Coupled with the original books purchased from 3 years ago, Ma Yankun spent a total of nearly 90,000 yuan for CCIE. Plus the opportunity cost of resigning to take the exam during the period, the total cost has exceeded 100,000 yuan. .

(See Table 1 for details)

Appendix 1: Ma Yankun’s expenses for passing the Cisco Certified Internet Expert (CCIE) qualification

Expenses type

Amount (yuan)< /p>

Remarks

CCNA

1250

Examination fee

5000

5-day training Fees

CCDA

1250*4＝5000

4 exam fees

5000

5-day training Fees

CCIE

9500

Tuition fee

3000

Written examination fee

10375*3=31125

Laboratory exam, 3 times

Test equipment

10000

Second-hand test equipment, mostly borrowed from friends, Client

Transportation fee

About 5,000

2 round-trip flights from Shanghai to Beijing, 1 round-trip flight from Shanghai to Singapore

Accommodation fee

2000

2 days each time, 3 exams*** 6 days

Textbooks

20000

About 50 original books, 50 to 75 US dollars each

Total

87675

Such a large expense is necessary for everyone preparing to take the CCIE exam Measure it against the rewards. "Nowadays, it is very difficult to get a salary of more than 100,000 yuan as soon as you get out of CCIE, unless you have a very good work experience before." Ma Yankun said, "Because more and more people are passing the exam, the value has depreciated." According to Ma Yankun It was revealed that the number of CCIEs in China was 104 on January 1, 2000, 135 on January 1, 2001, 302 on January 1, 2002, and 617 on January 1, 2003. , by January 1, 2004, it had reached 1,030. It has almost doubled in three years. Recent statistics show that there were 1,369 CCIEs in mainland China on January 1, 2005.

Ma Yankun told reporters that although the value of CCIE is not as high as before, it has become a qualification that cannot be passed without taking the exam. "Now it's not about how much money you can earn after taking the exam, but that without this certification, there is no way to make a living in this industry."

Large companies like IBM, It has become a basic requirement for network professionals doing system integration to have CCIE certification. An after-sales support manager currently working at IBM was reluctant to disclose his salary and income level during the interview. However, it is also clearly stated that taking the CCIE exam is a requirement of the company and is a necessary qualification for this job.