Career Advice help please...

[subflava]

Hi guys,

I'm hoping some of you guys that have been working in the networking field for a while can give me some career advice. I have been out of work for about 3 months now and I'm considering taking a position as a "Network Administrator" with a medium sized (~70 employees) financial services company. The job isn't exactly my ideal as I'm more interested in a "Network Engineering" type of position which would focus more on design/building/managing actual networking equipment without a lot of the systems adminstration stuff. In a perfect world I could wait around forever until the perfect job came along...but like everyone else I've got bills to pay. Is a more general Network Administrator position a "reasonable" stepping stone towards a more specific Network Engineering job? Should I take this job?


To give you guys an idea of where I'm coming from and where I want to go, here's a little bit about myself:

My first work experience was working for a small ISP where I got a chance to work directly with small business clients and learn a lot of basic networking principles. The most complex network I worked on was probably the company's own network which was multi-homed and had a Cisco 7513 as the biggest router. Unfortunately I never got to work with any larger networks so i didn't get a chance to work with any multilayer switches or large EIGRP/OSPF/etc routed networks.
My last job was for a large corporation where I did a lot of systems adminstration (Windows+Linux). I tried to jump in on any networking type of projects that I could, but it wasn't nearly as in depth as I had hoped.

Ultimately, I want to grow up to be just like Spidey Seriously though, I'm wondering if this job would be a "waste" of my time given where I want to go? Any thoughts would be great appreciated.

 

[spidey07]

LOL!

"grow up to be like spidey" You actually think I've grown up? Thanks for the compliment. I can't wait to get home and play Prince of Persia.

Hardcore net engineer generally requires at least 5 years experience. For example I would simply grill you on a technical interview. I still to this day remember someguy who went on and on about his network experience and was wowed by what we had. He asked do you guys run ospf or bgp? I simply told him both and then asked "are those protocols interior or exterior protocols?" The dumbfounded look on his face told me he lied big time on his resume.

A net admin posistion would be a good place to start. I did. But during that time I focused heavily on network design, knowing the protocols like the back of my hand and reading/self study. Worked out well and then I got my big break at my current company. But there are different flavors of net engineers - one of them knows everything about cisco gear and can configure anything but doesn't understand the design/engieering side of a good sized IP network like scale, good summarization, redundancy, etc. The other knows a little about the gear but is stronger in actually designing the network for maximum performance, uptime and management- that means KISS and don't do crazy stuff just to do it because you want OTHER people to support the net and NOT you.

I'm the latter.


Read all of the ccie books that will help. Read routing IP volume 1 and 2. Then read them again.

 

[subflava]

"...do you guys run ospf or bgp?"
LOL...I guess you were being polite. OSPF *OR??* BGP? I would think you'd have thrown him out right then just for asking that question. Heh, at least he didn't as if you preferred using routers OR switches.

A net admin posistion would be a good place to start. I did.

Great...this is kind of the answer I'm looking for. I guess I half-knew the answer to my own question already, but I just wanted some hand-holding before I commit to a scary new job .

But during that time I focused heavily on network design, knowing the protocols like the back of my hand and reading/self study.
Read all of the ccie books that will help. Read routing IP volume 1 and 2. Then read them again.

Good, this is exactly what I plan to do. I'm 2/5 of the way through my CCNP and have done a lot of reading through some articles on the Cisco site. I was just afraid that this job might not be network heavy enough...but you obviously can't speak to that. Anyways, thanks for the response. I feel a bit better now.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Well, having a job and looking for another one is a lot more desirable than being out of work and looking for one!

 

[cmetz]

subflava, #1, gotta pay the bills. You should avoid a career step down, but if you've been out of work for three months, some pragmatism is in order.

You are likely to end up doing more system administration and less network engineering in this new job than you expect. That's just the way it is. Use it as an income and a stepping stone, and grab - if not propose and drive - opportunities to do network engineering and learning type things that would be interesting to you. Several folks I know are in a position exactly like this job, and their company has a few spare 2600s around, which they use during idle time to learn more and more about IOS.

Small ISPs, unfortunately, are a lot rarer now than they were a few years ago. And there are a lot of network engineers who lost their jobs. So I think there might be more supply than demand, especially at the more junior end of things. (senior guys are still in demand and hard to find...) So I think the market reality is that for now, the smart thing to do would be to get yourself an income and sieze every opportunity to learn.

 

[exx1976]

I'd take whatever you could get at the 3 month point, although it sounds like the admin position isn't too bad.

I've been doing this for just over 6 years, and I know a pretty fair amount about "raw" network design.. I'm an MCSE in both 4 and 2k, so I design a lot of that stuff.. Enterprise NT4 stuff (used to) and now primarily AD design, DNS, Terminal Services, Exchange, clustering, things like that. I can tool around with IOS and such, but not to the level of even a CCNA.. LOL I am studying for my CCNA presently (self-study). I know a pretty good amount about IP and networks and such (IP was my elective for the NT4 track), but I really need to learn IOS.

OSPF or BGP? Come on, even *I* know that one! LOL!!! Should've told him to use IPX/SPX and had no need for that stuff, or ask him if he's ever seen a 4506 VLAN collapse...


In any event, the point of the story is that my business card says "Network Manager". I have no one who reports to me. It's just a title, given to me to justify to corporate the raise my boss wanted to give me. I don't care if it says "Janitor" on my business card, as long as my paycheck doesn't change. It's just a title.

"It's all about the Benjamins!"