Faster than a Speeding Cheetah
Posted by TestOut Staff on
The cheetah is the fastest land animal on earth. At a full sprint, a grown cheetah can reach speeds of 71 mph, about as fast as a car on your local interstate. Cheetahs prey on herd animals like zebra, wildebeest and gazelle. As the prey of these speedsters, you become very familiar with the principal of “survival of the fittest.”
After a cheetah has successfully snuck up a suitable distance from its prey, it will use its speed to chase down a straggling gazelle. For the gazelle, it’s every man for himself to get out of harm’s way. If you’re not as fast as your buddy next to you, then you’re a prime candidate to become the cheetah’s next meal.
Technology change is like a speedy cheetah, it moves fast and swallows up any lagging technology in its path. It is for this reason that the term “survival of the fittest” doesn’t just apply to the natural food chain, it applies to IT certification as well.
In order for a certification to be considered a top certification, it must evolve and change with its surrounding landscape — and we all know how quickly the technology landscape changes. This is why we have seen the recent changes in the exam for top certifications like the Cisco CCNA.
According to a recent blog post on the CBT Nuggets Blog, about 95 percent of the material in the new version of the exam is the same as the previous version. So why update the course at all if there is hardly any new material? Because the CCNA doesn’t want to fall behind the progressing network certifications around it.
“Cisco’s decision to update the CCNA was clearly influenced by the need to keep the CCNA material as current as possible,” wrote the members of the CBT Nuggets team. “Much to the benefit of CCNA-certified job seekers in a competitive market.”
As an aspiring or current IT professional, you can complain all you want about the updated material, but recognize that it’s for your own good. You too need to learn how to outrun those around you. The gazelles and wildebeests, as it were, who are applying for the same jobs that you are after.
TestOut has made sure to keep its CCNA course material up-to-date so you don’t have to worry about being swallowed up by the daunting cheetah of technological change. Landing an IT job is about survival of the fittest — so make sure you’re the fittest.
About the Author — Jake Slater is the social media manager for GoCertify and a graduate of Brigham Young University. Jake has never gotten up to 71 mph before, even in his sneakers with the racing stripes, but he totes outran a metaphorical cheetah once.