Current Events > Anyone interested in learning network engineering?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've been working in tech since 2007 and it has been great for me. I started out in ISP tech support. It was rough, but a stable job. In 2011, I moved to remote desktop tech support, and then in late 2012, I got a job at a network operations center.

About 6 months into the NOC job, I finally got serious about studying for Cisco certifications. After getting CCNA Route/Switch and CCNA Security, I was promoted to junior network engineer and it was my first ever salaried position. With more experience and getting my CCNP, I got a job as a solo network engineer at another company and then I moved to my current job where I'm part of a large team of network engineers.

I'd say it's a challenging and rewarding job if you have an interest in networking in general. I can definitely share some lessons learned to hopefully help you avoid some land mines along the way, but I highly recommend network engineering as a career if you have an interest in it. If you don't find the subject material interesting, I'd say run away.

Some things I like:

• Networking is complicated, but not hard. There are a lot of rules you have to keep in mind for a lot of different things, but those rules are what they are. It doesn't matter what I think or what you think or what person XYZ thinks.
• For better or for worse, a router, switch, and/or firewall will do what you tell it to do 100% of the time. It's not a matter of dealing with a customer who may or may not listen to instructions you give. If you have good config, you'll generally have a good working device. If you put in bad config, the device may behave badly.
• Once you get into network engineering jobs, you're generally doing impactful work that enables a company to function better. Companies are only going to become more and more connected as technology improves, so having quality network infrastructure will become more and more important as time goes on. So too will the people who manage said infrastructure.

Some things that are meh:

• Sometimes companies have cost constraints that will keep you from doing what you want with the network. This can result in having to deal with various vendors for different purposes. I think the days of having all Cisco equipment are gone as other vendors are beating Cisco on price. Cisco certs are still valuable, though. You learn the Cisco way for many things, but you also learn the fundamentals of how networking concepts work. Those network concepts and rules apply no matter what vendor you're dealing with.
• You'll likely have to work at night here and there and be a part of an on-call rotation. Many companies don't want changes being made on critical infrastructure in the middle of the day because an outage can result in lots of lost money. I would just recommend avoiding being the only network engineer for a company like I was at my last job, even if they're small.

Some things I don't like:

• Some companies don't give a shit about their IT infrastructure. One of the things that pushed me out the door at my last job was the fact that the company exploded in size, but the IT operations team stayed at the same headcount. They went from having ~14 people on the IT ops team with about 340 employees and 3 buildings to ~13 people on the IT ops team with over 1000 employees and 13 buildings, some of them in other countries.
• Some companies have too many non-IT people making IT decisions, which hinders the IT team's ability to function well. At my last job, the retail operations manager was arguing against having network equipment that costs tens of thousands of dollars in total in a secured room at each location. He just wanted the network and servers to "go under the manager's desk."

With the skills I have now, I can pretty much walk into any company that has a network (overwhelming vast majority of companies on the planet) and hit the ground running without too much of a learning curve. Especially if they have Cisco/Aruba/Juniper equipment in their network.

It's not easy and it's not simple, but if you have an interest in it and you're tired of dealing with the general public for your job, I highly recommend it. Takes a lot of studying and you'll always have to be learning new things to keep up with changes in technology, but again... Worth it, imo.

I can share the study materials I have for the current Cisco certs with you if you want to give it a try or see if you even like the stuff at all.

I changed career paths and started out as help desk a few years ago then got promoted to Systems Administrator. Before the promotion, I was unsure if I wanted to go this route or developer. Jumped at the promotion though since it meant more money, plus I was able to get from under my help desk supervisor that I wasn't a fan of. I think I used to be somewhat interested in network engineering, but after being in my current role, I for sure think I'd prefer being a developer. Especially since I feel a developer would have a higher chance of working from home.

Jupiter posted...

I changed career paths and started out as help desk a few years ago then got promoted to Systems Administrator. Before the promotion, I was unsure if I wanted to go this route or developer. Jumped at the promotion though since it meant more money, plus I was able to get from under my help desk supervisor that I wasn't a fan of. I think I used to be somewhat interested in network engineering, but after being in my current role, I for sure think I'd prefer being a developer. Especially since I feel a developer would have a higher chance of working from home.

That's also a great point. There are multiple niche jobs in tech that are great if you have an interest in the respective stuff.

• Network engineering
• System administration
• Cybersecurity
• Cloud... stuff (there's a lot of stuff under this umbrella)
• Software development

So even if network engineering bores you to tears, there may be other areas in tech that you'd like better.

Ive been interested for a while but never got the motivation to actually study for the CCNA. I dont have a good opportunity at work to get hands on experience with network gear at the moment either. Instead I do mainly coding and some project work

Rika_Furude posted...

Ive been interested for a while but never got the motivation to actually study for the CCNA. I dont have a good opportunity at work to get hands on experience with network gear at the moment either. Instead I do mainly coding and some project work

I started out using virtual network simulators. I started with Cisco Packet Tracer and then moved on to GNS3 for CCNP level stuff. Cisco Packet Tracer has improved quite a bit since I started using it, so the need for GNS3 may not be there as much these days.

I'm (finally) taking my CCNA next month in bo small part thanks to your help.
I'm confident on setting up a network, ok at troubleshooting, and a little weak on things you just need to memorize (syslog levels, port numbers).
Is CCNA "enough" to land an entry level position?

I took two years of CISCO Networking while in high school, it was interesting. But I always enjoyed programming more so I went with that for my degree and career.

ChocoboMogALT posted...

I'm (finally) taking my CCNA next month in bo small part thanks to your help.
I'm confident on setting up a network, ok at troubleshooting, and a little weak on things you just need to memorize (syslog levels, port numbers).
Is CCNA "enough" to land an entry level position?

It is. Having a CCNA puts you ahead of most other applicants when it comes to interviews. The vast majority of people won't get any certs even if they have the skills to do so. It's a sign that you take your career seriously. Cisco also incentivizes companies to hire and keep a certain number of Cisco certified individuals. I haven't worked for a company that has enough to qualify for the incentives, though.