Network Engineer Career Path: What You Need to Know Dice com Career Advice

While help desk technicians overlap in some ways with titles like IT support technician, they are ultimately not the same. IT support focuses on providing technical assistance for complex product issues. Someone in a help help desk engineer desk support role, on the other hand, is likely to help users resolve more straightforward matters, such as a forgotten password. They may escalate complicated technical problems like faulty products to IT support.

Due to the nature of the job, control systems staff engineers are usually required to have previously accumulated 10+ years of experience in network engineering and to hold a relevant degree. Various career paths may be chosen along this particular line of occupation. It is common practice for the engineers to get promoted to similar IT positions. Network administration is one such choice, and implies hardware installation and maintenance, network performance monitoring, and assistance with the network design process. Other choices include infrastructure architecture, data center test engineering, data center safety, and electrical engineering. The tech side of network engineering is also evolving on a continual basis, so no matter what your educational path, you’ll need to make lifelong learning a key priority.

How to Become a Network Engineer After Working as a Network Technician?

Whereas the latter calls for a degree, the first may be achieved through certification. Since network technicians are in high demand in every company, many businesses offer certification to their employees. That is a far easier way than choosing among the offer yourself, and it automatically guarantees a better position. Needless to say, businesses certify professionals for the actual in-demand positions. For instance, Andrew Roderos completed the Cisco Networking Academy curriculum at a community college and passed the CCNA exam in about 18 months while working full-time in IT support for Walgreens. He transferred to his first network engineering job within the company, gained additional certs and experience, and now works as a backbone and network security engineer for Stanford University.

how to become a network engineer without working on the help desk

Many engineers prefer in-house jobs to commuting on a daily basis, but freelancing does not necessarily imply that. Blogging about what you’ve learned is another way to help you stand out in the market, added Arnold, a CISCO IT Blog award winner. Blogging demonstrates mastery of must-have “soft skills” such as communication, teamwork, creativity and problem-solving.

Getting hands-on experience is crucial

Leslie has a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism from the University of Southern California. Steve Petryschuk, Director at Auvik, suggests that a passion for technology and an inclination towards problem-solving are key indicators that network engineering https://remotemode.net/ may be the right path for you. At smaller companies, you may be responsible for both architecture and security. Working in larger companies often means specializing in one area of network engineering, such as architecture, security, or administration.