Building a Career in Networking

The Networking industry is huge, encompassing thousands of companies and a massive range of technologies. Of the entire IT career fields currently available, few can offer the diversity that computer networking provides. With networking comes the demand for skilled individuals that can work on the various aspects of networking. Most companies have a network and they all need skilled individuals to manage their network. Even if they cannot justify having a full-time administrator of their own, they are likely to have an arrangement with a computer company that does.

But please keep your feet on the ground! Don't start building castles in the sky. Even though computer networking is an attractive career field, there are no automatic or easy jobs in networking just waiting to be picked. Networking has opportunities. But you must be able to handle the hard work, the knowledge requirements and competition of positions that goes with networking. Networking has opportunities but please make sure you have a realistic career strategy.

Let's look at what you need to know to build a career in computer networking.

Job Titles

The networking field has a wide range of job title, many of which refer to very similar, and in some cases identical, roles. Sample titles are: network administrator, network engineer, network analyst, network systems analyst, Information Systems Administrator, network technician, systems administrator and so on. Most of these jobs are similar in nature and encompass many of the same roles and responsibilities. Often job titles are defined by an individual or company in many areas of IT, these titles can become confusing. There are no set standards regarding which job title corresponds to which role.

More meaningful are the actual work assignments of a person in a particular position.

Problem Management

The ability to solve problems quickly and creatively is essential, and like some administrators say. "Problem solving is 99% of what we do." Not surprisingly, people with solid tech support background usually do well in network admin.

Effective problem solving requires you to be resourceful. The wide range of products and activities in the networking arena may often bring up unexpected problems, even though you may not know the answer, resourcefulness means you are expected to know where to look for the answers.

The best network administrator has the ability to foresee problems before they occur and develop a plan so that the problems never surface, or cause too much grief. The "fire-brigade" attitude is a "NO-NO" in network administration.

Network Coordination and Management

Administrators need to be able to coordinate and monitor network activity. You should never make the mistake that the net admin's function to solely to install and troubleshoot. You monitor the network, checks users' activities, and keeps an eye on error logs, as well as other network activities. This requires effective coordination on the part of the administrator. A network professional must notice details, while observing the big picture.

Ability to handle the Stress factor -long hours, nonstop pressure

Successful network administrators have the ability to work well under stress. How motivated are you? How passionate are you about what you do? For many organizations that are dependent on networks, once the network goes down, the business too goes down. Network disruption puts immediate pressure on the network administrator for a swift and effective resolution. You must expect such pressure at anytime. Network administration also requires long hours on weekends and evenings to sometimes upgrade networks, install patches or to maintain them in an effort to keep them up and running. Most of the time, upgrades and maintenance need to be performed outside normal office hours.

Lifelong Learning

In the fast changing world of IT and computer networking, you need to develop ways of keeping up with tech developments. The IT market changes all the time. What is in demand today may be obsolete tomorrow, especially in IT. This is particularly important in networking with the fast pace of change as evidenced in wireless networking.

Network professionals need to keep up with the changing technologies and must be able to use the most up to date operating systems and hardware.

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