Refusing a promotion?

Hey guys, would like some advise on what happened to me today. I was called by my contracting company to discuss about an idea that they had. They told me that they had a position open within the same company that I'm working in right now but for a security position. They also said that if I accepted the position I would get a salary increase and training on FW's Fortinet/Checkpoint/F5 loadbalancers. I would not be doing pure R&S projects anymore but I would have access to all R&S devices in the network.

Obviously, since I am deep in my CCIE R&S studies I told them that security/appliances would be something I am interested in the future but not right now. I also told them that I would think about it and give them an answer later.
What do you think I should do?

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Comments

darkerz

I'm really surprised you're considering ditching the appliances route. I understand it more if you were pigeon-holed into those devices only, but hear me out.

...

Every employer who's turned me down, despite my R&S and DC experience, is because I did not have experience in F5's, Fortigates, Checkpoints or other devices. Most environments are expecting the network engineer to do both at an SME level. Coincidentally, those positions pay ridiculously well.

I would reconsider and perhaps negotiate keeping your involvement with both sides, simply because - THIS IS MY OPINION - LB's, Firewalls, VIP schema s, virtualized infrastructure and state / stateless security is fun, marketable and enhances the "Network as a Service".

LeifAlire

Definitely don't do it...I mean they called you offering the following;
1 More Pay
2 Bigger Visibility in the organization
3 Promotion
4 More Pay
5 Free Training
6 Still access to R&S stuff
7 Resume Goodies
8 Free Training & More Pay & Promotion...Ya pass on all that...

Dieg0M

The biggest downside I see is that it is very hard to retain all the CCIE R&S knowledge if you do not work with it in a day to day basis. Anyone from a SP or IE perspective can give me their opinion too?

MSP-IT

So what's your goal in obtaining a CCIE, if not for a promotion/raise?

Dieg0M

MSP-IT wrote: »

So what's your goal in obtaining a CCIE, if not for a promotion/raise?

I would like to move more towards the design/architect rather than the appliance side of things.

MSP-IT

Then, in my opinion, I would say take the raise, finish your CCIE, and look towards the CCDA/CCDP facet of Cisco. I believe you'd need a broad base upon which to build if you're planning on heading towards the architect role. What's the official title of the position that they're trying to move you into?

Dieg0M

MSP-IT wrote: »

Then, in my opinion, I would say take the raise, finish your CCIE, and look towards the CCDA/CCDP facet of Cisco. I believe you'd need a broad base upon which to build if you're planning on heading towards the architect role. What's the official title of the position that they're trying to move you into?

Network Security Analyst

RouteMyPacket

Here's the thing, the new position isn't going to support you in your R/S studies but will help you more on the design/architect side of things (something you mentioned wanting to do later).

That's a tough decision, if you think you can stay focused and lab enough to keep moving along with R/S while you work on Security things then go for it.

If not and you think it will be too much, don't do it.

It all boils down to how bad you want your IE R/S, it can be done either way but some people need 100% focus and to be deep into that specific subject matter on a day to day basis (easier to stay focused).

You could also just do the CCDE later (no need for NA or NP, straight over to the DE written). Trust me, if you can obtain CCDE then not having an CCIE R/S isn't going to hurt you. CCDE is probably the toughest out of them all from the horror stories I have heard about it.

networker050184

I would never make a career decision based on what certification I was studying for. If your goal is to move into the architecture side varied experience is going to be much better for you than any certification IMO.

On the other hand if you know R&S is what you want to do and you enjoy it than stick with it. I've never been a fan of being stuck on firewalls and Loadbalancers myself.

100k

I may have a simplistic view on the matter so I apologize. I would look at the requirements for the role you want down the line and see if this new opportunity will meet those objectives or are you better staying at your current role.

Dieg0M

I talked to my contracting company and they said that it was fine if I didn't want to take the job now and that there will be other opportunities to transfer into the security/appliance side of things if I wanted to in the future. This said, I think it is better for me to stay in the position I am in right now.

paul78

Good luck. Ultimately you need to follow your heart. I had been following the thread and resisted on commenting because I do think that this is the type of decision that you really need to make yourself. Its such an individualistic choice. I personally would never turn down a raise/promotion regardless of what the new job was - simply because I like diversity - and more importantly because I may have very different goals than you do.

I look forward to reading about your passing the CCIE

EdTheLad

I would take it, gives you more hands on with the security topics in the r&s , i doubt what you do day to day really helps your ccie studies. Just continue studying r&s which will be refreshing after a day on security. I find less and less opportunities for r&s area coming along, as soon as i finish this ccie i'm going to focus on something like security or data center.

SteveO86

I'd take it, F5 experience is very valuable in the field. CheckPoints are very popular in the firewall space. Fortinet heh, it's a nice plus.

The best thing you can do to secure your future is not lock yourself down to a single vendor.

On the flip side, You are correct if you don't use it you may lose it.. When I left the MSP realm which was very heavy route/switch I had to learn many other technologies, Voice/F5/CheckPoint/Data Center/SAN/UCS/etc. Definitely worth it.

Final Disclaimer, only you know what's best for you, we can simple throw out our own experiences.

Dieg0M

Ed, at my current position I pretty much do everything in the blueprint except for L3VPN's and some of the security features. You don't think that dealing with R&S problems day in and day out will help me tremendously in the t-shoot and diagnostic section?

EdTheLad

Dieg0M wrote: »

You don't think that dealing with R&S problems day in and day out will help me tremendously in the t-shoot and diagnostic section?

It depends how long you are at your current role, in my exp the learning curve drastically tapers off after afew months. I'm very good at troubleshooting issues, so i'm not worried about the TS section. My main focus is labbing and learning little bits i didn't know before, reading rfc's various blogs etc, this is where the bulk of my study is. I find working on r&s everyday just turns me off studying in the evening, but you know whats best for you i guess.