Help Desk to Network Engineering

jwashington1981

Hello all who read this. For those of you who are currently in Network Engineering positions, how did you arrive there? I've worked in a help desk/desktop support/call center environment for a total of two years and I want to eventually be able to get a Network Engineer position.

I've already taken a few steps to making that happen. I recently graduated with my Bachelor's in Network Security and currently have two IT Certs: CCNA and Security +.

How did you guys make the transition from the help desk? At what part did you begin to gain the experience you needed to become a Network Engineer?

Currently, I am rewriting my resume to tailor it to that of someone looking to become a Network Engineer because at the present moment, it's very general and not targeted to any specific IT position.

Any help and suggestions would be welcome. When I am done with my new resume, I'll go ahead and post both the old resume and the new resume.

Thank you all in advance.

NOC-Ninja

You need to find NOC (technician or operator) job first so you'll understand what really happens at NOC.

The Network Engineer in my place have 3 years experience in NOC and CCNP or CCVP or CCSP certs. They also engineered a lot of stuff before they get into the network engineer positions.

shodown

NOC, or a company where you can touch Routers/Switches. The help desk unless its dealing with Cisco is not going to get you get you to a engineering position. What I did was work at a NOC, got more certs studied everyday and applied for every network engineer job I could find until somebody called me back.

Heero

For me, it was the following:

1. Get CCNP
2. Get internship in network services department at a fortune 1000
3. graduate with B.S.
4. Apply for network engineer job that wasn't widely advertised (only 3 people were interviewed).

All of those led up to getting my job, but in my opinion the Internship was the biggest factor in applying for my current job. Not that I would have necessarily gotten the internship without certs and whatnot though.

xenodamus

I start a new job on the 13th in my first "Network Engineering" role. My progression looked like this:

1. Got a job fixing PCs
2. Got an AAS in Network Support and went throug the Cisco Academy
3. Got a generic admin job where I got to put my hands on routers/switches every now and then. (IOS upgrades/config backups/vlan assignments)
4. Got my CCNA
5. A recruiter found my resume online and I landed an Asc. Network Engineer position.

VAHokie56

I worked for an ISP doing help desk then got a job for a Major health care provider in Richmond, from there I befriended the Network team members and learned as much as I could and was able to move to there team when a spot opened up ( I got my CCNA during this time). After that I got a job with a large Fortune 500 company as a Network Engineer.

jwashington1981

Here are copies of my old resume and new tweaked resume as I mentioned earlier.

VAHokie56

I would change a couple of things...

you need to have your name up near the top in big bold letters. Your resume just jumps right into the meat and potatoes you want them to be thinking of your big bold name while there reading your resume. Ex:it should begin with this at the top...

555-555-555
Dirk@thadig.com

Dirk Diggler

Then jump back into the good stuff. Also I would drop the "Computer Skills" and just make it "Skills" and if you can try and incorporate any of that into you past of work experience (if you actually did it of course) then that would sauce it up a bit to.

jwashington1981

I have my name on my resume in that format. I just didn't want to post the personal information on the forum.

Also, I haven't yet done much of the stuff yet in a work environment. Most of that is things I've done via classwork and also at home with my own equipment. I'm trying to get a position to where I can actually gain actual experience involving those skills I listed.

So hopefully I can get started in a Junior Network Engineer position so I can actually get experience and not just trying to rely on my school experience though that's pretty much what most college graduates will be relying on unless they were fortunate to get a position involving those things prior to graduation.

Repo Man

I'd remove the expiration dates from your certs.

Forsaken_GA

My path was pretty simple. I went for the certs, I was open about what I wanted to do in interviews, even when taking a non network position, and I got friendly with folk who were in networking, and explained to them what I was about, and that I'd like to learn from them. If I felt they were wrong about something, I presented my viewpoint in terms of 'hey, I noticed this, and I don't understand why it was done this way, could you help me wrap my head around it?'. That gets a much better response than saying 'dude, this is wrong!'.

That, plus being very good at the job I was actually hired to do, kept me in the periphery so that when a situatoin arrived where someone was needed to step up, I was ready for it, and was the first person asked, and I've been running with it ever since.

If you're going to be a network guy, take a hint from the equipment and protocols that you want to work on, and apply it to your human interactions - the goal is to get everyone communicating in a stable and friendly manner.

cxzar20

Nothing is a substitute for hard work, experience, and education. I did two internships in college (one with Cisco) then after I graduated from RIT with my MS I was hired on into a NOC position with a defense contractor. At the time I had my CCNA and Security+, I busted tail in the NOC and within 3 months I was promoted from Tier I NOC to Tier III engineering. Once I was there I studied for my CCNP/CCIP. After a few years I earned my PMP and ITIL. CCIE in my future? Not very likely, but it could only help you if you go down that path.

Education got me the job and promoted, experience and certifications make me more marketable if I decide to leave. I work reasonable hours (normally 40-45) but I am on rotational on call which means plenty of 3am wakeup calls during your week.

jwashington1981

I just recently got a job as a Network Control Technician. I start on Tuesday July 5th. I'm looking forward to it.

lla1977

You going to Harris IT?