Question about career progression
MAC_Addy
Member Posts: 1,740 ■■■■□□□□□□
So, leaving out specifics; I don't want to reveal my true identity in case a coworker or two are on these forums. I'll try to be as vague and specific, if possible.
I have been in IT for over 12 years now. I have worked many jobs. Presently I am in a sort of Management position. I did have a 5 person team a year or so ago, but due to the company not doing so well, we had to let 3 of them go. I say sort of a management position because upper-management changed my title about a year ago.
Anyway, getting back on track. My goal is to work at a company, preferably a corporation, hospital, or somewhere well-known. The position I'd like is a Sr. Network Engineer. Though, since I have never worked at a NOC, would that hurt my chances? I have worked with Cisco, Juniper, and other vendor networking equipment for about 10 years now. I just recently decided to back up my knowledge by taking Cisco and possibly some Juniper certifications. For the past 5 years I have been working in a management role, but mainly taking on configuring ASA's, routers (voice and data), and switches. My other 7 and-a-bit years has been on the technical side of networking, but not a lot of configuring. Mainly, troubleshooting links and other networking problems. I have, to this day, been successful with troubleshooting and figuring out problems very, very quickly.
My goals for this year and next are to finally take my ICND2 and then go onto CCNP, and then backtrack to CCNA:Voice and CCNA:Security.
I know this is a bit of a hodge podge post, but any advice would be appreciated.
I have been in IT for over 12 years now. I have worked many jobs. Presently I am in a sort of Management position. I did have a 5 person team a year or so ago, but due to the company not doing so well, we had to let 3 of them go. I say sort of a management position because upper-management changed my title about a year ago.
Anyway, getting back on track. My goal is to work at a company, preferably a corporation, hospital, or somewhere well-known. The position I'd like is a Sr. Network Engineer. Though, since I have never worked at a NOC, would that hurt my chances? I have worked with Cisco, Juniper, and other vendor networking equipment for about 10 years now. I just recently decided to back up my knowledge by taking Cisco and possibly some Juniper certifications. For the past 5 years I have been working in a management role, but mainly taking on configuring ASA's, routers (voice and data), and switches. My other 7 and-a-bit years has been on the technical side of networking, but not a lot of configuring. Mainly, troubleshooting links and other networking problems. I have, to this day, been successful with troubleshooting and figuring out problems very, very quickly.
My goals for this year and next are to finally take my ICND2 and then go onto CCNP, and then backtrack to CCNA:Voice and CCNA:Security.
I know this is a bit of a hodge podge post, but any advice would be appreciated.
2017 Certification Goals:
CCNP R/S
CCNP R/S
Comments
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docrice
Member Posts: 1,706 ■■■■■■■■■■
I've never worked in a NOC, but I'm in a network operations team. You have experience troubleshooting and resolving network-related issues which is generally harder than just configuring. One can always learn the general setup and maintenance of devices from books, but troubleshooting is where the tests really are.Hopefully-useful stuff I've written: http://kimiushida.com/bitsandpieces/articles/ -
networker050184
Mod Posts: 11,962 Mod
Not working in a NOC isn't going to be a big deal assuming of course you can actually engineer a network. Only you know where your knowledge level is and if you have what it takes to be a senior level talent in the network engineering field.An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made. -
MAC_Addy
Member Posts: 1,740 ■■■■□□□□□□
docrice and networker, I appreciate your replies. That makes me feel a little better about looking in the future. Networker, if you were interviewing a candidate for a networking position, especially a Sr level position, what talents/certifications (if any) would you look for exactly? Sometimes "network engineering" is a very broad term when looking for a position. Although, when looking, I usually filter out anything that doesn't smell like an engineering job.2017 Certification Goals:
CCNP R/S -
networker050184
Mod Posts: 11,962 Mod
It is very broad so what specifics I'd look for would depend on the role. When I interview people now (ISP Engineering roles) I'm first looking for an in depth understanding of BGP, IGP (which ever one they are comfortable with) and MPLS. I don't care if you know certain commands, anyone can google those up, but knowing how BGP behaves is crucial to designing a network. If you can't give me the nuts and bolts of these we won't even move onto anything else. Certifications that line up with this would be Juniper or Cisco SP certifications.An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made.