Did working for a NOC jump start your networking career?

NoNameNoob

- How long did you stay working as a entry level NOC tech? Did you learn a lot?
- What new position did you advance to?
- How long were you searching for?
- Total jump in pay between the 2 positions?

Thanks for the info!

pevangel

- Stayed as a NOC tech for 8 months. I learned quite a bit but it was mostly from doing the work that the engineers were supposed to be doing but didn't want to do.
- Advanced to Jr. Network Engineer
- I was promoted internally. Discussed joining the engineering team 4 months into the NOC, but it took another 4 months to find my backfill.
- Almost doubled my pay.

A lot of the people that I work with now started in a NOC as well. I didn't learn much doing my job. You're mostly monitoring, cutting tickets, and escalating to engineers. You don't actually get to do any of the dirty work. But you can make the most of it by offering to help engineers with their task or asking to shadow them. You may also experience a lot of downtime, so use that time to study. Don't be one of the guys that just sits there for hours surfing the internet, playing online games, or watching netflix. Those guys usually end up staying in the NOC for a while.

hurricane1091

We have a NOC, and if you don't make an effort, you won't learn anything. All they do is their job, which is to monitor and report. That's fine, but if they wanted to advance and learn networking, they definitely could make an effort to do so. So the answer to your question is that the job is what you make it.

volfkhat

hurricane1091 wrote: »

So the answer to your question is that the job is what you make it.

Sounds cliche.... but it's So true.

I just started a NOC role a few months ago.
Some days are rough.... but MOST days i am wholly focused on learning new concepts.

They also have complete access to cbtnuggets' library; so i'm on it 4-5 days a week.

in my case, the job isn't glamorous... but it does allow me to get Paid to Study :]

(Hmmm..... so i guess you could say i'm doing a Paid Internship!)

aderon

- How long did you stay working as a entry level NOC tech? Did you learn a lot?
About a year and a half. Learned tons. How much you learn will depend largely on the company you work for and how much you make of it.

- What new position did you advance to?
Network Engineer

- How long were you searching for?
Same company (Promoted from within.)

- Total jump in pay between the 2 positions?
44k to 62.5k

hurricane1091

volfkhat wrote: »

Sounds cliche.... but it's So true.

I just started a NOC role a few months ago.
Some days are rough.... but MOST days i am wholly focused on learning new concepts.

They also have complete access to cbtnuggets' library; so i'm on it 4-5 days a week.

in my case, the job isn't glamorous... but it does allow me to get Paid to Study :]

(Hmmm..... so i guess you could say i'm doing a Paid Internship!)

It is so true. These guys do their jobs and that is all you can ask. But if the OP was in the position, he would have access to tons of lab equipment to do whatever (especially the night time guys who just watch TV). You would have access to log into anything and investigate, and access to a manager, a sr network engineer, and myself to learn whatever you want. OP would benefit greatly working in our NOC I believe.

CSCOnoob

Interesting what NOC means nowadays. NOC back then had privilege level 15 and do the work. They only escalate when they need to. Though, I still think there are NOCs out there that do this.

hurricane1091

CSCOnoob wrote: »

Interesting what NOC means nowadays. NOC back then had privilege level 15 and do the work. They only escalate when they need to. Though, I still think there are NOCs out there that do this.

In our case, the NOC is monitored 24/5 (24 hours a day during the 5 day work week) and they literally watch monitoring programs for servers, routers, etc. They open tickets up for down circuits and alert people and that's basically it. They will rack/stack equipment after hours if you need it, but the network engineering team does it themselves. I did interview somewhere for a NOC job that did involve basic troubleshooting and stuff before escalation, but did not get that job (yet got a straight up network engineering job not long after - classic).

CSCOnoob

hurricane1091 wrote: »

In our case, the NOC is monitored 24/5 (24 hours a day during the 5 day work week) and they literally watch monitoring programs for servers, routers, etc. They open tickets up for down circuits and alert people and that's basically it. They will rack/stack equipment after hours if you need it, but the network engineering team does it themselves. I did interview somewhere for a NOC job that did involve basic troubleshooting and stuff before escalation, but did not get that job (yet got a straight up network engineering job not long after - classic).

Yep, pretty much what the NOCs are nowadays. Gone are the days when NOC peeps actually connect to routers/switches/firewalls/etc to configure/troubleshoot/etc.

80hr

One of my full time jobs is in a NOC , the other is part of a cyber security team for a different organization. I enjoy the NOC. I moved from the Transport side to the IP side and I am learning a lot . Lots of opportunity to ask questions and grow pay could be better but I should get CCNA before I go asking for a raise.

skswitch

pevangel wrote: »

- Stayed as a NOC tech for 8 months. I learned quite a bit but it was mostly from doing the work that the engineers were supposed to be doing but didn't want to do.
- Advanced to Jr. Network Engineer
- I was promoted internally. Discussed joining the engineering team 4 months into the NOC, but it took another 4 months to find my backfill.
- Almost doubled my pay.

A lot of the people that I work with now started in a NOC as well. I didn't learn much doing my job. You're mostly monitoring, cutting tickets, and escalating to engineers. You don't actually get to do any of the dirty work. But you can make the most of it by offering to help engineers with their task or asking to shadow them. You may also experience a lot of downtime, so use that time to study. Don't be one of the guys that just sits there for hours surfing the internet, playing online games, or watching netflix. Those guys usually end up staying in the NOC for a while.

Hopefully this is my story soon.

Been at a NOC for 10 months and hoping to make a jump to a more Network Engineer title/work related job. The learning I've had in those months is what I've done on my own during down times. To reinforce the idea of not being that guy who doesn't use the slow times as an opportunity... I recently offered a higher tier position over people who have twice the time spent here.

Kinet1c

I worked in two NOCs(first was 24/7, second was 4 on/3 off) though both were not traditional* NOCs as such but I did learn quite a bit, mostly due to large periods of downtime and motivation I had to get out of shift work. It'll make or break you but if you come through it you will appreciate the work you do in the future. Took a 10k bump from first NOC to the 2nd, took the same jump again to my current Ops job.

*was more *nix based monitoring and not a lot of switch/router monitoring, fun all the same

NoNameNoob

1 face to face interview away from landing a noc analyst job. Its graveyard shift and equal pay to what I make now, but sounds like a good opportunity to escape desktop/helpdesk support (About to hit my 2 year mark) and get into networking. Looks like the plan of attack would be working there for a year and get a feel where I stand if I can get internally promoted or not. Thanks for the replies. At the time I was unsure if I should apply based on the shift and what comes along with it, but I will accept it if i get the opportunity.

E Double U

- Stayed in the NOC for 4 years. I was analyst for about two years before I was given the responsibility of going to India to train the Mumbai helpdesk. I became team lead after that and got my CCNA before leaving the NOC. Learned so much about networking in that role. It was an international team so I learned a lot about other cultures which did so much for my personal growth.

- Became a configuration engineer within the same company since the NOC was being offshored. Same company also offered me a role with the NOC that was built to support only the UK.

- Got a pay bump of $8,000 plus a bonus (I forget the amount) and became a full-time remote worker.

si20

I worked in a SOC with a NOC attached to it and the general word on the ground was that the NOC just raised incidents, dealt with some incidents, passed tickets around etc they were glorified Service Desk/1st line support - as someone else mentioned, they didn't make firewall rules or apply them etc Not saying all NOCs are like that, but that's how I understood a NOC to be. I was asked to move over to work with them but I flat out refused because I didn't want to become a ticket monkey. Some of the NOC guys knew their stuff but had just became accustomed to working on a ticketing system.