This has turned out to be a great career for me. My entire IT career has been pretty recession proof, especially once I started moving into network engineering.
My relevant career path:
February 2007: ISP Tech Support
Promoted to Level 1 tier 1, level 1 tier 2, level 1 tier 3, and then level 2 within the 1st year
I was in the running to be promoted to level 3, but the company stopped promoting people to level 3 and gave all the level 3 work to level 2s. I was pissed about this.
Proceeded to stay at this company for way too long.
May 2011: Remote Desktop Technical Support
I took a pay cut to get out of the ISP tech support job. I was miserable and needed to make a change.
At this place, I was primarily doing tech support for Geek Squad over the phone through remote desktop.
I liked this job a lot better because I could dive into almost any computer problem and fix it if I had the knowledge to do so or the ability to research and figure it out.
This job started to go south after about the 1st year. We were contracted to do support for Geek Squad through another company and that company kept restricting what we could "charge" for, which cut revenue.
November 2012: Entry Level Network Operations Center Tech
This was the exact job I wanted at the time. Their goal was to train me in the world of networking from the ground up.
6 months into this job, I got serious and started studying for Cisco certs.
The company I was hired at was bought by a telecom company, but I continued studying for certs.
Got my CCENT in August of 2013
Got my CCNA Route/Switch in December of 2013
Got my CCNA Security in June of 2014
Got a Meraki cert in September of 2014
Started going for CCNP Route/switch in January of 2015. I passed CCNP ROUTE.
Company was bought out in October of 2015. The new company was a terrible company to work for.
I started rushing through to get my CCNP cert. I passed CCNP SWITCH, then CCNP TSHOOT a couple weeks later on the 2nd try.
Within 30 days of getting my CCNP Route/Switch cert, I had two job offers to leave.
May 2016: Network Engineer (solo network engineer at a retail company)
This job was another perfect move for me at the time. It was my first time being a network engineer by myself. It gave me the chance to apply what I had learned from my studies in the real world and be 100% hands on.
The company had 2 buildings at the time and I was responsible for all aspects of network administration and engineering. I was also responsible for random things I call "network-adjacent." If there is a random device that needs network connectivity, I was responsible for managing the device. Loading dock call box connects to the network, so I'm responsible for managing it. Time clocks connect to the network, so I worked with the vendor to get those set up. Multiple people in multiple buildings wanted SONOS music players set up to play music with multiple speakers in certain areas and I was responsible for that.
Being on call 24/7 sucks when the company grows at such a rapid pace.
This company started to grow extremely quickly in the following couple years and the job became unmanageable without working 60 - 80 hours/week. This was one of my reasons for leaving.
January 2020: Network Engineer (part of a network engineering team at a much larger company)
This is where I work now and it's freaking great so far. I'm part of a team of 15 network engineers and my job is way more focused. I only do network engineering/administration now. There is a whole team of people who do on-site work, cabling, rack & stack, physical equipment replacement. There is a whole team of people who manage firewall security rules. There is a whole team of people who manage ISP contracts. There is a whole team of people who manage ISP service installations.
I'm now about 6.5 months into this job and I have my quality of life back. I don't work more than ~45 hours per week ever.
I'm also only on call one week out of every 4 or 5 weeks. They're also bringing more people onto the network team so the on-call rotation will be even bigger soon.
I've now got some updated study materials for the current Cisco exams that I can share with you if you're interested. Anyone I've already shared the study materials with from the last time I made this topic will already have access to those new videos.
If you decide to get serious and actually do it, feel free to ask me questions along the way. Or if you're unsure and just wanting to check it out, feel free to ask me questions. I'll do my best to answer as quickly as possible.
