Martin,
It looks like you are doing everything you can to get new skills in the South African Market. We are in a complexe world where Salaries do not translate very well from one Country to Another. You may not be getting the pay you wish to have simply because the employer does not see the value you have added to the team either due to intellectual blindness or just simple neglect. You have made so much sacrifices to the point where your familly is asking for you attention and there is a legitimaty to their demand. Certification is not easy. Therefore you should do everything you can to get to a place where you get rewarded. There are countries that are looking for talents such as Australia and Middle East. England also has some opportunities but watch out for immigration issues. USA would be interesting but H1 visa is also a challenge. You can keep trying you may get lucky to have somebody sponsor you for H1.
Your activities in teaching other employees especially the disadvantaged ones are highly critical in bridging the gap between the Black community and the Africanders if reconciliation has a place in your society that had been divided by Aparteid. You are working in a Government Agency that is driven by social politics. Meanwhile keep doing what your are doing as happily as you can until you find a better job.
Keep your focus on the CCIE, because that the only thing that will open up better opportunities for you.
Good Luck
Emmanuel Munyankusi, Ph.D., MCSE, CCNA, CCNP
martin fourie wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> My name is Martin and I am from South-Africa. I have been subscribed to this group for a time now and read of all the problems the people experienced looking and finding Cisco related jobs.
>
> I thoght a lot before starting with this mail and just want to raise some points that I experienced in connection with above. I started working at a Government company named GovNet (www.openet.gov.za) in 1997 who deals with the Cisco WAN for all Government Departments and connections to external institutions, mainframes and offices all over South-Africa. I was send on both the Introduction to Cisco Router Configuration and the Advance Cisco Router Configuration courses. When the new certifications, CCNA/CCDA/CCDP/CCNP, for Cisco was started I asked my company what their aim would be for their employees to become certified or not. Up till now I was not answered at all and completed on my own the CCNA (November 1999) and the CCNP (June 2000) certifications. I am busy with my CCDP certification and wish to complete my CCIE written exam before October 2000. Although my company privatised April 1999 and became the State Information Technology Agency (http://sita.pwv.gov.za) and due!
> to the black empowerment vision of the Government I had to stand back for the diadvantage people to be given priority before me with the new course curriculum and I have to do training for them about the network as well as preparing them for their future courses.
>
> In the SITA company I am the only person that are so highly certified in Cisco but it seems as if my company doesn't care because they have contracters on the floor who needs to be qualified so stuff the employees. I wish to do the MCSE, Unix and other courses but with the pay that I receive that is not possible. I buy some books at try to study from them and go write the exams afterwards. To write an exam costs R 1500-00 each and as Imentioned with the pay I receive I am not able to pay for the exams. Since I started with my certifications I started looking for another job and after 2 months I didnt even received a invitation for a interview in South-Africa. From overseas I had 2 or 3 people that was interested but due to the fact that I am living in South-Africa and the immigration problems they lost their interest in me as well. For me to become an CCIE I need to relocate or find a job at a company who can help me achieve that goal. It is very expensive for both the pre-lab!
> s, study material as well as the Lab itself and I am not financially strong to pay that myself as well. On our WAN I am sitting at a helpdesk, troubleshhoting problems, installation and liasing with our local Telecommunication provider as well as being a service manager for departmets who needs to attend meetings where problems needed to be solved I am also working on special projects as a resource when needed. We are only allowed certain standards on our WAN and after my certification as CCNP I have all this knowledge of making the WAN more proficient but are not allowed to use it at all. Why did I studied and became certified then?
>
> Lastly it seems as if in South-Africa the need for CCNA/CCDA/CCDP/CCNP are not that much in demand except your CCIE's. Since I became an CCNA my salary was not increased or did I receive a bonus for my efforts at all. My marriage is on troubled water because of the stress of studying late nights as well as being not able to help with my one year old daughter who were teething during this stage. (I don't have internet at home so I had to go to a Internet Kiosk for that.) I only receive a basic salary of R 96 000-00 and benefits of R 28 000-00 at my existing company and if I see what the offers are overseas I feel negative of all my hardwork and not be able to also receive a good income. I saw that the Rand/Dollar exchange is that R1 = $6.95. You can work out yourselves what salary I receive in comparison to the salaries available for juniors in the USA or other countries in the world.
>
> Above letter is just a view from South-Africa that it is not always that bad in your own country if you don't know about other people's struggle in their own nome country.
>
> Thanks for yor time
>
> Martin
>
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