Difference between Network Engineer vs Network Analyst

Hi, I was told by the network engineer manager at my company that he thinks that I'm going to get an offer to work on his department. That department have three employees, two with a network engineer tittle and one with a network analyst tittle. I'm going to be replacing the one with the network analyst tittle and I was wonder what is the difference between an engineer and an analyst since they all are under the network engineer department.

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Bl8ckr0uter

Depends on the company although with an IT department that small, the analyst vs engineer could be a "my ____ is much bigger than yours"* type of deal. In other words engineer > analyst. Your best bet is to ask the person in charge or ask the person you are replacing (if possible). We wouldn't be the best source of information on your company as we can only infer (not trying to be a dick, no pun intended).

Now for larger companies, the analyst could be a much different position.

*my ____ can walk right through the door. YouTube - System of a Down - Cigaro Lyrics

MentholMoose

It will vary dramatically by company, as Bl8ckr0uter mentions. If possible, try to get the job descriptions and compare them to gain some insight.

amb1s1

I'm not necessarily asking for the difference on my company, but on general. In my case I'm going to be the one with a lot less experience since I'm coming from helpdesk to the network engineer department.

mikedisd2

amb1s1 wrote: »

I'm not necessarily asking for the difference on my company, but on general. In my case I'm going to be the one with a lot less experience since I'm coming from helpdesk to the network engineer department.

In general, the terms are likely interchangable. My current job was advertised as a Systems Engineer, my signature says Systems Analyst and my team is called Wintel Operations. When people ask, I tell them I'm a systems administrator.

NinjaBoy

amb1s1 wrote: »

I'm not necessarily asking for the difference on my company, but on general...

Generally speaking (and I'm not saying that this will be your case) the analyst would be informed of the issue/problem and then gather as much information as possible, as well as implementing some (preapproved) fixes.

The engineer on the other hand will take over from where the analyst role ends.

Saying that it does depend on the organisation itself. In one of the organisations I've worked at we had the Software technicians, hardware technicians, AV Technicians, Network (inc Phone) technicians, Workshop Technicians, and Helpdesk Technicians (which were then changed into just 3 teams: Installation Engineers, IT Support Engineers and another group that I forget), but were were still doing all levels of support (tier 1 to 3) in all areas.

-Ken

jgiambr

I interviewed for a Security Analyst position but once I learned more about the position it was clear the responsibilities were more for a Security Engineer position but they wanted to pay me as an analyst which of course was less.

Perhaps you have same situation. The job is really Network Engineer work but if they call you an Analyst they can pay you less. Every company treats titles differently. I would ask them what is it that you would be doing that is different from a Network Engineer.

Sometimes you can simply ask if you can have the same title if it means that much to you. My experience has been an analyst is less experienced then an engineer but it is pretty subjective out there.

Paul Boz

Analysts typically handle the dynamic ads, moves, changes, events, and minor issues. Engineers typically create and configure devices / systems, engage other business units, and handle serious issues. The analyst monitors and responds to issues on an established network/system. Engineers create the network/system and handle major changes to it.

stuh84

Paul Boz wrote: »

Analysts typically handle the dynamic ads, moves, changes, events, and minor issues. Engineers typically create and configure devices / systems, engage other business units, and handle serious issues. The analyst monitors and responds to issues on an established network/system. Engineers create the network/system and handle major changes to it.

I'd agree with this. To sum up what I've seen, its usually been Network Analysts usually watch the network and either fix it, or report it out to be fixed. Network Engineers are those who create/add to the network.

There will be some blurring of the lines, but that pretty much is what I've seen it as.

Forsaken_GA

the engineers build it, break it and fix it

the analysts babysit it

CSCOnoob

In our company (200K+ employees), our Network Analysts are the ones that are responsible for capturing and analyzing packets.