Career question. :-D

Okay,
My dream job would be in Network Administration.

But after starting one of my classes this term ( My protocols class, that focuses on security) I'm thinking of security work, like malware, firewalls, etc. Could that be rolled under the Network Administrator title, or should I be directing towards another " job"?
Any suggestions from my geeky family?

 

While I have no idea if they fall under the same umbrella title, I'll tell you what I think (although, I am in no way any kind expert at all, ever LOL).

When I think of a Network Admin, I think of someone who can handle all aspects of, well, networking; from configuring modems/routers to fixing email servers, for example, and to be honest I am dumb as a brick when it comes to that sort of stuff. I don't know what it is about networking but I've tried to understand and I've had someone try to teach me but I don't know. I just can't grasp networking, it's like some foreign language to me .:-D

I'm not exactly sure what kind of malware/security you had in mind but to me, kind of what Chas and the gang do here is malware to me. Which is completely different from the above networking (to me anyway) because you spend a lot more time delving into their actual PC (files, programs, in some case registry edits). It is the same? I don't know but I can actually understand and loved to doing malware removal. Teacher told me I was really good at it and I would love to pick it up again (but no time).

It's kind of late so I'm not sure if my points are cohesive enough. If not, I'll try to explain in the morning. LOL

 

Hey Spock
My son is in his final year at University and is studying for a degree in Network and IT Communications. He too has become interested in network security and in particular penetration and counter measures. He has switched a couple of subjects to give him a higher qualification in security rather than network design and provisioning. He will probably work for the military as there are currently more jobs for people qualified in network security as attacks against infrastructure are increasing at an alarming rate. Obvious jobs for network security are the military, telcos, scientific research organisations, cloud server farms, the banks and financial sector, the stock exchange, government departments, large corporations, online sales sites, hospitals and medical clinics and now increasingly network security experts are needed at power stations, state rail systems, water supply and sanitation infrastructure, gas distribution infrastructure and many other public utility type organisations.
Most of the available jobs for Network Engineers is maintenance and trouble shooting problems on existing networks and every so often there are equipment upgrades unless you can find a job with the companies installing new network equipment and then it is all new provisioning but these jobs are hard to find as a graduate because they usually want people with several years experience.

My own job is an IT Admin for a national company and I like it as there is a bit of everything and you don't get bored and at my stage of life there is less requirement to keep doing courses. I still have a good knowledge of security but if I need more expertise I call in a contractor. In my job the company has a LAN and a WAN with servers in several states as well as several websites and an online sales outlet plus showrooms in all capital cities. I find the network pretty much runs itself and may only require attention every few weeks. I have more trouble with the accounting software package and the individual PCs as well as the spam attacks on the mail servers and also the people trying to scam our ecommerce site.

Network security is always evolving as there are seemingly endless new types of attacks and threats to deal with and this means keeping your qualifications up to date with post grad courses.
If you choose to go with network security you need to have a clear idea where you want to be working and is it good to limit yourself to just one area of expertise? What happens after several years if you become bored with the job? What happens in the future when technicians or even unqualified people can do network security courses at college and get accreditation thus lowering your future earning capacity?
Why not be a Network Admin who specialises in security and just take any extra subjects as required but still retain your original course qualification? Keeping plenty of options open is important until you have decided on a career path but also you don't want to become locked in so if it doesn't work out then a change of career is not too difficult.

Are you still reading .....sorry it is a bit like War & Peace:-D
My fingers just started typing and didn't know when to stop

 

My $.02:

If you're wanting to get into something for personal satisfaction then just go with whatever you enjoy. Whether it's Network Administration, security or tree-trimming doesn't matter - the important thing is to do something you want to do, not that you have to do.

However, if you want to make money, then my suggestion would be to concentrate on mobile devices. Sure: drill down into networking or security or...well, not tree-trimming, but any field having to do with mobile.

Look around you - everyone you see now has their head and hands buried in some sort of mobile device. If you can corner the mobile market (or, at least grab a part of it), then you can rule the world.

I've got a bad feeling about the desktop computing environment. Us older folks will hang on to our big screens and our mouses and our keyboards 'til you pry them out of our cold, dead fingers - but then we'll grab our iPhones or Kindles and catch up with you young people.

We'll just need someone to fix them when they break.

 

Wow! Awesome and very informative answer. Many thanks.

After some thought yesterday, that is what I think I might look into doing.
Now to look into some courses that offer that, or online things like the malware removal courses Tim linked me in an older post.

I thought about that also after having a discussion about it yesterday in my one class and reading a few articles off PCWorld lastnight pertaining to the Android market and malware. I don't feel I have to do this, just thought it would be a way to expand my career options, and I like learning about malware and how people create/stop them.

I'm young(20) and I love having my desktop over my nice laptop or Ipod. :-D

 

Desktops and big-screens aren't going anywhere anytime soon, trust me. They are different devices for different purposes and markets. Just like big cars will always be around, although the percentage of market share always is in flux. Can you imagine NASA trying to view the first person an Mars with a 4" i-Phone screen?
Although I'm an I.T. Tech amongst other things, the majority of domestic jobs end up being. firstly malware, secondly network issues, (usually the 'issue' is the user doesn't have a clue ). The commercial/industrial contracts depend. Some are to do with servicing/ repairing/calibrating software for Spectrophotometers, (since I'm also a Chemist), some is coding machine code for CNC machining equipment, (also a huge, very well paid area).
Just depends on where interests, and some sometimes just 'luck' takes you.
Good luck in whatever endevour you chose.

 

I totally agree with Phantom and also add that the commercial / industrial market has much bigger spending than the domestic market so if I had the qualifications then I would go where the money is being spent
As an IT Admin if we have a mobile device fail in the first three months then we send it back for exchange but after three months we salvage anything we can and toss the rest on the scrapheap. In a commercial situation devices costing less than $1000 just aren't economical to repair. It works out cheaper in time even if the parts are free under warranty to just get another brand new device usually at a reduced cost.

Personally I wouldn't be depending on the mobile market unless you are writing apps software or building niche peripheral devices for lots of money because most of the hardware is so cheap it is disposable. Even the device manufacturer's warranty departments only fault find to see if it has any physical damage so they can get out of the warranty claim and if no damage is found then the tech just swaps whatever is faulty and sends it back. They never check the actual fault on the mobo or why the power supply or the RAM or CPU failed as the parts are so cheap (to them) that they just replace them and toss out the old ones. Over here labour is much more expensive than the replacement parts

 

Thank you David.