NOC - what to expect

MQuinn6

I'm thinking of applying for a position at a NOC. What is a typical day like at a NOC?

MQuinn6

anyone? Bueller?

swabbies

My first computer related job was in a NOC for a large internet company. I worked the night shift from 7pm - 7am. I gained alot of really great experience there. Because the business made money online, uptime was very important. I got exposure to monitoring systems like HP openview and Mercury Sitescope.
A typical day would be pretty laid back when there were no problems. I was given access to test equipment and studied for and passed my CCNA while on the job. If a person was less motivated at that job they could have spent a lot of time just browsing the web. I was new and motivated to learn so I spent as much time as possible learning systems I knew nothing about.
The company was good about giving the NOC access to systems. I think that was mostly because the engineers didn't want to get a call at 3am to restart a service or bounce a router interface.
Most of the problems were IIS related or service provider related. But troubleshooting these type of issues are great for learning.
My advice is to make the most of your downtime, because a monitoring job definitely has downtime.

binarysoul

-Working with switches, routers, hubs, servers, talking with vendors, dealing with management as to (Why is the network slow/down again). Also, dealing with DoS attacks, chasing high-bandwidth users who play music and download movies than to work (well, instead they put you at work ) Also, sometimes dealing with know-it-all attitudes. Now that is the toughest to troubleshoot For desert, I can mention knowing all the networking acrynyms, e.g. have you heard of the MNOP protocol? Good luck!

jcolta

I currently work at a NOC for a major cable ISP. I've seen different types of NOC positions posted on the web and job responsibilities can vary greatly. With my job we deal with Cisco (routers/UBRs/switches), Juniper routers, various Video/XOD servers, HFC (hybrid-fiber coax) issues/optimization, etc.

Swabbies is definately correct about "downtime" at a NOC; there are people that get away with slacking (surfing the web, watching tv, sitting on personal phone calls) all of the time on the late-night shifts. Overall it's a pretty fun job, the only major downside is dealing with management when major issues occur and "it hits the fan".

mysql1988

I worked at the NOC center for a major News Organization in Washington DC. 80% of the time I did nothing, 20% of the time I answered calls and resolved issues with the telco. I used that opportunity to gain more cisco certs and other certs. I now have a Part-time job which pays more than my full time job at the NOC center. Which gives me more time to study for my bachelors.

Bottomline, some NOC centers can be the busiest place in the world, some can also be the most "do nothing" place in the world. Just try to impress your bossies during the first couple of weeks because that is going to determine if you stick around or not. And also get some experience with any cisco equipment they have over there

cisco cert + NOC center experience = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

win2k8

I just happend to get a job at a NOC for Sprint Nextel. I had no experience whatsoever also. I think overall what you will be doing depends on what kind of tier or level your going to be in. For example i'm in tier 1, all we do is get tickets from Natl. (inside Sprint organizaiton) who are responsible for opening up tickets most of the time (they have no real technical skills, just write down whatever customer reports to them). But anyways all I do at tier 1 is look at the ticket face, see what the problem is, then telnet into the private line or network address and do a bunch of cisco router show cmds and paste those onto the ticket, then depending on if the circuit is either up or down i route it for either testing/monitoring/or if config issue to tier 2. Of course it could be set up differently based on what company NOC you join, but this is how it is it here for me in tier 1. I heard its not that hard to move up to tier 2, all they look for is some kind of cisco cert (CCNA) and experience of course working tier 1. I had no knowledge of Cisco router stuff at all so this all new to me. They gave me about 2 week observing period and 1 week training period though, so dont panick nobody will leave you to sink out there in the NOC.

In terms of the environment here, its pretty laid back also i work the late shift though (11pm-7am). NOC is great place to get some real cisco experience and other routers like juniper, also very good networking experience also.

rkholmes

Hi,

I'm a senior NOC engineer and will tell you that the responsibilities and pay levels vary greatly from NOC to NOC. Also, one persons definition of a NOC does not always fit the true definition. I first started my NOC career in December of 2000, and have worked in two different NOC environments.

Both NOC's I have worked in were/are telcom NOC's. The first was a traditional NOC which we monitored the various network transport/distribution elements, and made the level 1 and level 2 repairs happen within our team. Level 3 repairs usually required a call-out to an on-call resource.

The NOC that I work in now is a software shop of a large telecommunications carrier. We monitor the hosted/managed IVR solutions which the company sells. No monitoring of traditional network elements here (muxes, switches, routers, class 5 switches...etc). Here we monitor the server farm and any repairs which we make are mostly upper layer kinds of things.

If you start out as an associate NOC technician as I did, you may earn between 13 and 15 dollars per hour. Once you advance out of the 'technician' grades and into the 'engineer' grades the money gets pretty good. I make about 65K per year with overtime and on-call pay. A standard corporate benefits package goes along with this.

As soon as I get that damned CCNA out of the way, I will be on my way back to a traditional NOC environment and probably earn another 10 grand a year. I've got Cisco routing and switching experience, but not the certificate. This holds one back (at least in my neck of the woods), and not having CCNA is the reason I quit my last job. I asked for a pretty hefty raise (15%) and my boss told me 'Not till you get your CCNA'.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.


Thanks


Rob