Best area to assist Network Support team

Hello all,

I work in a company with about 6000 users. Our network engineering team is made up of 3 highly experienced engineers. Since I'm certified and have no experience which areas do you all think is best to "volunteer my assistance". I suppose this question is best suited for those already working as network engineers (or in that department).

Judging from experience what are some of those areas that they might typically need some assistance in and would not mind an inexperienced CCNP working on?

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BerkshireHerd

You passed CCIE-w and you have no experience? Its time to make a move somewhere else. You think it's tough trying to get involved while have a CCNP. Having CCIE will be that much harder.

I think you need to start looking for some middle tier NOC type roles and go from there.

Just my opinion though....

mnashe

egrizzly wrote: »

Hello all,

I work in a company with about 6000 users. Our network engineering team is made up of 3 highly experienced engineers. Since I'm certified and have no experience which areas do you all think is best to "volunteer my assistance". I suppose this question is best suited for those already working as network engineers (or in that department).

Judging from experience what are some of those areas that they might typically need some assistance in and would not mind an inexperienced CCNP working on?

How about seeing if you can help with switch deployments/upgrades if they have any to do. You may want to see if you can shadow them at first, build up that comfort level

nothimagain

networking seems so difficult to get into.

Danielm7

From all the other threads you've posted about this, it seems you don't actually have the CCIE. You might want to remove it from your cert listing as every time you start a thread the first thing people ask about is your CCIE, might make for more useful advice.

thomas_

After hours maintenances.

egrizzly

Danielm7 wrote: »

From all the other threads you've posted about this, it seems you don't actually have the CCIE. You might want to remove it from your cert listing as every time you start a thread the first thing people ask about is your CCIE, might make for more useful advice.

nice catch....plans do change. The CCIE study time got completely replaced with my BS, Information Systems study time. By the grace of the almighty I'll conquer Java III and graduate this December...amen.

Legacy User

Get cool with the network team. Once your cool with them ask if they are working on any projects. Once they tell you, seem generally interested and ask if you can help out with cabling or racking equipment after hours or whatever. I know places with small network teams with 1-3 overworked guy/gals they will be more then happy to take the extra help. What team are you on?

networker050184

Work on our scripting skills and help with auditing. No one likes doing that.

Your best bet is to just ask them what they need help with though. Obviously they'll know way more than us.

BuzzSaw

This is going to sound weird, but for me, the biggest help that I get from non experienced engineers is cable drops, patch panels, and moving equipment. This would be a great way to "get your foot in the door" so to speak. Once you have some trust to be able to do that, other things will come down the pipe.

However, I must also agree, you should be able to take your certs and move to a more middle of the road position even without experience.

egrizzly

dmarcisco wrote: »

Get cool with the network team. Once your cool with them ask if they are working on any projects. Once they tell you, seem generally interested and ask if you can help out with cabling or racking equipment after hours or whatever. I know places with small network teams with 1-3 overworked guy/gals they will be more then happy to take the extra help. What team are you on?

I'm at the helpdesk. my manager is a real pain.

Danielh22185

egrizzly wrote: »

I'm at the helpdesk. my manager is a real pain.

Dude get out of the help desk! Now! Even someone with a CCNA has no business in a help desk environment if they are genuinely interested in doing networking as their career focus. Sounds to me that you like your company and want to transition to a networking role internally but sometimes that is harder to do than looking elsewhere externally. If you are wanting to get into networking I would do what you can to get in locally but probably more focus on branching out and start applying to jobs like mad. Having an NP and no experience the best you get bet for is an entry level NOC role, at least to start. If your foundational knowledge is true due to your NP studies you should have no problems moving up quickly within that NOC role to higher level positions.

I can relate though, I was in THE EXACT same situation in 2012. I was a help desk analyst that just got my CCNA. I wanted to go into networking. Naturally I wanted to stay with my company. They even had an open entry level position I applied and interviewed for. However I felt like my current help desk role was actually damaging to me trying to move internally because I had no way to build network experience (they could care less about my certs because I had no experience). I felt they couldn't trust my abilities because of my help desk role.

So I said "the heck with it" and applied like crazy to external jobs. I think I applied for dang near 100 jobs and over a dozen interviews before I landed a job. I started at a very basic low level networking position but stay dedicated to learning and growing. Now 4 years later I am with the same company and have made it nearly to the top wth our network operations group.

I don't want to push you away from trying internally as it would naturally be a good move, but don't put all your eggs in one basket, and don't waste too much time doing that. Also I would NOT focus on getting more network certs with zero experience. Keep the knowledge fresh but don't raise the bar too far over your head.

TurK-FX

Forgot about CCIE. Focus on VMware, Linux and openstack