By Emily Hollis

Professional Profile Name: Umer Khan Title: Senior Network Engineer/Network Operations Team Lead for Broadcom Corp. Hometown: Irvine, Calif. Certs: MCP, MCP+I, CCA for WinFrame 1.7, CCA for MetaFrame 1.8, CCNA, SCNA, SCSA, CNX #1154-Associate, CNX #1154-Ethernet, CCNP, CCDA, CCDP, CCIE Words To Learn By: “Certification definitely makes you stand out and makes you an authority on the subject you’re talking about. Whether it’s to help you find a job or to help you gain respect at the job, certifications always help.”

When Umer Khan, 23, got his first computer, he opened it up and looked inside. He built his first network when he was 13 years old. Building on his experience over the years, Khan has taken his childhood interest in the inner workings of his computer and turned it into a career.

Khan’s educational background is in computer engineering, but he developed an interest in networking through his jobs. “I was taught how to design chips, semiconductors, ASICs, etc.,” he said, “but when I was going to school, I started working at companies where I was doing IT roles, supporting people’s systems in an IT environment. From there, I got interested in how the PCs talk to each other and started getting into the networking part of how Novell works and how Microsoft Windows NT works. It just moved on from there.”

Now a senior network engineer at Broadcom Corp., Khan has been in the IT industry for seven years, working for companies such as Rockwell International and Charles Industries. Throughout this career, he has gotten certified in order to support his knowledge of the technologies he has worked with.

“I started off with Novell and then a lot of Microsoft work, NT domains and workgroups,” Khan said, “and then I moved on into Unix administration and Lotus Domino administration and then from there into networking.”

Every time a new technology needed to be implemented, Khan went for the certification to bolster his knowledge base. “The certifications really went along with how my career was going,” he said. “I started with Microsoft because that’s where I was working. The next step was we implemented a Citrix solution, and to do that, I had to learn Citrix. So I learned all about Citrix, and while I was learning about it, I said, ‘Well why not give it a try, why not try the certification?’ So I went for a certification, and I got that and then started getting into Unix, so I started learning about the Unix certification and worked toward those and started working with Citrix MetaFrame and got that certification. As I went along, I got certified in the technologies I was working on.”

Over the course of three-and-a-half years, Khan earned numerous certifications from Microsoft, Citrix, Sun Microsystems, Cisco and Network Associates Inc. He believes certification earns respect from colleagues in the IT industry and demonstrates one’s expertise in a subject.

“It definitely buys you a lot of respect, in terms of when you apply for a job, or when you’re talking to somebody and you tell them you’re certified in the area you’re talking about,” Khan said. “Certification definitely makes you stand out and makes you an authority on the subject you’re talking about. Whether it’s to help you find a job or to help you gain respect at the job, certifications always help.”

And once Khan started earning his credentials, he found that he wanted to pursue additional certifications. “You get kind of a high,” he said. “Once you get started, you learn that it’s not that hard—that it’s achievable. Most people just specialize in one area. They go with one type of certification—they’re either on the Cisco track or the Unix track, for example. Everybody gets the MCSE, but most people specialize. But once you start learning that nothing’s impossible, it just becomes fun.”

Khan said that the Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) and the Certified Network Expert (CNX from Network Associates) certifications were the most difficult. “The CCIE was the toughest certification,” he said. “The CNX was pretty rough as well. It was very low-level, very detailed, really technical. And there’s not a lot of material out there to prepare for it.”

Studying for certification exams meant a reduction in time spent socializing with friends. “While my friends were watching movies,” stated Khan, “I was home studying.”

And the CCIE exams meant giving up a social life completely. “That one definitely meant three months of no life,” said Khan. “I lived, breathed and ate CCIE. I dreamt CCIE. I woke up in the morning still thinking CCIE. I would talk in my sleep, and people would say I was talking about it—that’s crazy.”

Mentally, the most difficult part for Khan of earning all those credentials has been finding the focus to stay on track. “The hardest part of getting certifications has been focus because you have to come home every day and study and just focus on exactly what you have to do,” said Khan. “For example, the Cisco certification. It took me a really long time to motivate myself to go out and get the CCNA. Almost a year went by where I wasn’t really working on certifications, between ’98 and ’99. And then I really motivated myself to go out and learn Cisco. I was kind of afraid of it, and then once I started reading about it, I gained confidence and within a weekend, I read the book and took the exam. Once you get focused on it, there’s no problem.”

He also suggests that the key to success in the IT job market is making sure to bolster the knowledge gained in the certification process with real-world experience.

“For people looking to get into IT,” Khan explains, “I recommend that they reinforce the knowledge they have gained from certifications with hands-on experience. When I interview a person, it is not enough for me that they have a certification. I always go in-depth on the topics and ensure that the person truly has worked with the technologies that he is certified in. At times, I have hired a non-certified person over a certified person, if they didn’t have the necessary experience.”

Even though he puts a heavy emphasis on hands-on experience, Khan still prefers to use self-study materials to prepare for his certification exams. “I know that every person responds differently to different study methods,” he said. “Some people prefer going to class, whereas others prefer CBTs, and still others like books. I find the best method to prepare for certifications to be self-study. There are numerous advantages to learning from books, which is my favorite method of learning. First, it’s very cheap. Second, I can study anytime I want. Whether it’s during a lunch break, by the swimming pool or on a plane, I can always open up my book and squeeze in some reading. Third, I can skip over the topics I already know and focus on those areas that are new to me.”

But he still emphasizes that after studying with books, new knowledge must be reinforced with hands-on experience.

Khan’s interest in books goes beyond just reading them to study for certifications. He is also interested in writing and editing, and recently Syngress contacted him out of the blue and asked him to write some chapters for a book on Solaris.

“I like to write, and something I’m trying to get into is authoring and editing. And I recently had the opportunity to publish some chapters in a Solaris book. I had the opportunity to do that, and I’m hoping to get another opportunity sometime soon, so I’m working with some publishers trying to get them to let me write or edit something for them,” he said.

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