Confused where to go from current 2-year NOC position

First I would like to thank everyone for taking a look at my thread. I am new to these forums, so if I posted in the wrong section, please forgive me.

I have been working a NOC position for almost 2 years now..i'll be 2years next month..FORTUNATELY , the company i work for is alil small, so the NOC responsibilities are quite a bit...I am CCNA, N+ and CCNP certitified and currently working to receive my SIP-Certification...... but barely get to use the knowledge learned from my self-studies...every so often i'll offer my free-time( on my days off) to work with the Engineering department ( i.e. configuring routers/switches for customer deployment and varies other Engineering projects.)...

The ISP I work for is very big on Voice services, so i do a lot of monitoring of not only Data circuits, but voip services as well ( filtering via ACL's when needed; I'm also allowed to make changes within the companies HBPX systems when needed)... Out of an 8-man NOC team, i'm the only with the Certifications I listed above, which provided me with the trust from the Engineering department to make certain configuration changes within our core network (route changes, interface configurations, testing MPLS-layer 2 ckts ; just to name a few).....

From what I hear about other NOC positions...being that this is my first tech job..I feel very lucky to have the experience in some of the areas above...BUT..I am still a Tier-3 NOC-tech and would like to move up...unfortunately there are no openings for the Eng department.

Even tho I've only been working in IT for 2-years..i still feel like a Noob..so i'm not too sure where to go from here....the company I work for is kind of like most companies in this country..tons of work and paying WAY below the standard....sometimes I feel like i'm being taken advantage of and would like to move on...and theres this other part of me that says. " Milk the knowledge for as long as you can"....then leave....

Question:...per the above..where should I go from here?...please hint as to what I can shoot for...I've already tried looking for Network Engineering jobs..but those positions are WAY out of my league..is there an inbetween??..or is the NOC the inbetween?..please help

P.S.
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Per the above, I know to some of you think that this thread sounds like someone who is just gloating about their experience...and you would be wrong if you thought that was the case...i merely just wanted to advise of my knowledge so maybe a Senior Tech/Engineer can point me in the right direction based on my experiences.

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Comments

Jackace

It really depends on where you live and if you are willing to move. From what I have seen though your experience is more than adequate for a level 1 network engineering position. If I was you I would quietly start looking for a new job, but I am always looking for something new and keeping my ear to the ground.

effekted

flatman123 wrote: »

....the company I work for is kind of like most companies in this country..tons of work and paying WAY below the standard....sometimes I feel like i'm being taken advantage of and would like to move on...and theres this other part of me that says. " Milk the knowledge for as long as you can"....then leave....

I'm in this position. I recently expressed my opinion on the matter with how I'm being paid, my managers have been fighting in my favor but at the VP and above level they're denying it. Moral of the story, I am going to focus and work towards my CCNP this year and go elsewhere to start making closer to market. I am almost to the point of taking a lateral move (especially if it's a remote position) just out of principal.

ChickenNuggetz

Honestly, with your certifications and your experience, it sounds like you should be working as a junior network engineer at the very least. If there is no room for advancement, you feel underpaid, and you want more responsibilities, it sounds like you need to start looking for another job! You will see this on these forums all the time that it's generally accepted in IT that if you want to make more money/promotion, you'll have to jump ship and move on to another company.

Before jumping ship, I'd consider doing the following: talk to your management and tell them you'd like to move up to the Eng team for xyz reason. You have the experience and the certs. Be blunt, tell them you want more responsibilities and you want more pay. Tell them you want to be challenged. If they dont do anything to help you out, that's your queue to jump ship and move on to greener fields...