looking into networking as a career..... need advice

I was wanting to know what all went into being one of those guys at companys that maintains computer networks and such, what all goes into that? From what ive seen, its looks pretty easy, so im thinking im missing something..... no, not something, ALOT! Any info would be appreciated

 

Experience, experience, and more experience. You might be able to get certified, but without experience, be prepared to get a LOT of doors slammed in your face. And from a lot of the ad's I'm seeing lately, not only are companies wanting MCSE's, they're also requiring AT LEAST an associate degree for a freggin' $8/hr help desk job, then you have to work your way up the ladder, beating out your co-workers for positions, and THEN you may be in a position to oversee their network.

If you decide to go that route, find a good school and look at their IT degrees. A lot of them have the classes that prepare you for your MCSE classes. STAY AWAY FROM BRAINDUMPS!!!! Within 5 minutes of an interview, a potential employer will be able to tell between someone who knows what they are doing, and a braindumper. And once the word gets out that you are a braindumper, you'll never get a gob.

I know this probably isn't what you want to hear, but it is reality.

 

There's more to just admining a network than what you think. It's not an "easy" job really. There's LOTS of tedious and trite mini-jobs to do .. ALL THE TIME. Monitoring network traffic logs. Maintaining PC secuirty, updates etc. depending on how the network is setup, some of this may be easier and some may not. But mostly aside from that, I'm in agreement with MCSEGeek. It's tough, and once you get in it's a fight to the finish wether you work with a group and work well with them or not. Face value basically.

My suggestion would be to skip network administration and do ONLY network design and security. Get Cisco cert'd

I have a pretty easy spot because most of the network admining is done by another guy downtown and I relay to him my information. The rest of it is on my plate and it's a real boring job. Same old stuff day in and day out. That's why I'm moving into programming and getting the HECK out of network administration.

 

Thanks guys. I figured it was alot more than just watching the networks and such, ive always enjoyed repairing computers... there has never been a fixable problem on my own machine... except that one time my WinMX icon was flashing in my system tray ever time I opened my shared files folder.... A format fixed that right up. >.>.... If anyone has any sources I could get more info from about this and anything of the such, I would appreciate it greatly.

 

Take heed of this quote YiffyWareWolf. You'll see a lot of folks who are already in IT are trying to get out.

One bit of good advice I can give is this. If you really want to get into IT with no prior experiance, go ahead and take your first M$ test so you can become a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP). Then register with the M$ partner website as a solutions provider (which technically you are). Then order the MS Action Pack subscription which comes with Virtual PC. Now you have the tools to set up a virtulal network where you can jump in with both feet and see how everything works. And since it's a virtual machine, if you mess it up, you can always delete and reinstall.

And here's a link to M$'s web site for more reading:
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcse/default.asp

Personally, I'm going to specialize in messaging since ALL systems need email.

 

Networking is a very good career; it's been good to me. But, keep in mind that it's a so-called "helping profession." As a company's network person, you will be on call to deal with people in crisis. The job is dealing with people in crisis much more than it is configuring routers and servers.

The top sales guy will be out on a very important call (they're all very important!) and he'll call you in a panic because his laptop ate his proposal. You'll have five minutes on a bad cell phone link with an irate type-A person to sort out his problem. You're not going to be able, usually, to "fix" his problem. At most you'll calm him down enough so he can make an effective presentation.

The creative new hire straight out of art school will have big problems with her PC (when she's not complaining about missing her mac) because of some malware that crept in through the Kazaa she installed even though she's not supposed to install it, and she'll blame you and trash-talk you to anybody who will listen.

Every new person at the company will have their first real person-to-person interaction at the company with you, when you give them the computer they are to use and show them how to do stuff like log in and print. This is a tremendous opportunity to do things well and contribute strongly to the company's culture.

You will also have the last interaction with every departing employee who gets fired. HR will page you and tell you to grab the hapless person's computer and shut off his network and voice mail access, "and by the way could you help him pack his office and move out? Make sure he doesn't take any company property!"

When email goes down, prepare to be attacked! It's the classic thankless job -- when things work right nobody notices the network.

Of course, like all helping professions (psychologist, teacher, minister, for example) it isn't about the big bucks. (Of course there are corners of IT where certain skills are worth a lot of money, like Oracle database administration.)

If you like working with people go for it! Remember that the network's purpose is to connect people, and that people really want to be connected. Use your people-orientation to punch through all the competition for the jobs. Companies really need friendly and helpful IT people.

On the other hand, if you think the word "user" should be spelled "luser," the only fun you'll have working in networking will be gathering sardonic stories about silly screwups. That will hold you about six months - not long enough to justify the training you'll need to go through.

 

Thanks for all the help guys, I appreciate it. =]