Originally posted by soggy87:
i am in diploma of computer engineering.
i am interested in certificates in networking or security.
programming side i believe i can read up on my own.
are there any certificates on programming also?
For networking, there are 3 major players. Two are vendor neutral, one is vendor specific.
Comptia Network+ and CWNA (Certified Wireless Network Administrator) by Planet3 are vendor neutral. That means they are not by any way related to any company or products.
CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Administrator) is a vendor specific networking certification by Cisco and the some of the practicals use their products.
There's not much difference between CCNA and Network+; concepts are the same, but practicals will slightly differ.
For CWNA, it's best to have either CCNA or Network+, because wireless networking is basically a build-up on wired networking and most of the concepts for wireless are about the same as the wired counterpart. You will also learn much more in CWNA, such as RF technology, wireless technology, protecting your wireless networks, the different data types in wireless transmission, collision (this is especially important, because they are often confused with the wired counterpart), site surveying, the different standards, etc.
Security wise, no vendors will offer you a certification if you have no experience. Security is a big field, and is further sub-divided into various fields, such as network security, wireless security, computer security, information security, etc. Each of these fields overlap each other in a lot of ways, but they are technically a field of their own.
As far as I know, there's a programming certification by Java. This is a pure programming certification.
As for others such as Macromedia, Oracle, Microsoft are related to web programming.
You can find more details here:
Comptia Network+Cisco CCNAPlanet3 CWNASun Java CertificationCertified Internet Web MasterMacromedia certifications (now acquired by Adobe)MCAD (Microsoft Certified Applications Developer)MCSD (Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer)