Your first "networking" job

Hey moderators I first made the same post on the CCNP forum, after a little while I figured why not ask the CCIE guys since they have more experience. So please forgive me admins for making the same post here.

Hey guys right now I've been working at a retail store as a desktop support tech (very similar to geek squad), been doing so for about 5 years. My interests has always been networking, my goal is to become a network engineer. I want to get an idea of what one has been through to become a network engineer. What was your first networking job? What were your job responsibilities? What would you consider a CCNA level job entail to? What's your job responsibility now?

Thanks I regularly visit this forum, it has given me lots of inspiration and motivation to continue on my studies and hopefully become a CCNP one day.

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Comments

drew726

first networking job would be what I first started this month working in a NOC. I made a post about it somewhere here. I had 2 years of exp doing support prior to this. I'm not sure if this really counts as a networking job though, but I'm sure glad I'm not doing tech support anymore.

Responsibilities include recording environmental conditions, updating their CRM, changing tapes, adding/removing/changing accounts in AD and exchange mail console. Using a cacti to monitor bandwidth. Almost everything I do I have to do remotely because everything is virtualized and they have multiple domain controllers in the data center, so I'm usually using RDP or VNC Viewer to do everything. Besides that, theres a lot of the creating tickets and emailing clients as well.

They haven't really let me do anything in terms of hardware yet besides just rebooting the servers and changing tapes. Although, I don't have my CCNA yet, so I find myself pretty lucky to get this job.

shodown

Mine came from me just applying and applying till I landed something. I had some NOC work which helped. I had to move all the way to Minneapolis to get the job. Just keep at it.

Ryan82

My initial network experience came from working in a small shop where you do a bit of everything i.e desktop support, server management, vtc, deploying switches, etc. I would guess that a lot of people take this route to gain their initial experience. In my opinion its a great place to start because its good to understand the systems side and the network side of the house.

While in that position I was hungry to learn more about the networking side of the house and so I studied a lot so that I could move into a position where I would get more experience on that side of the house.

I moved into a network engineer position after this in a noc type environment but as mentioned in a recent post sometimes job titles can be misleading because I wasn't engineering anything. I was in an decent sized enterprise environment though so I would always poke around and see how things were being done and try to keep learning as much as I could.

After leaving that position I moved to an ISP environment where I get to actually put to use a lot of the things I studied. There are various arguments with both sides having strong arguments as to whether or not pursuing certifications in areas where you don't necessarily have the work experience to back them up is a good idea. Personally, had I not pursued my CCNP I probably wouldn't have landed the position I am currently in. I was honest about my experience with my prospective employer and though I didn't have direct work experience with a lot of the technologies I was interviewed about, lots of labbing and reading enabled me to have an understanding of the technologies that was sufficient to land the position.

I also hear of people volunteering to gain some network experience, however I don't know anyone personally that has been able to gain experience that route, but it may be worth looking into.

Good luck in your pursuit of that network position. Keep reading and learning new things everyday and you will find that job you are looking for.

416_guy

Whats an NOC? Network Operating Centre? I feel like such a noob lol

At the moment I'm about to finish my diploma in networking along with my CCNA I will start to apply anywhere and everywhere. I don't expect to mess around with routers/switches I just want to work my way up and at the sametime learn how the real world uses vlan, stp, subnetting etc.

I do plan on getting my CCNP even if I don't have the experience I feel the knowledge from studying and labbing for it will be a plus none the less. Having more knowledge never hurts.

drew726

416_guy wrote: »

Whats an NOC? Network Operating Centre? I feel like such a noob lol

At the moment I'm about to finish my diploma in networking along with my CCNA I will start to apply anywhere and everywhere. I don't expect to mess around with routers/switches I just want to work my way up and at the sametime learn how the real world uses vlan, stp, subnetting etc.

I do plan on getting my CCNP even if I don't have the experience I feel the knowledge from studying and labbing for it will be a plus none the less. Having more knowledge never hurts.

yep, basically you monitor a whole bunch of servers ensure availability 24x7x365.

Dakinggamer87

I'm currently working in a tech support role (help desk/desktop support/PC tech) but am moving towards a Systems/Network Admin. or Engineer and this thread has been very useful with input on how to move into networking area of IT.