Wow managed to finally shift IT careers

Well I just posted on the CCNA forums a few weeks ago about gaining my certification. A little over a week later I landed my first official Networking role as a NOC Technician today. Even though it's entry level I'm positive that this is what I want to do! I'm 22 but I have had over 5 years experience in IT dealing with mainly Microsoft products. My last contract I was making good money for my age (between $58,000-60,000) but I absolutely loathed what I was doing. I really wasn't happy with life and always envied the Network Engineers who got to come in and mess with all the stuff I wanted to do.

Two months ago I finally did something about it and spent days/nights studying absorbing and loving everything I was learning about the networking world. Even though I'm making half the pay almost this finally feels like I'm going in the right direction. I just wanted to say to all of the posters on here is to keep studying and pushing yourself to get to where you want to be! Next up on my cert list is probably CCNA:Security then on to CCNP, maybe even get into VoIP since this company deals with a lot of it.

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networker050184

Congrats!

dynamik

Glad to hear your hard work is paying off for you

sambuca69

stlsmoore wrote: »

Well I just posted on the CCNA forums a few weeks ago about gaining my certification. A little over a week later I landed my first official Networking role as a NOC Technician today. Even though it's entry level I'm positive that this is what I want to do! I'm 22 but I have had over 5 years experience in IT dealing with mainly Microsoft products. My last contract I was making good money for my age (between $58,000-60,000) but I absolutely loathed what I was doing. I really wasn't happy with life and always envied the Network Engineers who got to come in and mess with all the stuff I wanted to do.

Two months ago I finally did something about it and spent days/nights studying absorbing and loving everything I was learning about the networking world. Even though I'm making half the pay almost this finally feels like I'm going in the right direction. I just wanted to say to all of the posters on here is to keep studying and pushing yourself to get to where you want to be! Next up on my cert list is probably CCNA:Security then on to CCNP, maybe even get into VoIP since this company deals with a lot of it.

Did I read this right? You had to take a pay cut to make the move in technology?

I know most likely you'll make more in the long run.... just curious.

brad-

Time and $$ intensive certification for half the pay. What's not to love

I get it though. It'll pay off in the longrun.

mikej412

stlsmoore wrote: »

I landed my first official Networking role as a NOC Technician

Congratulations!!

brad- wrote: »

It'll pay off in the longrun.

I'm betting it pays off (and makes up for the current shortfall) within 1-1/2 to 2 years.... especially with a VoIP Opportunity.

stlsmoore

Yup I'm taking half the pay cut but I'm sure it's nothing permanent, my happiness is the most important thing. That "job" I was working making twice as much was miserable for me. My job consisted of monitoring web servers and telling the IT support team that the web server might be going down soon....and that was it for 12 hours straight 7 PM-7 AM. The way i looked at it was that I'm young and single so if I wanted to make a big career change it was best to do it now. Besides I have no debt besides my student loan and I don't need much to live off of since it's so cheap to live here. My ultimate plan is to have a career I love, be debt free (personally not business wise), and invest a lot of my extra income into buying rental properties. Thanks for all the comments so far all!

Cingular

stlsmoore wrote: »

Well I just posted on the CCNA forums a few weeks ago about gaining my certification. A little over a week later I landed my first official Networking role as a NOC Technician today. Even though it's entry level I'm positive that this is what I want to do! I'm 22 but I have had over 5 years experience in IT dealing with mainly Microsoft products. My last contract I was making good money for my age (between $58,000-60,000) but I absolutely loathed what I was doing. I really wasn't happy with life and always envied the Network Engineers who got to come in and mess with all the stuff I wanted to do.

Two months ago I finally did something about it and spent days/nights studying absorbing and loving everything I was learning about the networking world. Even though I'm making half the pay almost this finally feels like I'm going in the right direction. I just wanted to say to all of the posters on here is to keep studying and pushing yourself to get to where you want to be! Next up on my cert list is probably CCNA:Security then on to CCNP, maybe even get into VoIP since this company deals with a lot of it.

Wow. Congratulations indeed!

Apart from the age difference (I'm 21)...I am in the exact same boat as you were.

I'm currently studying for my CCNA, and am looking to make the change to Networking ASAP. I've been in the Systems support area for about 3 years now, I'm sick of it. I've seen what network engineers do first hand and know that this is what I want to do.

I applied for 2 entry level NOC positions a couple of days ago. Hoping to hear something back.

I am loving the CCNA so far and eventually want to reach the CCIE level.

Once again congrats, your post has given me even more determination to nail this CCNA!

Cheers,
Cing.

Paul Boz

I got my CCNA when I was 21-22 also. It opened a ton of doors for me (mostly doors that lead to other Cisco certs). Stick to it and it will pay off. Working in a NOC also helped me immensely. It's like tech support for tech support.

JDMurray

stlsmoore wrote: »

My job consisted of monitoring web servers and telling the IT support team that the web server might be going down soon....and that was it for 12 hours straight 7 PM-7 AM.

That's a very tedious job. I know of people whose only job is to monitor the log files on a few, high-volume servers looking for possible problems and security incidents. These types of jobs pay in the six-figures, but they are very prone to burn-out to all but a certain type of person.

Glad you found the way to something you feel much better with.

rsutton

I too would take being happy 40+ hours during the week.