Cisco -> Management ?

sir_creamy_

Has anyone here ever used Cisco as his/her sole stepping stone to management? Anyone whose focussed his/her career solely on Cisco products and technologies? Would you say there are ample opportunities for Cisco Network Engineers to make the leap to mangagement? Are Cisco engineers valued so much for their ability to design/build/manage/secure networks that they are stuck doing low level network work their entire life?

Enlighten me.

networker050184

What do you mean by low level network work? You might offend someone here calling their work low level, especially if they have been doing it for years. If you keep at your networking career you won't be doing initial configs for your whole life if thats whay you mean by low level. There are a lot more things that go into a network that you probably do not realize. There are many places to advance to also. Network design, engineer, consultant and more. You can also move into management from networking. You will most likely need a degree and not just Cisco certs though.

sir_creamy_

The point I'm trying to get across is will people label you and say something to the tune of "This guy knows his sh*t when it comes to networking, let's keep him with the 'hands on' stuff instead of wasting his talent dishing out assignments". You feel me?

networker050184

If your current work place doesn't have room for or allow you to advance then you would have to find a new position. Being a networking professional isn't going to keep you from moving into management. And netowrking work isn't low level

bighornsheep

It depends entirely on the company you work for, and how IT is viewed as. If it's a support process for the organization, the head of IT or networking may just be a PM or manager-in-charge...the top technical position(s) may not be at "management-level".

However, if the IT department is a development/operation process, there top technical position(s) could be a Director of Engineering, or VP of Network Security etc...

You may also have Network Engineers & Architects who are "managers", but will often "report" to other team managers for the scope of a project.

CoryS

Only because I am picky... I am pretty sure by low level he means very technical work.

Like when a consultant says.. We will go over this at a high level and says "Active Directory is something that is in Windows", instead of when they say "At a low level you can manipulate this using ADSIedit"

sir_creamy_

Yup, technical work. Working with the "nuts and bolts" so to speak. I was thinking that having too much knowledge can deter you from reaching management. For instance, is someone with a CCIE better utilized in the data center working directly with the equipment or in some cushy office delegating work? Seems to me like you'd want to keep your experts as close to the action as possible.

Bighorn summed it up nicely though