In a sort of job dilemma

Hey All,

I am looking for opinions on a potential job position that I have been offered. It is with the biggest VAR/MSP in my area and looks like a great place to get tons of experience and training since they are a Cisco gold partner. I'd be working in the professional services sector mainly dealing with the SLED side of things when I first start. The job seems great since I've always wanted to be in a project based role and also I'd get my hands on a ton of tech. Plus I'd be getting over a 20k bump in pay which is fantastic. (also they would pay for my CCIE training/testing costs, this alone is a huge cost benefit)

Currently I am a network engineer in the financial services industry, have been for the past 1.5 years, and it has been great! The everyday changing network and constant upgrades is always challenging me. Plus the perks are great here. One thing that worries me about the VAR/MSP is that I believe I'd also be doing the racking/cabling of switches. Is this normal? It is a mid/senior level position and in my current role I never have to do any of that work. Also if you work an a VAR/MSP how would you compare it to working in the enterprise? Which do you prefer and why? I understand that the hours are typically longer in a VAR/MSP however I do not mind this since I am still young and rather do this when I am in my 20s.

Thank you for any opinions

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Comments

FloOz

Opinions anyone?

networker050184

Sounds like a good opportunity, but the racking and stacking part would make me suspicious. I've never been in an engineering role where I actually have to physically touch equipment. I'd get a very clear view of the actual duties before proceeding personally.

As far as provider or enterprise I'll go provider 100% of the time. I prefer to work where the technology is the business.

anhtran35

Hmmmmmmmmmm. I can see why you maybe concerned. Is this company using a data center to house their equipment? When I worked in Afghanistan, I often assisted the NAs with racking and cabling routers and switches into a connex housing. However, I didn't do any running of cables from one unit to the other. That was done by the cable guys. I assume if it's in a data center that cross connects etc...will be done by the data center technicians. See if you can get a tour if it's in house or if they can tell you it's done by another vendor( ex: Equinix ).

Polynomial

networker050184 wrote: »

As far as provider or enterprise I'll go provider 100% of the time. I prefer to work where the technology is the business.

As someone currently working in the tech industry, this 100%.

FloOz

Well I am assuming it will be different depending on the project i am working on. They did say I'd be working on the SLED division when I first start. The actual structured cabling is done by another company. However they did mention that I'd have to rack and run some patch cables from time to time, in addition to doing the full configurations. I don't know, this kind of worries me cause I never touch hardware in my current role and I don't want to be taking a step backwards. Then again working at a gold partner would probably be great experience to have.

networker050184

What is the SLED division?

FloOz

State, Local, Education. Basically most of my projects will be in one of those sectors

Polynomial

FloOz wrote: »

State, Local, Education. Basically most of my projects will be in one of those sectors

Run away!!! =P

FloOz

Really? Can you elaborate? I really don't want to make a bad move.

networker050184

Anything government usually brings a lot of red tape. I personally try to avoid anything related to the government. A lot of people make careers out of it though.

FloOz

Is there a reason people avoid it? Is it the work load that comes with it? Or is it just not a good environment to be in?

Polynomial

I'll echo networker, education is the same deal. Spent a lot of time in that industry.

Highly political, always about the budget.

FloOz

I guess this is something I need to take into consideration. It will be hard to say no to such an increase in pay

Polynomial

Granted, you might be in an okay position with these industries because to them you're just a consultant.

However, it'll require you to change the way you work.

FloOz

Yeah for sure, I have only ever worked on enterprise networks. I have always wanted to be a consultant though, I feel like project based work is what I want to be doing.

down77

I wouldn't be so quick to run away just because it's a SLED, or because it requires rack/stack/cabling (I still do this to help out my fellow engineers!). I do a bit of work in SLED accounts and with any account, YMMV. Since this sounds like a services position some questions I'd ask are:

-How much travel is involved?
-How much of the business expenses would be on my credit card vs business card? If personal card how often are receipts reimbursed?
-What would be my target utilization be for this position? What happens if I don't meet this target for 30, 60, 90 days?
-Do you have a professional growth program in place to for future growth and development?
-Do I have a team of peers to contact in case I need to escalate incident/problem management?

FloOz

@down77 thanks for your reply. I did in fact ask them most of those questions. My traveling would be to various clients in the PA/NJ area and if I decided I could work on projects that are cross country. I'd be reimbursed for everything of course, however I am not sure how long those reimbursements would take.

What draws me to the place is the personal development plan they have in place. They have tons of training resources and do offer me support for my CCIE, even time off to study.

In terms of peers to contact, they said there are always people available to help you out when you are stuck.

anhtran35

Other than the traveling, I don't see any negatives. Politics are a part of every company. Sounds like your clients will range in size. I'm not a Network guy so I'm not sure of the specifics. I have racking experience due to helping NA guys in the past. It's not that hard. You basically have switches/routers and servers you stack and cable either in a closet or cage. It's actually helps to understand how things flow from a Physical perspective. Plus they will pay for your education and you get 20k pay raise?! I believe with server equipment you can pre configure before shipping them out. Routers and switches you will have to probably sit in the closet to set up until you get an RDP setup.