best way to find an internship working with cisco switches and routers?

I work full time primarily on help desk etc...My organization is very small and there is not much work with the switches and routers. what is the best outlet or way to "intern" with a network engineer on the weekends.

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TheSuperRuski

blackberry wrote: »

I work full time primarily on help desk etc...My organization is very small and there is not much work with the switches and routers. what is the best outlet or way to "intern" with a network engineer on the weekends.

I think that heavily depends on your area and the type of organizations you have around you. I dont know of many network engineers that work on weekends, and the ones I have heard of, work in an environment that wouldn't tolerate an intern(No room for error). Your best bet is to ask around at a small to medium size company that operates on the weekends that wouldn't mind having an extra hand on deck. Might turn into a full time gig if you play your cards right.

But If you are simply trying to get more exposure with some routers and switches, buy some off of eBay for about 30 - 50 a pop. Get yourself a Cisco book with labs and have at it. The best way to learn(In my experience) is through trial and error. That way, if anyone ever ask you where did you learn this stuff. You can hold your head up high and say "I taught myself." Just a little bonus.

On a side note, but it still pertains to what your asking. The best times i think to get internships is right before the time college students start graduating. A lot of students are seeking internships to supplement the degrees they are working on. And I'm sure the employers don't mind the free labor. You can blend in with the masses.

SteveLord

Internships? Good luck. I very rarely see them. And what ones I do, require you to actually be in school and in a program.

ibcritn

SteveLord wrote: »

Internships? Good luck. I very rarely see them. And what ones I do, require you to actually be in school and in a program.

I really don't think they exists unless your in a degree program. Internships these days are rare, but the ones that you find certainly require you to be working towards a degree.

Turgon

blackberry wrote: »

I work full time primarily on help desk etc...My organization is very small and there is not much work with the switches and routers. what is the best outlet or way to "intern" with a network engineer on the weekends.

Go to the public library and get out the yellow pages for your area. Cover letters and CV to every IT company. Also hit up on the local Cisco partners, telcos and service providers. They all work weekends.

SteveLord

ibcritn wrote: »

I really don't think they exists unless your in a degree program. Internships these days are rare, but the ones that you find certainly require you to be working towards a degree.

I did actually see this on craigslist. An "apprenticeship"? That was a first for me. Talk about an ideal position for a lot of people though.

IT ADVISOR APPRENTICESHIP

Local information technology agency has an immediate requirement for a person interested getting the abilities to become at information technology specialist through an apprenticeship system.

We are looking for a candidate with a personal taste in computers and a strong desire to learn more about this field! Candidate must be proactive, willing to learn and excel in the job, and responsible with good client relations knowledge.

In the time of this program, the selected applicant will learn to identify and start solutions to customer problems and concerns associated with desktops.

You should be currently jobless to be eligible for this apprenticeship program. $16-$22/hr.

shodown

since you work at a help desk you already have some of the tools needed at a low level NOC. You know how to answer a phone and get a ticket going. At the lowest level NOC I worked at I had access to all the switches and routers we supported. Not much configeration access, but it at least got me logged in. That would be a place to start and a way to get you into a junior network engineer positon or move up the ranks of the NOC, to NOC engineer

ibcritn

blackberry wrote: »

I work full time primarily on help desk etc...My organization is very small and there is not much work with the switches and routers. what is the best outlet or way to "intern" with a network engineer on the weekends.

I want to correct my previous statement. A company called Force3 does a program where if you have CCNA, or MCITP they take you under their wing for 3 months (unpaid), but get you training etc and they are extremely focused around Cisco. I am not sure your area, but companies like Force3 might be a solution for you.

I would also actively attend career fairs to rub elbows and you never know land a job/internship.

I got CCENT and started to get tons of calls to do NOC stuff....I suppose that would be an easy foot in the door with Cisco technology.

Priston

SteveLord wrote: »

I did actually see this on craigslist. An "apprenticeship"? That was a first for me. Talk about an ideal position for a lot of people though.

I've seen some postings like that but they say they will teach you how to become CCIE or something and ask for a percentage of your future salary

Turgon

Priston wrote: »

I've seen some postings like that but they say they will teach you how to become CCIE or something and ask for a percentage of your future salary

Anything like that is a con. Run away, far away.

ehnde

I tried getting an internship last summer before the semester began, but there's just nothing available. Nothing to go on here but my own lab experience and the little I picked up in the Army doing my secondary job (Information Assurance Security Officer). In April I'll be applying to work for (not intern with) Cisco partners, the cable and phone companies in the area...if I finish my CCNA by then. I'm not optimistic about finding a network tech/engineer job even at the junior level, much less working for free

Mike-Mike

SteveLord wrote: »

I did actually see this on craigslist. An "apprenticeship"? That was a first for me. Talk about an ideal position for a lot of people though.

i think I saw that same ad in my area... i may have even e-mailed it... probably a scam...

prior to looking for a real job I hit up every local company I could find with a letter and a resume asking for a voluntary internship unpaid, and I got nothing... I got a lot of rejections, but no one having any interest in taking me under their wing...

SteveLord

Interesting. But yeah....avoid those who promise internships and certs. They essentially put together classes of braindumps. I actually called one of them on it a few years back. Maybe this is their latest tactic. Dunno. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

amb1s1

Do a search of all cisco partner in your area and after that start making calls, sending or faxing your resume to all of the companies.

MentholMoose

Mike-Mike wrote: »

prior to looking for a real job I hit up every local company I could find with a letter and a resume asking for a voluntary internship unpaid, and I got nothing... I got a lot of rejections, but no one having any interest in taking me under their wing...

That sucks, though maybe employers only want current students for their internships for some reason. As a college student I worked in the IT department on campus doing mostly desktop support type work, then I got a paid internship doing desktop support at a bank. Both of these were great experiences, and I got a "real" IT job when the internship ended.

Mike-Mike

MentholMoose wrote: »

That sucks, though maybe employers only want current students for their internships for some reason. As a college student I worked in the IT department on campus doing mostly desktop support type work, then I got a paid internship doing desktop support at a bank. Both of these were great experiences, and I got a "real" IT job when the internship ended.

I was (and still am) a full-time college student... I had two people take the time to speak to me on the phone, but one wasn't what I was looking for, and the other I really thought I had something with, but then they never called me back.

MentholMoose

Mike-Mike wrote: »

I was (and still am) a full-time college student... I had two people take the time to speak to me on the phone, but one wasn't what I was looking for, and the other I really thought I had something with, but then they never called me back.

Sorry to hear that (not getting an internship, not about being a student

). One thing to keep in mind is that it requires some effort to "hire" an intern. Maybe for a very small, mom and pop store there is nothing to do, but any "real" business will probably have some procedures or hoops to jump through, making it tough to actually hire an intern.

I've had a couple internships, one paid and one unpaid. For the paid one, I was an actual employee of the company (a bank), and AFAIK I did everything a newly hired "real" employee would (including certain training required by financial industry regulations) other than benefits enrollment. There was definitely some overhead for having interns, and there was a full time staff member dedicated to managing it. For the unpaid one, I still went through the hiring process, filling out HR forms, getting an employee ID and door key card, email address and computer accounts, and so on. It was less formal than the paid internship (for example, no time sheets to fill out), but the efforts were not negligible.

For current students, besides internships I recommend trying to get an IT-related job on campus. This is a great way to get started in IT. I'm actually working at a college now, and a lot of employees, including a bunch of the IT staff, are alumni who were student employees and got hired at graduation. IIRC, there's so many that they even have their own annual luncheon. I'm not one of them, though I was a student employee at the school I attended, and some of my coworkers from that position were hired at graduation, whereas others got IT jobs elsewhere.

blackberry

thanks a lot for the replies, I will definitely look into the suggestions. I guess interning is the wrong term, I only used intern because I am willing to work for free.

I am in my career as a federal employee, I have my degree comptia certs certs so I dont think going back to my school campus to find "internships" would be viable... etc, I can certainly use old switches at my job but I am also looking to learn different network environments.

But i think I will build my own network.

Thanks a lot guys!