↓ Skip to main content
merox

Networking Specialist: My CCNA Journey

·3 mins
Table of Contents
After my first sysadmin job it didn’t take long to notice the gap. Linux I could figure out, but networking — I didn’t even know what a VLAN was at that point. That’s not a great place to be when you’re trying to grow beyond the basics, so I started looking into what it would actually take to fix that.

Finding the Right Learning Path
#

I started looking at Udemy courses and vocational schools in Timișoara that went up to CCNP level. Savnet was the one that clicked — when I called and they mentioned physical labs, actual industrial routers and switches and firewalls, I was done thinking about it. Online simulators are useful but they’re not the same as hands-on. By the end of that call I was already asking when I could start. If you’re in Timișoara: savnet.ro.

First Day at CCNA Training

How the modules went
#

  1. 1

    Module 1 — Packet Tracer

    I installed Cisco Packet Tracer and did every exercise from Savnet’s labs plus the homework. By the end of the module I was rushing through mine so I could help other students with theirs — probably the best practice for real troubleshooting I could have found.
  2. 2

    Modules 2–3 — GNS3

    Days were 10 AM to 6 PM at my first job, then labs from 7 PM to 10 PM three times a week. It still wasn’t enough. GNS3 runs real router and switch images alongside VMs and containers, and from then on my weekends went into a virtual lab on my laptop.
  3. 3

    Modules 3–4 — Projects

    From module 3 on, the projects got much bigger: built at home, then verified in the lab with one of the instructors.
Weekend CCNA Practice

Network Topologies & Lab Work
#

The exams at Savnet were harder than the standard NetAcad curriculum — deliberately, to push you further. Outside of that I was spending full days on topologies, morning to evening, partly because I genuinely wanted to understand how everything connected, and partly because I really wanted that certification.

Certification Day
#

After months of labs, theory, and various tests, the time came to schedule the actual certification exam. I’ve never been more nervous for any exam — I knew how important this certification had become for me. February 18, 2020, shortly before the COVID pandemic put the world on pause.

Passed on the first attempt. Three hours scheduled, submitted in about an hour and a half — theory plus labs with troubleshooting. I don’t think I’ve been more focused for any exam before or since.

I could have done better on the theory side — I never perform as well there as I do in practice. But it was enough, and that was the moment I’d been waiting for.

The certification itself wasn’t the biggest thing to come out of that period. Shortly after, one of my module four instructors recommended me for a cybersecurity role — Blue team. That’s a different story, for another post.