What did I get myself into?

Well I am into my second week of my new job with HP Enterprise Services. I went from a Network "Control" Center, not operations center, into a very large data center. From a certification stand point, I am going to a CCNA level to a CCIE level job. These past few days I have wondered what was I thinking taking this job? Of course is was the pay and vast hands on experience I could receive, but I have not prepared to zip into expert level equipment. Some of the devices I will be working with are the Cisco 6500 L3 switches, Nexus 2K/5K/7K's, ACE modules, Cisco Blade Servers, Brocade switches, F5 load balancing, and Cisco VOIP Call Managers.

Our network team consists of 6 people, work Mon - Fri 8 - 5, and responds to outages 24/365. They seem to be very helpful and willing to train me and get me up to speed. I will see how the next few weeks go, and hope to not get canned.

Time for a jack and coke.

Find more posts tagged with

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

FloOz

Im sure in a few weeks you will not be saying the same thing

You will see how fast you learn the technology and are able to do your job to the fullest. They wouldn't of hired you if they didn't believe you could do the job.

the_Grinch

They obviously saw something in you if they hired you, so don't sweat it. Any job is overwhelming when you first start, but as Flo0z said in a few weeks you'll feel like a pro!

Deathgomper

FloOz wrote: »

Im sure in a few weeks you will not be saying the same thing You will see how fast you learn the technology and are able to do your job to the fullest. They wouldn't of hired you if they didn't believe you could do the job.

I agree, onward through the storm till you come out the other side. Careful with the Jack n' Cokes during the week.

RouteMyPacket

vanquish23 wrote: »

Well I am into my second week of my new job with HP Enterprise Services. I went from a Network "Control" Center, not operations center, into a very large data center. From a certification stand point, I am going to a CCNA level to a CCIE level job. These past few days I have wondered what was I thinking taking this job? Of course is was the pay and vast hands on experience I could receive, but I have not prepared to zip into expert level equipment. Some of the devices I will be working with are the Cisco 6500 L3 switches, Nexus 2K/5K/7K's, ACE modules, Cisco Blade Servers, Brocade switches, F5 load balancing, and Cisco VOIP Call Managers.

Our network team consists of 6 people, work Mon - Fri 8 - 5, and responds to outages 24/365. They seem to be very helpful and willing to train me and get me up to speed. I will see how the next few weeks go, and hope to not get canned.

Time for a jack and coke.

Listen son, you need to be slamming Jack n Coke's in celebration! On top of that, your team members are helpful and willing to train? You should be drooling over that opportunity.

Keep your head to the grind stone and get as much as you can out of the experience.

Zartanasaurus

vanquish23 wrote: »

Well I am into my second week of my new job with HP Enterprise Services. Some of the devices I will be working with are the Cisco 6500 L3 switches, Nexus 2K/5K/7K's, ACE modules, Cisco Blade Servers, Brocade switches, F5 load balancing, and Cisco VOIP Call Managers.

Time for a jack and coke.

Do you actually support any HP equipment at HP?

DPG

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

Do you actually support any HP equipment at HP?

He probably won't if he is supporting data center network products.

sieff

good stuff, sounds like lots of studying involved.

vanquish23

Zartanasaurus wrote: »

Do you actually support any HP equipment at HP?

HP Blade Servers, but we just do the network configuration for them.

CodeBlox

Would that happen to be for NMCI in Norfolk? I was working on their helpdesk until I quit 6 months ago. I always walked by the datacenter room on the way to lunch.

vanquish23

CodeBlox wrote: »

Would that happen to be for NMCI in Norfolk? I was working on their helpdesk until I quit 6 months ago. I always walked by the datacenter room on the way to lunch.

Nope, but can't mention who the customer is. Sorry.

higherho

Take the risk

Just look back how quick you adapted to other positions in your past and just apply that same logic to this one. I was in a position similar when I took a higher end Sys admin role and for two weeks straight I put in 9 hour shifts and reviewed technologies at home / read up on them so I can understand the fundamentals and grow.

Major thing about being in IT is your ability to adapt and learn and honestly I think you can learn pretty quick.

EDIT

I learned Brocade Fiber switches (in relation to connecting to Fiber channel SANS) and creating a trunk between two fiber switches so I can perform data transfer from an EMC SAN to a Dell complienant. It's not hard as long as you understand the basic fundamentals of networking and servers.

vanquish23

higherho wrote: »

Take the risk Just look back how quick you adapted to other positions in your past and just apply that same logic to this one. I was in a position similar when I took a higher end Sys admin role and for two weeks straight I put in 9 hour shifts and reviewed technologies at home / read up on them so I can understand the fundamentals and grow.

Major thing about being in IT is your ability to adapt and learn and honestly I think you can learn pretty quick.

EDIT

I learned Brocade Fiber switches (in relation to connecting to Fiber channel SANS) and creating a trunk between two fiber switches so I can perform data transfer from an EMC SAN to a Dell complienant. It's not hard as long as you understand the basic fundamentals of networking and servers.

The problem with Brocade is they change the commands up enough to jar your mind. Its like trying to take on Cisco and Juniper.

higherho

vanquish23 wrote: »

The problem with Brocade is they change the commands up enough to jar your mind. Its like trying to take on Cisco and Juniper.

Yea thats true, one thing though I do like Brocade's software GUI much better than ASDM.

kohr-ah

vanquish23 wrote: »

Well I am into my second week of my new job with HP Enterprise Services. I went from a Network "Control" Center, not operations center, into a very large data center. From a certification stand point, I am going to a CCNA level to a CCIE level job. These past few days I have wondered what was I thinking taking this job? Of course is was the pay and vast hands on experience I could receive, but I have not prepared to zip into expert level equipment. Some of the devices I will be working with are the Cisco 6500 L3 switches, Nexus 2K/5K/7K's, ACE modules, Cisco Blade Servers, Brocade switches, F5 load balancing, and Cisco VOIP Call Managers.

Our network team consists of 6 people, work Mon - Fri 8 - 5, and responds to outages 24/365. They seem to be very helpful and willing to train me and get me up to speed. I will see how the next few weeks go, and hope to not get canned.

Time for a jack and coke.

Dont worry about it and keep going forward. Trust me. It is a pain in the ass at first but you have people training you on what to do.

I went from fixing printers at point point to running a dorm alone with 1800 college kids and over 100 pieces of cisco equipment and I had no support. I had to learn to program a Network Admission Control system alone, Call manager 4.1 (OLLLLDDD!), AD servers, Cisco 6509 which was still on CATOS, and more. I had some rough times but now I know that site in and out after a year and I get asked by CCIEs about what to do about that site.

Trust me. Use this experience. It will help you in your career.

astrogeek

That sounds like a great job with loads of potential, congrats!

vanquish23

Well its been almost a year now in October, and I have learned a lot. You really get your mind going when your on call and something breaks at the aggregation layer and customers are screaming.

I would say I learned enough to complete the CCNP Switch and T-Shoot since I have started working here. When I look at the CCNP portable command guide, we use those commands on a daily basis at the data center. I have even ordered CCIE books a few months ago because my coworker keeps pushing me to read them (he has been in networking since they invested TCP/IP it seems like). We have a WAN provider for our routing and that would be my weakest part for the CCNP tests. I can do a little troubleshooting at the core/edge for BGB and OSPF but not great detail.

Anyway, just wanted to give an update. Really interested in the Cisco design books and working with Nexus equipment.