Hey,

Just on the topic of networking with a few people I was talking to. I passed my CCNA a few months back, whilst I have never had a job in networking and have not a huge amount of experience on the routers - what sort of job should I look out for?

I hope to have a year out next year but wouldn't feel confident being in a position of responsibility quite yet - what do you think?

Just trying to look at what avenue of IT jobs would be best to delve down? I have Windows experience to quite a good level and very little Linux on that.

In the UK too where from what I think the networking market is still big?

I'd say get alot of linux experince also...

Both Windows and Linux are now being used in the work place...

Maybe try to get in on jobs to wire new buildings, since your still learning, I know in my area, there are crews that just network offices and homes... From there once you learn more about everything, maybe look for a network admin job.....

Terry -- congrats on the CCNA. The type of job you should get depends largely on what you wan to do, and where you want to work. If your intention is to work for a large company, then try to get a job working for their helpdesk. It's a way into the company, and it will give you a chance for more experience, and possibly the opportunity to move up as you gain more certifications (though be careful, in some companies "helpdesk" is a kiss of death).

If you are interested in a smaller company, then starting out a cabler is an excellent idea...it gives you a chance to really get to know a lot about network configuration without having to beat on the boxes too much.

One other suggestion, if you have the money, pick up a Cisco router/switch off E-bay or from somewhere, and practice with them a couple of times a month. Learn how to configure different network topologies. Knowing the commands is not as important as understanding the principles behind the protocl (IRL not in CCNA land). If you understand the principles, it will be easier for you to move into other positions...because you won't flub the interview questions :).

Originally posted by uuallan
One other suggestion, if you have the money, pick up a Cisco router/switch off E-bay or from somewhere, and practice with them a couple of times a month. Learn how to configure different network topologies. Knowing the commands is not as important as understanding the principles behind the protocl (IRL not in CCNA land). If you understand the principles, it will be easier for you to move into other positions...because you won't flub the interview questions :).

Or find a cheap copy of CCNA Sim :D The teacher that does CCNA at my school bought a copy, great tool since it would be hard to buy all the equipment it simulates....

How much router work did you do? No router work(real not sims) dont expect much more then I will tell you. Right now, just a support job(technical) its not a great time..

The CCNA sims that are on netacad suck... Horribly....

There are more decent sims out there that are perfectly real to life... And frankly you can do things on sims you wouldn't normally do on real routers...


Of course working hands on with them helps alot, the feeling of working on a real machine makes you want to not screw it up... :D

This may be limited to me, but still.. When I got my first router, I couldnt not connect to the console. May sound stupid but it is true. I had to buy a console kit online. Then my older switch came, had a rs-232 port. To me cisco missworded what kinda cable you need, and I bought the wrong one and adapters 4 TIMES IN A ROW. What if you had to go to a job, and they didnt have a console cable. What would you do(I mean you would need to find out and fast what to use, btw this isent directed at anyone). Also you get some benifits. I dont think there is a compareable router, less commands you can do on sims. Also you cant do stuff like packet sniffing, and a few other things.

Also Terry, I just thought of something. I do some computer work, or at least I use to for people around where I live. I stopped advertising about 2 years ago, and now only do clients I have before. Anywho Out of about the 10 current clients, 3 have asked me in the past(one being just last month) to network their computers to share files, or more importantly share internet access. Now this isent rocket science, in fact, it is far from it, and it dosent put your ccna skills really to the test. But its something to put on a resume, and it is money. If you do, advertise locally, newspaper, church bullitien, etc.

Originally posted by davidb
This may be limited to me, but still.. When I got my first router, I couldnt not connect to the console. May sound stupid but it is true. I had to buy a console kit online. Then my older switch came, had a rs-232 port. To me cisco missworded what kinda cable you need, and I bought the wrong one and adapters 4 TIMES IN A ROW. What if you had to go to a job, and they didnt have a console cable. What would you do(I mean you would need to find out and fast what to use, btw this isent directed at anyone). Also you get some benifits. I dont think there is a compareable router, less commands you can do on sims. Also you cant do stuff like packet sniffing, and a few other things.

Also Terry, I just thought of something. I do some computer work, or at least I use to for people around where I live. I stopped advertising about 2 years ago, and now only do clients I have before. Anywho Out of about the 10 current clients, 3 have asked me in the past(one being just last month) to network their computers to share files, or more importantly share internet access. Now this isent rocket science, in fact, it is far from it, and it dosent put your ccna skills really to the test. But its something to put on a resume, and it is money. If you do, advertise locally, newspaper, church bullitien, etc.

Hehe.. I've done the exact same thing... Only with the serial interface to ethernet... I haven't used the exact term for the converter in about 3 months and I've already forgot, I'm thinking MDF but that just doesn't sound right :D


And you do bring valid points to actually using the hardware...

Also good point about doing local work.. Just be sure to talk to a lawyer and have a cheap contract drawn up limiting your liablity :D

Thanks for the many replies guys.

I have done quite a bit of practice on the routers and the sims too. I generally did things which were to be expected i.e password change, configuring RIP, a little IPX etc.

MDF - isn't that main distribution facility? I take the smile meant you were joking ;)

I'm hoping to have a summer job at my old college where I will be doing the typical stuff a trainee would do as well as things like cabling,putting PC's together as they are upgrading the whole network from 98 to XP.

I hope this would be a useful piece of experience. The other thing that confuses me, whilst it might sound a bit stupid ok but you setup your routers/network etc in your job or so, so what do you do until it breaks :confused:

To me with networking it's a don't fix it until it's broke situation.

I've done quite a lot of windows file sharing stuff, and currently have a Windows 2000 (P200 32mb ram :eek:) PC as a NAT gateway for my home PC's so im pretty good with this sort of stuff.

someone will always have a problem. A company with 75 people or so should at least have one tech full time.