Career info?

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Im currently studying to get my first basic certs and go for a IT job. I was wondering what to actually expect.

Im thinking my main interest will most likely be in networking and possibly network security but I was wondering, if im lucky enough to land a entry level network engineer jobs, what I will actually be doing day to day. What sort of situations require a network to have a dedicated security engineer? And are there other network specializations other than security? What do they do day to day

Also, I noticed many jobs for network security professionals ask that a person have alot of experience with network security - but to what extent can someone get alot of security experience in a standard network eng job? It seems like a catch 22 - you cant get get a security job without having experience in it already :P.

 

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You will find it hard to find anything in computer security without experience, but, with some smart selection of certs you can boost your performance and learn knowledge.

You'd first need to know networks, so a good start point might be Network+ after you've done your basic certs, then consider Security+ after this, consider CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker) after you've done all your basic certs - that will teach you the methods of intrusion, thus with your gained knowledge you will/should be able to work backwords to stop the intrusion... saying that, with hardware like SonicWALL that proclaim to do everything, continually improving detection for viruses, malware and spyware it'd be hard to be a dedicated security engineer.

Other cool jobs that would utilize those skills... computer forensics / computer fraud analysts, these will use experience of the methods to work backwords to work out what had happened rather than prevent! Anyway, just a couple of ideas!

 

You say you are studying for your first certs. Which ones are they? They may influence the employers decisions on whether to take you on for a particular role. Having no experience of them myself other than what others have remarked about them on these forums, perhaps the Comptia certifications would be the best route to go as they will usually provide a foot in the door for most entry level positions. They cover networking and also security.

Sometimes you will find that you end up working in areas of IT that were never your first choice but that is the way it goes especially nowadays with the way jobs are. The only people i know that got into network security and penetration testing were uni grads who were taken on because of their degree. Once in the door they then went on to learn things such as ethical hacking. I would doubt that this is an easy subject and would expect a great deal of knowledge would need to be gained before someone would even attempt to grasp this subject fully.

(You are right about the catch 22 bit though, i see low paid entry level helpdesk roles advertised with requirements that the applicant should have MCSE,MCSA or similar and think )

Hope this was of some use.

 

well, before I enter the job market i will have a A+ N+ CCNA and a MCSA. But i think were transgressing from the point :P I was just wondering what teh day to day activities of a network eng was :P as well as what kind of jobs there were in this area (nothing programmy )

 

Google a few things such as "network engineer day to day" or "network engineer typical daily duties", i found quite a few decent results. Also worth trying a search on job descriptions for the same title as they will give you an insight into what would be expected of you from a potential employer.

You are right though about the experience bit, most of the job results i came up with on google wanted 2+ years of experience at least for network engineers. It doesn't seem like something that is offered to someone based on certs alone. I would hazard a guess that the security side of it would be even harder to break into without more experience.

 

heh, ill try googling day to day after i type this - my problem with job descriptions is that "network monitoring" dosent really give me an idea of what these people are literally doing.

Another one is when the description is configuring routers - considering this is a full time job being advertised it confuses me, i mean bloody hell how many routers do they have! or what do they do to them that they require reconfiguring all the time?

anyway, ill go away and try other search threads

 

Are you serious? That's a ridiculous amount of knowledge you've got to take in, with no running experience to stop it from just escaping your brain. Even if you do manage to meet your goal, you're going to be so over qualified, that noone's going to want to hire you.

It sounds like I'm being mean, but I'm not. Poll the other guys on here if you don't believe me.

 

Well, you're on the right path with the A+ and Network+... but you fall off the rails with the CCNA and MCSA - those certifications are designed for techs who have real-world experience with Cisco and Microsoft technologies. I'd recommend you pursue the A+, Network+, and MCDST, and no farther until you get your first IT job.

Additionally, I think you might be setting your sights a bit high. Most companies won't hire people without experience to administer a network, particularly when plenty of experienced people are available. Most people get an entry-level job, then work their way up the IT career ladder (desktop support > server administrator > network administrator).

Hope this helps. Welcome to the forums!

 

lol, well the TP im training with offered all 4 for less than it cost to get just the A+ in most other places and id be a fool to just ignore the training for the vendor ones since iv paid for them - they last for 3 years right? I can still do them, keep them off my CV for a year or so and then put them back on