One of my readers sent me this question:

I am already CCIE and work as a network engineer with pretty good salary. But I think that I am losing some passion for Cisco networking and have interests in many other technologies. Currently I am very interested in Linux and Python development. Is it worth to add some Red Hat certification along CCIE or should I pursue another CCIE?

I think “should I go for CCIE or RHCE” is the wrong question.

Before jumping into another certification process, you should ask yourself a few questions:

• Why would you go for another certification?
• What do you expect to gain by doing that?
• Which area are you interested in?

Personally, I don’t think it makes much sense to go for another certification after CCIE just to become certified in something else. Pursuing a certification to progress along a training plan (or set of topics) is a different story, but even then, it doesn’t make much sense to walk down a path that you have no need for at the moment.

It’s way better to find a problem that you’re interested in, work on the problem, identify your shortcoming while doing that, study hard to master the tools or technologies you’ve identified as crucial (Googling for recipes doesn’t count), solve the problem, and move on. You might not get another certification to add to your CV when following this path, but you will get a fundamental understanding of the technologies and tools you’re using.

We discussed similar topics in one of the recent Software Gone Wild episodes. Can’t remember which one it was – you’ll have to listen to all of them ;)