For the past 5 years I’ve been that lone hero in the back room. Monitoring servers, measuring performance, and fixing errors all to keep a few computers running with high availability. It has been an interesting road and I’ve become an expert at the Windows Server enviroment and I’m not to shabby with the Linux enviroment either.
However, there’s one major frustration I have with working in the systems environment and that is the scope of the job. I’m constantly asked if I can write a program, create a new object oriented database, create web page graphics, configure several different brands of switches and routers, etc. Well I’m sure you get my point; the Network Administrator position in most company’s eyes is that an around everything IT related job.
Although it’s fun to have something different everyday it doesn’t allow me to develop a very unique skill set that’s worth a lot (I want to start a side IT consulting company for a supplemental income). Because of this I decided that my general Bachelors degree in computer science isn’t enough. I needed a certification but I wanted one that’d change my roll from that all to general network administrator. I had a few choices, but I decided the best would be networking. I’m not talking about getting two computers to play well together.
I’m referring to the links that you see going from businesses to ISP’s or B2B, etc. This is a very technical field and requires a very specialized skill set. It was exactly what I wanted, something that I could learn and then update once a year rather than once every 3 months. This field also put me in a great place to have alternate career paths later on when I’m ready for a change. I could easily add a few things and become a network design professional, a security professional, or a specialized project manager.
So what’s the plan now? Well first things first, I need to get my certifications. I’ll start off with my CCNA and probably late this year or early next year move toward my CCNP. I’ll probably stay in that general Network Administrator’s job for another 2-3 years while I gain actual experience taking side projects at night or weekends.
