Cisco voice jobs

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Hello all!

I'm curious about the subj, what are the most popular roles related to it? Who is now in higher demand - installer, pre-sales engineer, support?.. and so on. And how widespread are Cisco voice solutions in the UK? And what kind of - gateways, IP PBX (callmanagers), call centers, etc?

i'd like to get answers from those working in this filed

 

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You don't want much do you?

What's your background? Are you in the industry right now, or looking to get into it? Do you have an IT background or are you just leaving school/college - or have you been working in a completely different field up til now?

Most companies over a few dozen employees now employ some form of VOIP, but its not universally Cisco that's deployed. In fact, in my experience, it's more likely to be Avaya or Alcatel - though I understand that Cisco is actually the market leader I've never worked with their kit.

Why don't you drop by the introductions thread and introduce yourself?

 

do you think so? Judging by posts at this forum real gurus are rara avis here, aren't they?.. ;)

I'm just gathering info of the current jobs market situation, and it doesn't depend on my IT experince, does it? Though, I have 4+ years experience as a network engineer, currently working as pre-sales engineer.

Ok, thanks for your answer!

 

That's a bit rude - there are a lot of very knowledgeable people here. You'd probably be better off trying to make friends with them rather than taking the piss

Back to your question. With four years' experience as a network engineer you should probably be looking at a specialisation now, and Voice is certainly one of those areas that networking generalists gravitate toward. Its a growing sector no doubt, but most companies below a certain number of staff (200 or so) don't have a dedicated voice engineer - its one of those things that tends to get picked up by a cross section of systems and networking bods. If you're looking to forge a career in VOiP then you should probably be looking either at the large-scale end of the market (where firms are big enough to have dedicated Voice sections of their Comms departments) or maybe looking at installation engineer type roles - where you go in and install someone else's VOiP systems for them and/or support/troubleshoot them afterwards.

HTH

 

Oh, i'm sorry, i didn't mean to hurt anybody. Simply i'm a bit disappointed not to find any info relevant for me in this forum. 90% postings related to jobs matters seem to be devoted to the first interview experience or 1st level suport jobs. Definitely, this is not what i was looking for.

And what about ISPs and companies that develop network solutions for their customers? Jobs sites are filled with ads for cisco voice pre-sales engineers, voip suppoort engineers vacancies and so on. But at the same time i see that some ads appear again and again during a few months - does it mean that the right candidate is so difficult to find? Or anything else?

 

No worries - no offence taken

The problem is that most people on this forum are either just starting out in IT or don't have that much experience (its a certification forum, and most sites that deal with certification have a community that is pretty similar to this one)

Most pre-sales jobs are actually nothing more than sales jobs in disguise, in my experience. I interviewed for a role with EMC that sounded fantastic - got through the first interview and was expecting some tough technical questions at the seond stage - but it was nothing more than understanding EMCs various products and product lines - not the technical aspects, but the sales aspects of them. that sort of job isn't for me - and most people here wouldn't be interested in a job like that. Phoenix is the exception to the rule - but he has a very good technical background and does all aspects of pre-sales - including the technical elements.

Regarding the readvertised roles - you have hit the nail on the head. A lot - A LOT - of people out there are bull****ting - companies regularly end up hiring people that turn out to be completely useless - or, in the case of my company this year, interviewing four people who got through the sift process and were universally ****e, meaning we had to readvertise. You'd be surprised at how many people there are out there with certifications who are absolutely clueless....

 

Oh, I see. A pre-sales engineer, as i iunderstand this role and this is exactly what i'm doing at this position, implies gathering requirements of the customer, clarifying them (the customers have often a very vague idea of what they actually need), making a draft network design that is further discussed with customer. Sometimes it's necessary to defend this design against competitors offers It's not simple to describe a full scope of responsibilities behind this position. In short, it requires solid knowledge of cisco voice products but, at the same time, i don't have to set up devices personally, even though i can do that...

Btw, could you please describe the recruting process in some details? Typically, how many stages does one have to go through to get a position requiring a more or less high qualification, like the one i've mentioned above? What the technical stage does usually include - any simulations, questionnaries, troubleshooting cases?.. I'm curious about all that since i'm moving to the UK in a couple of months and still have no slightest idea of how the hiring goes... for instance, in your company

 

LMFAO - you looking for me to get you a job?

Seriously - are you in St Pete, FLA, or St Petersburg, Russia? I'm guessing it's Russia, since the interview process in the US is usually pretty similar to the UK. here, it depends very much on the company and role that you're interviewing for. If its a first line job, that usually won't involve much more than a CV submission, sift and single interview (though with smaller companies there may be a second one as they have much more of a vested interst in getting the right candidate the first time round). the higher up the scale you go, the more likely there are to be multiple interviews.

For my current role - reasonably senior, though not director level, I had a CV submission, sift and three interviews - the first was a technical phone interview to weed out bull****ters, the second was a detailed technical interview with the senior technical guys in my company - most of whom are based in the US, the third interview was with the technical top brass and was more of a typical 'see how your face fits' type of interview.

I'd imagine for a pre-sales job (non senior) you'd probably be looking at two or three interviews max I reckon.

 

Zebulebu, many thanks for your exhaustive answers!

 

Just because there are a lot of entry-level people asking questions doesn't mean that there's nobody available to help you, your highness. So why don't you give some of us a chance to respond rather than immediately start griping that there are no "gurus" around here, eh? Otherwise, you're gonna burn your bridge before you cross it, mate.

That said, you seem to be in good hands with Zeb, so I'll let him continue to work his magic.

No harm, no foul... just be sure to not pull out your sword unless you plan to use it, 'k?

 

Yes, Zeb is very helpful and i'm grateful to him, so i'm readily eating my words.