what kind of job duties in a NOC environment?

Well I just passed my CCNA yesterday, updated my resume online at a place I'd like to work and applied for 2 job openings, then got a call this morning from a recruiter. One position is more hands on from what they said, which is more of what I'm used to doing, and the other is working in a NOC monitoring equipment- is working in a NOC mostly a phone support type job? Right now I monitor equipment which mostly consist of Cisco switches and wireless access points and if they go down I get onsite and check out the problems, then replace and reconfigure equipment if needed. I also install equipment and configure it in new buildings that we add to our district, so would doing NOC work be like watching paint dry for a guy like me?

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Comments

Kalabin

For the most part it depend's on the job duties assigned to each NOC department. But usually it's a matter of watching the system for minor, major, and critical system alarm's finding out who need's to be dispatched to fix em and going from there. Some places they are glorified secretary's, other place's they are highly skilled tech's. It all depends on the company.

borumas

Thanks for the reply, anyone else with any NOC experience, I have a telephone interview for these 2 positions next week so I guess I will keep studying the next few days to be ready for it.

yalerider

I work in AT&T NOC. We do tier II/III support. You do have to watch alarms and call out circuits, but also do break/fix on equipment, check firewalls, search for ports to shut down etc. I am learning a lot. It depends on the company, like the previous poster said. Some of our NOCs do just break/report. I would not like that. Ask them specifically what you will be doing.

Good luck.

Kasor

I agree that it is depend on the company that you work for. NOC job can be boring after you get to know the whole system and how thing work.

empc4000xl

well for my experineces, since I have been there for 3 weeks is I answer phones, do basic router stuff when people call, like open and close interfaces on various models of cisco routers. make backups of firewalls and DNS configs. Other than that when something bad happens like a LSA flood I usuall just assist the people who have been there longer by doing whatever they ask me to do like just writing down IP's makeing list of who was opened and closed. I do a few other odds and ends on Sun Machines and Win2003 server, but I really don't know what those task are. My only upper hand is that I'm close to being done with my CCNA and most of the other people there just receive OJT. So when when level 3 techs explain stuff to us, like subnetting, wildcard mask and now ACL's work, I tend to pick it up much faster, so it deff helps to have that experience in the background, but I have been told that it takes about 6 months to become up to snuff on all the job duties, so don't worry about not knowing enough, they don't worry about having to be able to do everything take it slow and learn everything as it comes.

TechJunky

A NOC position really depends on the company. I have worked for a few and it changed depending on the company.

Usually is the same as a network technician with a CCNA, but instead of cisco equipment it is phone equipment.

So Juniper and other phone system technology switches, dslams etc.

You will check stats on modems, phone lines etc. If you get really technical you could be turning up T1's OC3's etc.

It's basically the technical side of the phone equipment configuration, monitoring, and deployment.

bowlersp

I work in an IP NOC and we do all of the following:

loop test with commercial
troubleshoot routing issues with eigrp, is-is, ospf, static, acl's, bgp
dispatch techs to fix hardware issues
troubleshoot circuits from fractional t-1's, ds3's, oc3's, oc12's, oc48's, oc192's
clear in house with the customer and our end of the circuit (csu, smartjack, paragain's, patch panels, access-t's etc..)
troubleshoot network encryption devices (fastlanes, taclanes, kiv-7's)

i have to say it is the best job i've ever had, but i have only been in network infrastructure for 2 years so we'll see what happens.

borumas

Thanks for the responses guys, I did land the NOC job and it seems like a great opportunity. I will be answering phones to deal with customers, monitor network equipment, do trouble-shooting tickets, and sometimes will be going to the closets for hands on work.

Ryan82

Well, its not always that cut and dry as just looking at the job title. Its really in your best interest to find out exactly what work the position entails. In the past at a placed I worked, we hired system and network engineers to work in a NOC. Literally the position consisted of watching lights go red, and calling someone to let them know because the "engineers" in the NOC had no privileges whatsoever. It was about as technically satisfying as watching paint dry.

shodown

Ryan82 wrote: »

Well, its not always that cut and dry as just looking at the job title. Its really in your best interest to find out exactly what work the position entails. In the past at a placed I worked, we hired system and network engineers to work in a NOC. Literally the position consisted of watching lights go red, and calling someone to let them know because the "engineers" in the NOC had no privileges whatsoever. It was about as technically satisfying as watching paint dry.

This is very important

I left one NOC where I did some of everything Routing/Switching ASA's VOIP, dial peers and so on. I went the next one cause they were looking for people with experience. All I did was take phone calls ping and show ports. It was way more money, but I only lasted 7 weeks, I started looking for a new job the 1st week I was there.