JN0-102® - Juniper Certification

Jn0-102 Juniper certification or The Juniper Networks Certified Associate is one of the many certifications provided by the organization called Juniper Networks. This is one of the most important certifications in the field of networking. The popularity of this certification is growing with each passing day. Every year, many individuals who want to have an excellent career in the field of networking take up this certification. This certification is widely regarded and known for the kind of training and knowledge that it provides to the professionals who take this up. If an individual wants to excel in his career in networking, then taking this certification is one of the best possible moves that he can make. It is the corporation called Juniper Networks that provides many certifications under a technical certification program of which Juniper Networks Certified Associate is a part. Therefore, for any individual who is even thinking of taking this certification, it is important to know all about this corporation that there is to know.

Juniper Networks, a multinational corporation, is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. This corporation develops various networking products and also markets them. Some of the products developed by this corporation are switches, routers, networking security products, software defined networking technology and network management software. This huge corporation was founded in 1996. It has been a very big name in the networking equipment industry ever since. The company was founded by Pradeep Sindhu. The company went public 18 years ago in 1999. Before going public, the company had received a number of rounds of funding from venture capitalists and some telecommunication companies. By the year 2000, the corporation had grown to $673 million in terms of annual revenue. By the next year, it had almost 37% share of the core routers market. For the first time, this corporation had challenged the dominant market held by Cisco. Since then, the company has grown with extremely rapid speed. By 2004, the company had grown to $4 billion in term of annual revenue and by the year 2014, it had grown to $4.63 billion.

Initially, this organization had focused on just core routers. These routers are used by the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to perform direct internal traffic and IP address lookups. It was in 2002, that the company, through the acquisition of Unisphere entered in the market for edge routers as well. These edge routers are used by the Internet Service Providers for routing the internet traffic to individual consumers. Following this, after some time, this corporation acquired a security company called NetScreen Technologies in 2004. Before acquiring this security company, Juniper Networks entered the IT security market with its security toolkit JProtect in the year 2003. This was the time period when this company was making rapid advancements by entering different markets. In the early 2000s, this corporation entered the enterprise segment. By 2005, this enterprise segment was accounting for around one-third of revenues. Recently, the company has started focusing on the software-defined networking products.

If one studies about this corporation, he will get to know that this company has always been a force to be reckoned… even in the very initial days. In 1998, the company had $3.8 million in the annual revenues. By the next year, the only product that the company had launched, M40 router, was being used by 50 telecommunication companies. Juniper Networks had made its mark in the market. This company was signing agreements with companies like Alcatel and Ericsson to distribute this router internationally. The company had started expanding with a very rapid force. An Asia-Pacific headquarters was established in Hong Kong and a European headquarters was established in the United Kingdom and a subsidiary was created in Japan. There were also offices being established in Korea. As a result, the market share of Juniper Networks for core routers grew from just 6% to a staggering 17.5% in just one year, i.e. from 1998 to 1999. In 1999, Juniper Networks filed for the Initial Public Offering. That June, Juniper Networks was listed on NASDAQ for the first time ever.

Coming back to the certification, the certification effective that if someone is looking for a new networking career opportunity, then getting a certification from the Juniper Networks Certification program is the best and the most enhancing move for the career. JN0-102 Juniper Certification is the entry level certification for most of the company’s network engineer certifications. This credential is great for all those professionals who have some knowledge of the networking fundamentals, routing and switching and also have some basic experience Juniper Networks Junos OS. This certification is one of the best in the field of networking and is really helpful to all the professionals who want to excel in their careers in the field of networking.

Who should do this certification?

As already mentioned above quite a few times, this certification is one of the most important certifications in the field of networking. Every individual who wishes to have a great career in the field of networking should do this. This certification is basically the first step towards success that the professionals working or aspiring to work in the networking industry can take. Since it is offered by a well-known and coveted organization like Juniper Networks, the importance of this certification is huge. Taking this certification is almost a guarantee of success in the networking industry. Therefore, it can be said that this certification is tailor made for all the individuals who want to work in the networking industry and also enjoy success with it.

How is this certification beneficial?

There can be a long list made of the benefits that this certification provides an individual. Being such an important certification of the networking industry, the certification is really beneficial for all the professionals. Out of the many benefits that it provides to the individuals who take it, some are:

1. You are preferred over the peers

Most of the coveted organizations today prefer having only certified professional in their workforce. A certification is very important for today’s professionals irrespective of their industry. When you get Juniper certified, you are preferred over all your peers. This is something that every individual wish to get out of his career. When an individual gets preferred over all his peers, he feels motivated to work harder. The professionals who get this certification are bound to enjoy a huge demand in the industry. The organizations today value the professionals who are certified for having great skills. Thus, a Juniper certified professional is treated like an asset.

2. Great employment prospects

Another one of the many benefits that the professionals enjoy after getting this certification is that the employment prospects improve by a drastic margin. The reason for this is that this Juniper certification is very popular and is widely regarded as one of the best in the industry. This certification not only makes the professional acquire a great set of skills, but it also serves as a proof of this to the employers. It is very beneficial for one to have a coveted certification like this in the bag. When you apply for a job and you have this certification mentioned in your CV, it serves as a proof and validates all the skills and knowledge that you have acquired. Also, it tells the employer that you are dedicated to what you do. Otherwise, there would have been no reason for you to go through the trouble of getting this certification. Thus, getting this certification increases your chances of getting hired by an organization by a very great extent.

3. A better salary

An individual has to face really cut-throat competition to survive. In such a competitive environment, a certification always helps in not just surviving but also enjoying benefits that the uncertified professionals do not get. Since the organization today get thousands of applications for the smallest of job profiles, it is only logical on their part to pay the certified professionals more than the uncertified ones. Getting paid well is the first thing that every professional wish to get from his job. This certification helps the professionals in getting a better salary than all those who are not certified. The average salary of a network engineer today starts at $103,000 and at the same time, the professionals who are certified with a certification like the one in discussion get to earn in the $118,000 to $143,000 range.

How to prepare for the exam?

Preparing for an exam is never easy. It can prove to be very difficult for some candidates. It is very important that the professionals prepare in the right way and with the right methods. If not prepared in the right way, preparing for an exam can be a really daunting task. There is no method of preparation that can be considered an ideal method of preparation for all the exams. Every candidate or professional is different. Every candidate has his own set of skills and caliber and he prepares according to the, thus, the Assignment of preparation can never be same for two candidates. This is the sole reason that there is no particular way that can be called an ideal method of preparation. However, every exam requires the candidates to do some particular things in order to succeed in it. These things can be thought of as particularly associated with that exam. Some of the things that the professionals can do to succeed in this exam are:

1. Prepare a schedule

Preparing a schedule is one of the most important things that the candidates should do in order to pass an exam. Although this is something that goes without saying, most of the candidates fail at implementing this during their Assignment of their preparation. One needs to prepare a schedule to pass an exam. Also, preparing a schedule is not just enough, one needs to be disciplined enough to stick to that schedule as well. Moreover, while preparing the schedule, one should always keep in mind that he needs to prepare a realistic one. There is no point of putting 16 hours of studying in the schedule and then not being able to follow it. This is what many of the candidates end up doing.

2. Online practice exams

This is one of the most effective things that a candidate can do in order to succeed in an exam. Taking mock tests is one of the best ways for somebody to prepare for an exam. Taking mock tests help the candidates more than any other method of preparation. It is important for a candidate to take as many mock tests as he can before the final exam. There are many benefits of taking a mock test. One of the best parts of it is that when someone takes a mock test, he gets to experience everything that he can expect from the final exam and that too, without any pressure or fear for the results. When somebody takes a mock test, he gets to be aware of all the rules and regulations of the exam. It gives the candidate a chance to get an experience of sitting in the exam hall and completing the exam within the prescribed time limit. Thus, taking mock tests is one of the most important things that one can do in order to succeed in an exam.

What is the exam format and what are the pre-requisites?

The test level of this certification is Junos, Associate (JNCIA-Junos). JN0-102 is just the exam code for this certification. The exam is a written test. This test is conducted at Pearson VUE testing centers worldwide. The duration of this exam is one and a half hour, i.e. 90 minutes. The exam contains only Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) and the total number of questions in the exam is 65. As soon as the candidate completes the exam and submits it, he gets the scoring or the pass/fails status. There is no prerequisite certification for this exam. However, it is recommended for the candidates to undertake some training like ‘Introduction to the Junos OS (IJOS)”.