ISP/Telecomms v Network Admin?

Kai123

Hello,

As from the title, what are the general viewpoints between the career paths of either a NOC Engineer/Network Engineer v Network Admin and (Internal) Network Engineer?

It hit me when studying for the CCNA that almost none of it relates to what even the T2 do in an ISP for corporate customers. The CCNA:SP track is perfect for this but it does not show up on any jobs listing. This is a casual observation but ISP T2 Network Engineer jobs are very few and far between but pay very well compared to network administration jobs?

Everyone in my job so far has said that the role of a NOC Engineer is to milk it for all its worth and then move into a normal 9-5 network admin role. We support so many technologies that your being driven hard during the day but then have time to study at night. No-one mentions the T2 roles since everyone in them are fairly comfortable and wont be leaving anytime soon.

I think the choice I have is to truly pigeon-hole myself and leverage my work to go the CCNA:SP track and forever work in ISP's, or study away trying to gain a network admin job. I have no experience in the latter, and I'm still getting used to my current job to know if I am making the right decision in where I want my career to go.

Is there any rationale to want to move out of telecomms, or is it just down to career choice, no wrong answers?

networker050184

You won't be pigeon holed into an ISP only if you get good experience there. Enterprises love to get people in with large scale network experience like that.

It will kind of jade you from wanting to go work on a tiny (by comparison) enterprise network after though. For me it has anyway. It's pretty had to go back from working on a 1,000 router network to four or five routers. I pretty much try to stick to the service provider side these days, ISP and Data Center design work specifically. It's just much more interesting and fulfilling for me.

UnixGuy

@Networker: so you are on the architecture side of things? do you have to work overtime/weekends or just 9-5?

networker050184

I work very seldom on the weekends or after hours. I get pretty good overtime on the rare occasions I do though. Normal business hours for the most part.

fredrikjj

Kai123 wrote: »

The CCNA:SP track is perfect for this but it does not show up on any jobs listing.

Because it's a very niche cert that has only existed for a few years, I think. I say niche because it's "entry level", but there are no books for it and it's actually a two parter. I'd would guess that more people actually have CCIP, CCNP:SP and CCIE:SP combined, than CCNA:SP. You can also get CCNP:SP without getting CCNA:SP by getting CCNP:RS (just the Route part actually) and most people that go for the SP certs probably have CCNP:RS. Just some speculation.

E Double U

Worked in the British Telco NOC for over four years and loved every minute of it. Got more networking exposure than I was prepared for and learned how customer service varies per country. The experience there launched me into config/migrations and SOC because most people on those teams started in NOC as well.

I milked the NOC for all it was worth. There was so much to learn and I took full advantage.

chmod

I love the ISP side, i work for a telecom vendor so i work with many ISP's as i work on the service provider department. Designing and Implementing for several ISPs is more fullfiling for me.

I really get bored working on the enterprise side and if i get back would for the vendor or for partners.