Looking for a reality check

I won't post too many details here as I don't want to be identified, however I'm looking for a reality check for my current position. I'm feeling like I should jump ship due to a different location. I'm currently employed in title as a network admin, payed below market average for that role, where my responsibilities appear to fall more under the network engineer flavor-I am the single person out of a ~20 or so sized IT department responsible for ~800 switches, along with firewalls, routers, etc-anything with a Cisco label on it. When I get a project, I do everything from the initial design and config building, to pulling cable if necessary and racking and stacking. I am also responsible for any troubleshooting/outage situations. I am on call 24/7 for everything from outages to changing a vlan on a port. Experience wise, I have ~ 2 years experience, and the certs listed in my profile. Compensation is 15k below market average for my area.

Initially, I liked being the subject matter expert for Cisco (which is funny when all I have is a CCNA and 2 years experience for an org with 1000+ employees). The problem I'm facing now however, is that I'm finding it very difficult to establish a work life balance when I'm constantly getting calls, no matter where I am, for all manner of tasks. There are some other issues..internal communication seems to be rather poor and I'm constantly finding out about something the day it is due or the day before, and as such, feel like I'm having to burn at 110% just to stay on top of assigned projects-I'm consistently clocking in 12, 14 hour days plus weekend time, with no compensation, to stay afloat. Lastly, the training policy...I am not able to go to training because, if you can find it on the internet, management can't justify sending you-this came from management.

I recently interviewed with a position at an MSP which would put me in a role which sounds something like pre-sales/post sales with a focus on redesigning customer networks and providing tier 3 support for assigned accounts. It sounds interesting to me, the only concern is they don't deal much with Cisco due to cost. Thoughts?

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Comments

networker050184

Well, I think you know the answer. You are over worked and under appreciated. I would bring these same things you are posting here up to your management and ask for more money, the title of engineer, etc. If they don't want to give you a fair deal move on.

On the purely Cisco thing I wouldn't worry about it. Working with different vendors is the norm in this industry and pigeon holing yourself on Cisco only will do more hard for your career than good in the long run.

malias

Thanks networker-the decision does seem to be made up in my mind, but as I'm still fairly new to the industry, I wanted to get a gauge for my current situation and some opinions.

I have suggested that to my management and it was rejected. I was told they would have to pay me too much to give me an engineer title..

networker050184

So they want an engineer but don't want to pay engineer wages. Time to polish up the resume my friend.

kohr-ah

networker050184 wrote: »

So they want an engineer but don't want to pay engineer wages. Time to polish up the resume my friend.

I agree. Find someone that will pay you and appreciate you for it.
Hardest thing I had to teach myself was in the end. It is just a job and there are lots more out there.
(Just make sure you have a job lined up before you quit)

RouteMyPacket

How can you NOT monitor your network 24x7? You should have everything you need setup so you will be notified when something goes down to when throughput thresholds have been exceeded.

To me it sounds like you are doing what most of us did, paying your dues. Here is what I would do

1. Keep at it for now, it's building your resume
2. Start looking around for other opportunities, continue to test the waters to see what's out there

2yrs + CCNA is good and to be honest your current situation isn't "bad" for someone with your exp/certs. I've used positions exactly like that for what they are, nice resume builder. What I mean is, as you've noticed you most likely may not get another position with that much control over a network somewhere else.

I also came to the vendor thing not long ago, better in the long run to be diversified and not a strict "Cisco" guy.

kriscamaro68

malias wrote: »

Thanks networker-the decision does seem to be made up in my mind, but as I'm still fairly new to the industry, I wanted to get a gauge for my current situation and some opinions.

I have suggested that to my management and it was rejected. I was told they would have to pay me too much to give me an engineer title..

If this is what they said then get the hell out of there.

daviddws

Before you jump ship, let your managers know your concerns. Explain to them how it is affecting you and request some changes. Your managers will appreciate this, and you have a good chance for some help or compensation. If they say there is nothing that can be done, then you know where you stand and you can make the appropriate plans for new employment.

FloOz

Sounds like you are getting some really great experience there. Polish up that resume, I am sure you could get a well paying gig for the experience you have with those technologies.

malias

RouteMyPacket wrote: »

How can you NOT monitor your network 24x7? You should have everything you need setup so you will be notified when something goes down to when throughput thresholds have been exceeded.To me it sounds like you are doing what most of us did, paying your dues. Here is what I would do1. Keep at it for now, it's building your resume2. Start looking around for other opportunities, continue to test the waters to see what's out there2yrs + CCNA is good and to be honest your current situation isn't "bad" for someone with your exp/certs. I've used positions exactly like that for what they are, nice resume builder. What I mean is, as you've noticed you most likely may not get another position with that much control over a network somewhere else.I also came to the vendor thing not long ago, better in the long run to be diversified and not a strict "Cisco" guy.

I do monitor my network..I have a monitoring system in place. However the odds that I am going to wake up to a "beep" email tone on my phone due to some incident occuring in my NMS at 3am is a little low, or I'm out at a movie, or what have you-it feels like I can't ever do anything else except work. Maybe this is a topic for another thread, but how do you guys get that work/life separation? Also, basically expected to watch both the SIEM and the NMS-maybe I haven't set up the alerts quite right, but it seems to me that there is still a level of manual correlation and analysis that needs to be done by hand to piece trends together in that a bad situation is about to happen or something is about to break (had a spanning tree issue not long ago-it didn't sound off the alarm bells on the NMS, but it was certainly there, I ended up correcting the issue however after reviewing the complaints and digging through the log files).

malias

Thank you guys for the replies. I don't mean to complain about my current job-I know I have it pretty good for only having 2 years in the field, in that I'm not in the helpdesk trenches. I just mostly wanted some advice and perspective, like if what I'm currently experiencing the norm for this industry, and I just need to adjust better to the demands and 24/7 perspective.

networker050184

It is the norm in some position, others not so much. It just really depends. The point though is your compensation should match the demands.

PurpleIT

Consider this a +1 - you seem to have your act together and if what you say about your managers is true, nothing you say or do is going to change the way they treat you.

Take it from me, it is better to leave a job when you want to rather than when you have to. You are showing the signs of burnout; move along before you are just a smoldering remnant.

As for the Cisco only / CCIE issue; I don't spend a lot of time hanging out with CCIEs, but I will bet you the best ones are the guys with varied knowledge and experience. Cisco has the name recognition and CCIE has the cachet, but it's a big ol' world out there and demonstrating you can adapt and excel is mighty valuable.

malias

What I'm trying to find in a different employer is some sort of on call rotation. or at least a NOC that can handle some light network tasks so my on call nature is limited to more serious/critical reason then some of the stuff I've been called for-unless I need to work on setting expectations better? Any tips there? Appropriate compensation would be nice. My fear is burning out-I love working with IT, I'd hate for a job to kill that passion due to being overloaded.

networker050184

Usually once you get into the engineering side, and out of the day to day operations, on call goes away. Or as you mentioned it's more of an escalation type on call. Not being called for every little thing. It's been a few years now since I've been part of any official on call. I still get a call now and then when things really hit the fan, but it's more of a two or three times a year deal.

Dieg0M

networker050184 wrote: »

Usually once you get into the engineering side, and out of the day to day operations, on call goes away. Or as you mentioned it's more of an escalation type on call. Not being called for every little thing. It's been a few years now since I've been part of any official on call. I still get a call now and then when things really hit the fan, but it's more of a two or three times a year deal.

It really depends, all of our engineer's are on call 1 week in rotation over the year. Some of these guys are CCIE's 1XXXX. I would not worry so much about the on call if they pay you for it.

networker050184

Do you not have an operations/admin group that handles that? I guess it really depends on the size of the company and whether you have separate engineering and operations groups.

Dieg0M

We do have an operation group, they create a ticket and calls us when a sev 3 or higher occurs. For anything that does not come back up and requires troubleshooting, it is escalated to on call network engineer.

malias

Just an update here. I tried working things out with my current employer. Asked for a title change at the least, was literally laughed at, and basically told-yes you are doing engineer work, but we don't want to call you one or pay you as one due to lack of perceived value.

No second thoughts now after that exchange. Pumped out the resumes, had multiple interviews and technical knowledge inquisitions, and am now in the process of waiting to hear back from 4 different places.

EdTheLad

Good stuff, i would leave and never look back. All too often the techie guys don't get the credit they deserve.

markulous

malias wrote: »

Just an update here. I tried working things out with my current employer. Asked for a title change at the least, was literally laughed at, and basically told-yes you are doing engineer work, but we don't want to call you one or pay you as one due to lack of perceived value.

No second thoughts now after that exchange. Pumped out the resumes, had multiple interviews and technical knowledge inquisitions, and am now in the process of waiting to hear back from 4 different places.

Good luck. You did the right thing. Not sure why they would laugh at you as that is a bit unprofessional. But it is good experience and you should be able to get a lot better job because of it.

100k

Dieg0M wrote: »

We do have an operation group, they create a ticket and calls us when a sev 3 or higher occurs. For anything that does not come back up and requires troubleshooting, it is escalated to on call network engineer.

Thats just the motivation you needed. see you at that 100k mark

loxleynew

malias wrote: »

Just an update here. I tried working things out with my current employer. Asked for a title change at the least, was literally laughed at, and basically told-yes you are doing engineer work, but we don't want to call you one or pay you as one due to lack of perceived value.

No second thoughts now after that exchange. Pumped out the resumes, had multiple interviews and technical knowledge inquisitions, and am now in the process of waiting to hear back from 4 different places.

Sweet man! good luck and screw your old job.

gorebrush

Sweet. That's what I've done in the past when I get too fed up. Companies *rarely* offer more money or anything, so I leave.

When I leave, I don't expect people to try and hold onto me - they can find another engineer easily enough. Just worry about your position and do whatever you can to make it better.

izatt82

I think we have all felt your pain. Don't be worried about jumping ship.

Don't cut yourself short either get a new job you really want.

Cert Poor

You made the right choice, and I commiserate. I'm currently in the same boat but haven't started applying for jobs yet.