Network Engineer vs. Systems Engineer
I wanted to post to get some input on my current job situation. Some background first...
I started off like a lot of us - a tier 1 help desk job. I eventually moved to a tier 2 position and a few other positions when I landed a senior level engineering position for a small managed service provider. I'm not sure how familiar everyone is with the MSP market, but looking back on it I almost feel like I got the position because my salary range was right for them. For the work that our team did, it was more a job for close to the 6 figure range.
A little bit about the position... we handled everything. I mean EVERYTHING. If it wasn't a broken printer or an IBM AS/400 (company speciality) we did it. On a day to day basis we were SAN admins, server admins, etc. Our team (3 of us) built a vSphere environment, built a multi-tenant RDS cloud, virtualized various companies infrastructures, managed a data vault, etc. We easily worked 80 hours a week. When I interviewed I remember my former boss saying that some candidates were out of the running just because of their salary requirements, and I understand it now because it really was a job where I should have been making a bit more than I was. But hey, it was GREAT experience and I had loads of fun doing it.
All while this is going on, I am finishing up my WGU studies. I got my CCNA and CCNA:Security, with the intent to move my career down the networking path.
One thing that I've learned about the small-medium business world is that, generally, they do not use Cisco. At least in the Atlanta area, I would say that close to 95% of the customers I worked with use Sonicwall. And to be honest, it makes sense for them. If a MSP can get someone Sonicwall certified (open book btw) they get really good discounts on the appliances. Most smaller companies have maybe one or two offices, and a Somicwall with a VPN works fine, and the Sonicwall has the optional security features available. Long story short, I didn't get much Cisco experience, although there were a few projects we did with Cisco hardware.
Fast forward to today - I have taken a long term project for a company that is full Cisco. What I am wondering is if the 3+ years of experience that I do have, including what was a pretty high level position, will help me at all trying to move into Cisco. This project is pretty basic, with the majority of the work on troubleshooting VPNs. I almost feel like it's a low level job again, because of some of the questions I am being asked. For example, "How do you do working with customers over the phone?" "Do you have much troubleshooting experience?" I even noticed some things in the configs of the routers that I was not familiar with - looked it up and it looks like we are running an internal MPLS network (not 100% sure though). When I mention this to some of my teammates the answer I get is, "Oh, the tier 3 and 4 guys do that, I don't know." (Wouldn't you want to know and learn!?!?!?)
I am making slightly more at the Cisco position, so I'm not complaining about money.
So I suppose my final question is does my previous experience help at all when trying to land a pure networking job? I know a lot of people post here that they started off at a NOC. Is it reasonable to say that I might need to almost start from the bottom again?
Again, thanks for any responses. If my resume would help I could post it if needed. I appreciate any feedback.
TL;DR
- Have 3+ years of solid systems admin experience, plus a senior level engineering job
- Graduated from WGU, got CCNA and CCNA:Security
- Want to move into full networking job
- Took a Cisco project, but feels low level, only deals with VPNs
- Do I have to start at the bottom again, per se?
