Potential Sr. Network Engineer Position

Chipsch

Wanted to make an inquiry to all of you guru's out there and see what your experiences may have been like working in a data center for a hosted service provider as a network engineer.

Reason I ask is that I had a phone interview last Friday and a face to face today. Face to face totaled 3 hours with 2 of it in person and another hour on the phone with different people. Went well and they are already moving onto references. So looks like this is moving pretty fast. Only downside is that my commute will be bumped to 63 miles each way. Gotta love the 40mpg I get on the Civic though. Only takes an hour and ten minutes roughly as well.

petedude

Chipsch wrote: »

Wanted to make an inquiry to all of you guru's out there and see what your experiences may have been like working in a data center for a hosted service provider as a network engineer. . . .
Only takes an hour and ten minutes roughly as well.

Better get those audiobooks ready.

Haven't been in that spot yet, but I'd imagine the dynamics and politics would be different than working for a company as their own internal LAN guru. Your pressure would be to keep everything running for all these different businesses (regardless of how much they've paid. . .) and manage their expectations/deal with what your sales people promised. If you're the entire platform for a lucrative small business with tight deadlines and it goes kaput. . . expect the boss at your desk quickly.

ITdude

Maybe, they will let you work remotely from time to time.

Everyone

ITdude wrote: »

Maybe, they will let you work remotely from time to time.

That most likely would have been mentioned in the interview process. A Network Engineer role would most likely require quite a bit of physical access to the equipment, so probably not likely just because of the nature of the work being done.

Systems Engineer type work on the other hand can be done remotely, and for that type of environment often is.

It will be all about the SLAs. Learn what they are, and try not to break them. Make yourself shine by exceeding them.

networker050184

Everyone wrote: »

That most likely would have been mentioned in the interview process. A Network Engineer role would most likely require quite a bit of physical access to the equipment, so probably not likely just because of the nature of the work being done.

Why would a network engineer require physical access? In all my time as an engineer I never once touched a physical piece of equipment besides some lab work. Definitely no more access then required by a systems engineer. I agree it probably would have been mentioned though.

To the OP, good luck! Sounds like they were impressed.

Everyone

networker050184 wrote: »

Why would a network engineer require physical access? In all my time as an engineer I never once touched a physical piece of equipment besides some lab work. Definitely no more access then required by a systems engineer. I agree it probably would have been mentioned though.

To the OP, good luck! Sounds like they were impressed.

The ones I've worked with were always going out and physically installing/replacing switches, routers, etc. I've seen them plug directly into them to configure them too. Once everything is in place they're usually at their desk doing everything remotely though.

Chipsch

Was already told that a lot of eyes would be on me to make sure things stay afloat. Not a big deal though, handle pressure well. As for remote work that wasn't really mentioned, though it was mentioned that when something happens 99% of it is fixed from home. Mostly the job consists of being the senior network guru for two data centers and coordinating customer turn ups with clients that span a large majority of the country. Monitoring all of it and fix it quick should it drop. Lots of work with major telecom companies. Thanks for some of the tidbits of info as far as what to expect though. OOO another plus is that it has already been said that they will cover the ccie and really want me to finish pushing for it. Might be taking some time off from school to blast that sucker out of the water.

millworx

Everyone wrote: »

That most likely would have been mentioned in the interview process. A Network Engineer role would most likely require quite a bit of physical access to the equipment, so probably not likely just because of the nature of the work being done.

Depends on the company you work for. At my job we have implementation teams for physical installation. The only time I touch equipment is when we are mocking up new deployments in the lab.

The rest of my work is all on routers and systems spread throughout the world. So I work almost primarily from home.

So in that respect I guess it depends on what they are expecting of you as a network engineer, Implementation? Design? Maintenance? Some companies promote it, some frown on it.

Chipsch

Implementation, Design, and Maintenance will all fall under my jurisdiction. So yeah I'll be racking and stacking here and there....the good ole days. I would say the largest downside is that it looks like I will pretty much be the only person that can and will respond to network related issues. This is largely in part due to that they are still small, but they are growing rapidly. Going to be great exposure especially over the next few years when they plan to stand up several new Data Centers. I would be the lead on the design layout. That is fortunately something I am quite familiar with from the grounding/power all the way to the end product and watching it go live.

Turgon

Chipsch wrote: »

Wanted to make an inquiry to all of you guru's out there and see what your experiences may have been like working in a data center for a hosted service provider as a network engineer.

Reason I ask is that I had a phone interview last Friday and a face to face today. Face to face totaled 3 hours with 2 of it in person and another hour on the phone with different people. Went well and they are already moving onto references. So looks like this is moving pretty fast. Only downside is that my commute will be bumped to 63 miles each way. Gotta love the 40mpg I get on the Civic though. Only takes an hour and ten minutes roughly as well.

Sounds like a good opportunity. My advice to anyone working in IT now is to apply for as many senior positions as you can, try and land one, work your ass off and try and hang in there. Once you have a 12 month footprint of holding a senior position down your employability stakes rise. It's a hard school that doesn't suffer fools. The lower ranking jobs are a diminishing currency now. As for the work, depends on the shop, but expect long hours, meetings and lots of pressure on crisis calls where you will have to lead and resolve serious technical situations. You will not go home and read books to prepare for more exams. You will be too tired.

Chipsch

Turgon wrote: »

Sounds like a good opportunity. My advice to anyone working in IT now is to apply for as many senior positions as you can, try and land one, work your ass off and try and hang in there. Once you have a 12 month footprint of holding a senior position down your employability stakes rise. It's a hard school that doesn't suffer fools. The lower ranking jobs are a diminishing currency now. As for the work, depends on the shop, but expect long hours, meetings and lots of pressure on crisis calls where you will have to lead and resolve serious technical situations. You will not go home and read books to prepare for more exams. You will be too tired.

Thanks for the always helpful advice Turgon. As for being to tired for exams, the President of the company would like to see me with a written pass over the next few months and sitting the practical within the first 18 month deadline. Some luxuries will probably have to be pushed to the side for a while. I suppose these upcoming days and evenings could feel like 15 months of a sandbox all over again. *shudder*

VAHokie56

networker050184 wrote: »

Why would a network engineer require physical access? In all my time as an engineer I never once touched a physical piece of equipment besides some lab work. Definitely no more access then required by a systems engineer. I agree it probably would have been mentioned though.

To the OP, good luck! Sounds like they were impressed.

Never once?! just as a random example... if a switch doesn't come up after a remote IOS upgrade or something comparable you have never had to go out on the floor to console in and investigate?

networker050184

As an engineer no. If you are engineering you usually aren't involved in the day to day admin, racking etc. Guess it depends on what you consider an engineer. Some places call their helpdesk engineers so I guess it's a pretty broad term.

Turgon

Chipsch wrote: »

Thanks for the always helpful advice Turgon. As for being to tired for exams, the President of the company would like to see me with a written pass over the next few months and sitting the practical within the first 18 month deadline. Some luxuries will probably have to be pushed to the side for a while. I suppose these upcoming days and evenings could feel like 15 months of a sandbox all over again. *shudder*

If they want the written, never mind the lab, they have to be serious about affording you some studytime in the office 9 - 5. If you have a demanding job ahead, and it sounds like it will be, you will often be overrunning on your hours and working evenings and weekends. When you do get home you will be too nuked to study. The first few months you will need to throw everything you have at the job so you can bed in. Set expectations realistically if they want that number. Lots of guys on TE have CCIE aspirations but as the work and family commitments ramp up it gets harder to get through the track and remain on top form at work and at home. There's plenty of commitment on TE to get through it, but I think only a handful have the last few years. It takes time and energy to pack in quality study hours.

Chipsch

Got an offer today and took it. Nice pay increase and will be getting the heck out of the public sector. Only had one year invested as a civil servant so not losing a lot there. Couldn't be happier right now. Put in my two weeks tomorrow to make it official.

Turgon

well done man!

Chipsch

Turgon wrote: »

well done man!

Thanks Turgon! Already have a lot I am looking at from the moment I step through their doors. Will be migrating off of a PIX FW High availability setup to ASA's. They also have two 6509's in one data center that they want redundant. Gonna push to have the sup's upgraded and go with a VSS setup for that. Thats just to name a few. Lots of new tools to get accustomed to also so gonna be really throwing myself into this gig hard.

Everyone

Congrats!

Wow they still have 6509s? I'm not a networking guy, but I remember helping to take a bunch of old 6509s to certify their destruction 4 or 5 years ago, and they were old back then!

Good luck in your job!

Turgon

Everyone wrote: »

Congrats!

Wow they still have 6509s? I'm not a networking guy, but I remember helping to take a bunch of old 6509s to certify their destruction 4 or 5 years ago, and they were old back then!

Good luck in your job!

6509-e is more common these days. But those things are a fortress, they run and run if you keep on top of the sup upgrades, chassis upgrades and blades. You find them everywhere!