ISP vs. MSP
BioHunta
Member Posts: 10 ■□□□□□□□□□
Looking for some insight on this, as I'm still a little green to the IT field (about 2 years experience). I have an idea of what I want to do, but want to hear the opinion of others more experienced than me.
I'm in the fortunate position right now of looking at 2 job offers. One is with an MSP/Consulting company, and the other is with a growing ISP (national presence, but not quite the size of like a Charter/Comcast/Time-Warner)
The MSP is a medium-sized (200-300 employee) company that has been around for awhile. They deal mainly with Cisco, VMware, and EMC products. They are looking to hire a Customer Service Engineer. I'd be doing phone support for their customers on Cisco products (Route, Switch, Voice, Security, Wireless, etc...), with the chance to move into other products as I chose. The company is debt free, will pay for any training or certs I want (including lab setup), and has a lot of room for personal growth.
The position with the ISP is for a similarly sized company. They are looking to hire someone for a Network Operations Specialist role. I'd be doing project work on expanding their network, both for external customers and for internal IT assets. Based on the job description, it sounds like I'd be doing more of the IP routing/switching side of things, and less on the cable tv/phone side of things (which I like). They will pay for training, are debt free as well, and are building a new HQ as we speak.
My question is, does anyone have any good insight into the differences between these work environments? Or more generally, does anyone have any arguments as to working for one vs. the other? The benefits and pay are very similar, so I'd factor those out if possible.
Thank you for the assistance!
- Josh
I'm in the fortunate position right now of looking at 2 job offers. One is with an MSP/Consulting company, and the other is with a growing ISP (national presence, but not quite the size of like a Charter/Comcast/Time-Warner)
The MSP is a medium-sized (200-300 employee) company that has been around for awhile. They deal mainly with Cisco, VMware, and EMC products. They are looking to hire a Customer Service Engineer. I'd be doing phone support for their customers on Cisco products (Route, Switch, Voice, Security, Wireless, etc...), with the chance to move into other products as I chose. The company is debt free, will pay for any training or certs I want (including lab setup), and has a lot of room for personal growth.
The position with the ISP is for a similarly sized company. They are looking to hire someone for a Network Operations Specialist role. I'd be doing project work on expanding their network, both for external customers and for internal IT assets. Based on the job description, it sounds like I'd be doing more of the IP routing/switching side of things, and less on the cable tv/phone side of things (which I like). They will pay for training, are debt free as well, and are building a new HQ as we speak.
My question is, does anyone have any good insight into the differences between these work environments? Or more generally, does anyone have any arguments as to working for one vs. the other? The benefits and pay are very similar, so I'd factor those out if possible.
Thank you for the assistance!
- Josh
Comments
-
ande0255
Banned Posts: 1,178
I will say right off the bat at the MSP you will be doing more actual configs, where as an ISP you will be handing your configs up to an engineer to configure the changes. My official title is Support Desk Technician II, and I regularly reconfigure customer ACL / NAT policies, as well as everything voice related.
I personally would say MSP hands down, as the experience you will gain from work in dozens of multi-vendor environments, that puts you WAY higher in the IT job market than any entry level ISP position.
I have worked for an MSP for about 2 months, and the amount of stuff I've learned, I will never not nail an interview again. Definitely MSP, I just can't say that enough. -
networker050184
Mod Posts: 11,962 Mod
It really depends on what you want to do with your career. I wouldn't even consider the MSP position personally, but that is because I've focused my career on the ISP side. I love the large, complex nation wide networks. Nothing like designing a change that affects a million customers to get the blood pumping!
You will probably get a lot more votes for the MSP side of things here on TechExams because most people are on the Enterprise side rather than the ISP side of the house. Don't let that sway you if you are interested in the ISP side though.An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made. -
rowelld
Member Posts: 176
Since you're early in your career either route will be beneficial. It's down to preference at this point. Which company offers better benefits?Visit my blog: http://www.packet6.com - I'm on the CWNE journey!