A Question or Two for Network Admins (and Engineers too)

First post, lurked for quite a while.
I've gone back to school for a second degree, this time in CIS (networking specialization) and have a project that happens to be very beneficial to me and my future career path. A short discussion on the career of Network Administrator's.
Any and all info would be greatly appreciated, not only for the project but for me since this is where I believe my career lies.

What requirements (educational, experience, misc) did you find necessary to obtain your current position?
What certifications do you hold?
What is your pay range? - generally speaking, of course
What responsibilities do you have vs a network tech or engineer?

If this would be better suited on one of the cisco boards please let me know.

Thanks in advance and I look forward to posting more on here.

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Comments

nhan.ng

I'm not in any of those positions, but i can say that experience is key.

What are you doing right now. Tell us a little and maybe we can tell you how you'll be able to get there.

jcole4lsu

Working in a non tech related career. BS in economics. HATE IT.
I dont have a lot of bills right now and the wife made it clear that if I wanted to change careers, it was now or never. I chose now.

As soon as I am able, I will take a entry level tech position to start getting experience, I just cant do that right this moment. AAS in computer networking will have to suffice for now. The program I am in has 4 cisco specific classes in the degree plan. I should be done in 18 months, provided certain classes are available when I need them to be.

I'll also be looking to get a couple of basic level certs on my own before graduating. I assume A+ and Net+ dont really require any work experience to have a reasonable shot at completion. I am reasonably intelligent and work pretty well at learning on my own.

jcole4lsu

bump for any admins who may have missed the op. anyone have any input on what challenges you face as a network admin and how you arrived at your current position?

shodown

Its a hustle, knowing what you have to know when you have to know it, and opportunity, and being a Competitor

1. Hustle. There is a lack of this in the IT community, we think hard work alone is going to get us there. Combination of hard work and smart work with a Hustlers's attitude is going to get you there.

2. Knowing what you have to know when you have to know it. Lab, Lab, Lab, study, study, study. Test yourself to see where you stand. .

3. You have to be in a market where there are jobs at and you have to be with the right company.

4. You have to love to compete. This sounds weird, but as an example I was passed over by a company, and ended up at a competitor. We deal in a few areas they don't have speciality in. So at every opportunity I get I show how good our company is and go far beyond what the other company will do and we have taken business from them. Nothing feels more better than getting to write the same guys who I interviewed with to setup a conference for them to hand the keys over:). I've done this a few times already.

As for specifics, I use every min at my job to learn. Always dedicated off time to study IT and Business in general(speaking, writing, team playing). WHen I felt a job had nothing else to offer, I took what i knew and offered my services elsehwere.

Tackle

What requirements (educational, experience, misc) did you find necessary to obtain your current position? They asked for bachelors and 1-2 years expierence. I had neither. Only an AAS with fixing friends/family's pc's for expierence. I was a smooth talker in the interview (Boss said they hired me because of my personality). They gave a list of technologies I needed to know at the first interview. Went home and studied them, came back for the second interview and showed/told them what I had learned. I could name the function and reason and basic setup for using everything on the list.

What certifications do you hold? 70-642, only reason I got it was so they could keep the MS partnership.

What is your pay range? - in the 30's. Small business plays a factor in it. Less than 50 employees.

What responsibilities do you have vs a network tech or engineer?
Only 2 techs here. Myself and my Boss. He handles all customer Server issues (We create an ERP software) I do internal stuff. From swapping mice to installing/managing the switchs/firewall/Servers and everything in between. We have 6 ESXi boxes, 3 switches, 20 some servers. My title is "Assistant Network Engineer" his is "Senior Network Engineer" I think he has it only casue he's old for the IT world.

jakecitrix

they job asked for mcts Or mcp

I had mcitp ea and network +

my salery is 45k now (more with over time) i am still a teen got a flashy car too

I am a junior i.t engineer, and do a little bit of everything before this role i had like a year of i.t engineer level exp.

TLeTourneau

What requirements (educational, experience, misc) did you find necessary to obtain your current position?
They wanted a bachelors degree, I had certs and over 10 years experience.

What certifications do you hold?
They are listed on the left.

What is your pay range?
70k+ plus full benifits.

What responsibilities do you have vs a network tech or engineer?
I'm a Systems Engineer so alot of server maintenance. Our company has seperate groups for network support, app support, storage, etc. My group takes care of Windows servers and virtualization.

instant000

jcole4lsu wrote: »

First post, lurked for quite a while.
I've gone back to school for a second degree, this time in CIS (networking specialization) and have a project that happens to be very beneficial to me and my future career path. A short discussion on the career of Network Administrator's.
Any and all info would be greatly appreciated, not only for the project but for me since this is where I believe my career lies.

What requirements (educational, experience, misc) did you find necessary to obtain your current position?

> experience
>. security clearance
This is all that really mattered to get the position. At the time I was awarded the job, I didn't have the CCNA, I just got it since I'd be working there.

What certifications do you hold?

<<< look to the left

What is your pay range? - generally speaking, of course

> less than 100K.

What responsibilities do you have vs a network tech or engineer?

Firewall
VPN
Route
Switch
Proxy
IDS
RANCID
Google
Network Monitoring
Microsoft Excel (never seen so many spreadsheets in my life!)
Microsoft Visio (Diagrams, diagrams, diagrams)
Notepad (do most of my configuration building here)
Whiteboard (Planning, Teaching)
Telephone

If this would be better suited on one of the cisco boards please let me know.

This seems suited to the jobs/degrees forum.

Thanks in advance and I look forward to posting more on here.

You're welcome.

jcole4lsu

Lots of great info given in this thread, thanks to all who contributed so far.
General Question: if you were in my spot, ie not having any real hands on work experience, what would you do to make yourself the most marketable once you were prepared to enter the IT workforce?
Specific Question: how far would a AAS and say, net+ and a ccent get you, again sans work experience? still tier 1 helpdesk or maybe a little farther up the ladder?

pham0329

What requirements (educational, experience, misc) did you find necessary to obtain your current position? - If I didn't have my MCITP: EMA, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gotten the job as I was brought on to facilitate a 2007 to 2010 migration.
What certifications do you hold? - MCITP: SA and EMA, A+, Network+, CCNA, ITIL v3
What is your pay range? - generally speaking, of course - 60ish
What responsibilities do you have vs a network tech or engineer? I'm responsible for the "network", Exchange, VoIP, and our servers, but I do things like password resets, installing software, and everything else IT related.

ColbyG

What requirements (educational, experience, misc) did you find necessary to obtain your current position?
Certs and experience got me the interview. Knowledge got me the job.

What certifications do you hold?
CCNP, CCIP, CCDP, CCNA:Voice, JNCIA-ER, ITILv3

What is your pay range?
~90k

What responsibilities do you have vs a network tech or engineer?
I work for a Cisco partner. We provide services to customers. My focus is primarily route/switch along with some security.

it_consultant

I second almost everything everyone has said and I will add one thing to the "requirements" question is sound business and professional skills. Being able to talk the language of your company (or client in my case) has really helped me tremendously.