The career progression chart has changed in my organization and has listed the JNCIA as one of the many certifications required to progress to the next tier. I started in a primarily all Juniper shop and then moved over to an almost all Cisco shop. There are a spattering of Juniper devices across the network but I do not touch those as often as I touch Cisco devices.

I have always been meaning to certify in this track but as I moved away from Juniper devices, I figured it wasn’t in my best interest to diverge from the path that was ahead of me at the time.

But in the wise words of Bob Dylan, the times they are a-changing and in this field, it’s adapt or die. Juniper’s associate certification is back in my sights, the only unfortunate thing is the lack of self study material but from what I have read, the deprecated exam books are more than enough to get people through the latest iteration.

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Resources:

If you’re looking into some information on this, check it out at https://www.juniper.net/us/en/training/certification/certification-tracks/data-center-track/?tab=jnciajunos.

The exam costs $200 and can be either delivered remotely or at a test center. After experiencing the remote content delivery with CompTIA’s Cloud+ beta, I think I will opt into doing it again. It is pretty convenient and the major plus here is that I don’t have to wear a mask during the entire session!

So off I go down the path of the Juniper Associate.

Come gather 'round, people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin'
And you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'
- Bob Dylan

Update – October 10th, 2020

Scheduled the exam to be delivered remotely on October 19th..

Update – October 17th, 2020

Re-scheduled the exam to be delivered remotely on October 26th. My on-call week has been rough and I just have not had the energy to devote towards studying as I have also started a fitness challenge this week presented by one of our vendors for a charity of the winners choice.

Update – October 26th, 2020

Just finished taking the exam and have earned a PASS! I would rate the JN0-103 as 3.0 out of 5.0 stars as you really need to know Juniper Syntax.

Juniper Networks Genius JNCIA-Junos course provides everything one needs to know to pass. I recommend it fully and as well as reading through the practical guide as it highlights a lot of information that you would otherwise overlook!