Networking career question

N2IT

I was wondering what skills you would recommend for someone who wanted to get into a NOC or some sort of beginning networking position.

I interview the employees and ask them their career goals and try to help them along the way. It's my way of saying thanks. I do it verbally but I also like to try to help them get to where they want to go.

He has a bachelors in Management Information Systems and his MCP, A+ and N+, Server +, but I don't think those certifications will help all that much. He is a super hard worker and a great guy so I would like to present him with as much good information as possible.

Thanks again,

Forsaken_GA

N2IT wrote: »

I was wondering what skills you would recommend for someone who wanted to get into a NOC or some sort of beginning networking position.

I interview the employees and ask them their career goals and try to help them along the way. It's my way of saying thanks. I do it verbally but I also like to try to help them get to where they want to go.

He has a bachelors in Management Information Systems and his MCP, A+ and N+, Server +, but I don't think those certifications will help all that much. He is a super hard worker and a great guy so I would like to present him with as much good information as possible.

Thanks again,

It all depends on what part of networking he wants to go into, as it's a fairly broad category. Does he want to be a route/switch engineer? An SP engineer? A voice engineer? Focus on security?

If he can't answer that question, then it's hard to give good advice. If he wants to do it all, then he needs to understand that he *still* needs to pick a focus and begin there, and then start picking up the other skills. It'll be easier, as there is some bleed between the tracks (for example, try being an R&S guy these days and do no security, see how well it works)

N2IT

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

It all depends on what part of networking he wants to go into, as it's a fairly broad category. Does he want to be a route/switch engineer? An SP engineer? A voice engineer? Focus on security?

If he can't answer that question, then it's hard to give good advice. If he wants to do it all, then he needs to understand that he *still* needs to pick a focus and begin there, and then start picking up the other skills. It'll be easier, as there is some bleed between the tracks (for example, try being an R&S guy these days and do no security, see how well it works)

I'm just not qualified to help him out I suppose.

The only idea I had was to start playing around with Cisco or Juniper equipment and study the entry level material.

Pretty basic and lame I suppose lol

onesaint

N2IT wrote: »

I'm just not qualified to help him out I suppose.

The only idea I had was to start playing around with Cisco or Juniper equipment and study the entry level material.

Pretty basic and lame I suppose lol

I wouldn't say so. Having a manager on his side that reaches out to help is a pretty fantastic thing. He's one lucky employee and your advice isn't far off, in my opinion.

Although, I agree with Forsaken, I think shooting for his CCENT/CCNA or the equivalent Juniper cert. would be a good place to start and give him an understanding of what lies ahead. Possibly a course at a local CC geared towards the CCNA, so he can get some rack time in would be good. Have him start reading the TCP/ip guide, or TCP/IP Illustrated Vol:1, and one of the vendor specific entry level networking books. With his research into that he should gain a good idea of the path he wants to follow and what it will take to gain a Jr. NOC position.

Webmaster

N2IT wrote: »

The only idea I had was to start playing around with Cisco or Juniper equipment and study the entry level material.

Pretty basic and lame I suppose lol

Not a bad idea for someone who wants "some sort of beginning networking position" imo. I had a manager once who gave me a 2501 and a 1601 to "play" with during work (and didn't gave the passwords) and although I had some experience with "networking" before that, actually "touching" and configuring real Cisco equipment sure gave me a taste for more networking and a better idea of what I'd actually be doing if I wanted to go more in that direction (it was simply net admin vs sys admin back then ).

Regardless of the direction he wants to go eventually I think CCNA is a good start. He can figure out if he wants to go for CCNA security or voice after that or continue with CCNP, or go Juniper, in any case the CCNA won't be a waste.

N2IT

I really like the idea of the community college and the use of Cisco equipment in the home. I will mention both of these. I spoke to him yesterday and he went up to Borders and purchased the CCENT/CCNA lab book set from Cisco for 60% off. I told him he should go into procurement/purchasing with those skills

filkenjitsu

I have close to 4 years experience in a telecommunications NOC (Cisco MPLS network, Cellular Sites/MTSOs, Voicemail, etc) and the way I got into the position was to work my way up internally from tech position to tech position. It all came together when I had about 3 years of experience between two different tech positions that are very entry level. I was also working on my bachelors in telecommunications at the time and got my NOC job 2 quarters before graduation. I did have an associates in Computer networking completed as well.

Is this NOC job available within your organization? If so, all he has to do is arrange a day where he can shadow a NOC associate during their normal day to where he can get in and get to know some people on the team / make connections. We have a process for this in my company where it is encouraged to work alongside another department once a year at least for a whole shift to know the company better. I do not know if your company has a similar internal program or if your company even has a NOC. If your company has a NOC all you need to do is find out the leadership info of that team and write an email asking what they look for in a NOC Technician when they hire. Then start setting up some connections for your associate where he can directly email the manager or a team lead in the NOC to ask questions about the specifics of what he must know / what he should train in.

It is all about making connections within the company and showing you have a good attitude that will get you that first entry level job.

If your company does not have a NOC he may need to move on to another place of employment.