Updating Vendor Certifications

I've been working on getting my certifications up to date. Mainly because I see certifications as a good benchmark to keep your general knowledge level up to date. It's easy to get deep into a specific function of a technology but certifications make you step back and look at the big picture again.

But I digress. I just re-certified my CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) and it made me think a little. I did the same certification about a decade ago and frankly the test was significantly easier and covered a lot less material back then. I suspect that Cisco did this as a result of introducing it's new entry level CCENT certification. But being a hiring manager my impression of the CCNA was clearly off base prior to retaking it this year. We were making this certification a requirement for our entry level networking folks and I don't think that was appropriate.

So how often do vendors update certifications by making them significantly more difficult and how do vendors get the word out on these changes to hiring managers? Now I know but i clearly hadn't gotten this message prior to completing the test myself.

*Example: I still recall on my first CCNA being annoyed that I had learned STP inside and out. The only question I had on it was something like "what protocol would you use to prevent layer 2 loops". For the recent CCNA exam you had to know VTP, trunking protocols, port trunk modes, STP, RSTP etc... So there was clearly a lot more content.