They needed professional IT staff so they recruited Cisco Certified Candidates.
In order to understand why a company might turn to Cisco Certification as a measurement of professionalism in its staff we have to understand what Cisco Trianing is.
Cisco Training is structured around four levels of Cisco Certification. Cisco Training begins at the entry certification, then a candidate can decide to qualify for Cisco Certification at the associate certification level and as they gain more experience they eventually can gain Cisco Certification at the professional certification and expert certification levels.
At the entry level certification Cisco has only one track, namely CCENT. This certification is suitable for entry-level network support position. The remaining three levels of certification: Associate, Professional and Expert, all have five tracks. As can be seen the level of training becomes more and more advanced as we progress through the various certifications.
As an example lets look at the Associate Certification. The first track is the Cisco Certified Network Associate, CCNA. CCNA Training prepares the candidate to operate, install, and toubleshoot enterprise level router and switched networks.
A closer look at this certification reveals that the CCNA Training allows for candidates to focus on tracks such as CCNA Security, which prepares candidates such that they can develop a security infrastructure which enables them to recognize and mitigate threats against such a system.
Another track that CCNA Training focuses on is CCNA Wireless. Under this certification we see candidates being prepared such they can configure, implement and support wireless LAN’s.
Yet another track is CCNA Voice, here we see cadidates being prepared for the specialized field of voice technology and finally we have CCDA where the candidates are prepared such they can design switched or routed networks of LAN’s or WAN’s.
One thing to remember is that the CCNA certification expires after three years and therefore to retain the certification candidates have to take the appropriate exam again thus ensuring that certified staff are always current.
In closing I must remind you that we have not discussed the two other levels of certification, Professional and Expert. It is suffice to say that even more advanced training is offered in each of the five tracks under these certifications and so it is no wonder that “They” in the title turned to recruiting Cisco Certified Candidates, when looking for professional IT staff.