Certskills.com: The Web Site for Author Wendell Odom
Wendell Odom, author of many computer networking learning products, publishes using the Certskills trademark and companies.
Timeline: Wendell's Cisco Certification Products Releases
Best known as the author of the long-time best selling CCNA books:
- The Cisco Press ICND1 Official Cert Guide
- The Cisco Press ICND2 Official Cert Guide
- The CCNA Official Cert Guide Library (a Box with the ICND1 and ICND2 books inside)
Eight editions in various combinations since Cisco first released CCNA Routing and Switching back in 1998.
You probably came to this page because of one of Wendell’s books. His 20+ years of writing include many titles about Cisco exams and certification, including:
- CCNA Cert Guide (single book; 3 editions)
- ICND1 Cert Guide, ICND2 Cert Guide, sold together as CCNA Cert Library. (5 editions)
- QoS Cert Guide (2 editions)
- ROUTE Cert Guide (1 Edition)
- CCIE Routing and Switching Cert Guide (3 Editions)
- Computer Networking First Step (1 Edition)
- Introduction to Networking (Textbook) (1 Edition)
- IP Networking (Textbook) (2 Editions)
- Networking Academy Companion Guides for Semesters 1 and 2 (1 Edition)
Current Video: Wendell created some of the first Pearson Education videos in a series dubbed “Exam Prep LiveLessons”, a video product series intended to focus on the exam experience for various IT exams. That effort resulted in the first editions of CCENT and CCNA R&S video products which can be streamed or downloaded:
- ICND1 Exam Prep LiveLessons
- ICND2 Exam Prep LiveLessons
- CCNA Exam Prep LiveLessons (which is a combination of the videos from the ICND1 and ICND2 products)
Historical: Wendell also created the first video products in the Pearson Education Video Mentor series, which was their first foray into IT video products, back around 2005. That effort resulted in two editions of the CCNA Video Mentor product (with matching subsets for ICND1 and ICND2 content).
Wendell has begun offering live online training from the SafariOnlineBooks.com platform in 2018. Planned offerings to date include:
- Acing the CCNA Exam: Top 10 Tactics and Other Insights
- IPv4 Subnetting: From Scared to Prepared for CCNA
Wendell has blogged in a few places over the years. Currently, he blogs related to CCNA topics, breaking the posts into a two separate blogs to match the content in the separate ICND1 and ICND2 books:
Wendell worked for the dominant networking vendors of their eras: IBM in the 1980s and 1990s, and for Cisco and with Cisco partners in the 1990s into the 2000’s, and for his own Certskills family of companies from the 2000’s into the 2010’s. Some job roles, with wording adjusted for the current era to make them meaningful:
- Automation developer
- Network engineer
- Consulting engineer
- Instructor
- Consultant
- Course Developer
- Sales/Systems Engineer
- Author
- Business owner
- Hiking when there’s time to go somewhere nice, but walking for exercise most days.
- Watching any good futbol game, with preference for Barcelona and La Liga. (Messi is amazing.)
- Volunteering with my wife Kris!
- Taking the time to listen to whomever I happen to see that day.
Author of the best-selling CCNA Official Cert Guide Library, and many other titles as well. Click below to see the list of books.
Wendell has blogged in several places over the years, but his long-running CCENT and CCNA Skills blogs are his biggest efforts. Click below to learn more.
It's an about page, so here's a photo. 🙂
Cisco Champions are enthusiastic about networking and Cisco in social media; Wendell has been part of the program since it's first year (2014). Click below to learn more.
CCENT and CCNA are a great starting place - and CCIE is still a great long-term goal. Wendell passed his back in 1995 (CCIE 1624). Click below for more about the CCIE program.
