To move along the network engineer career path, you have to achieve certain milestones. In this field, there are educational milestones, experience milestones, and more concrete network engineer career goals. The average salary for a computer network architect is $120,520, according to BLS. You need between five and ten years of professional experience to qualify, and one of Cisco’s Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) certifications will help you specialize your skillset and access a high-paying salary. After one or more years of working as a technician, you’d have gained enough experience to decide your ideal career path.
They also include courses in core areas like software, network architecture, web fundamentals, computer security and server administration. One of the best paying and most stable roles within networking is that of a network engineer. Working closely with other key IT roles, like network administrators, these networking engineers design, build, and maintain networks for optimal performance. And if you secure an engineering role in this burgeoning field, you’ll be responsible for managing the foundation of your organization’s IT networking system. As mentioned above, the rise of online learning platforms has provided access to a plethora of courses, certifications, and bootcamps focused on network engineering. These can range from vendor-specific certifications like those offered by Cisco (CCNA, CCNP), Juniper (JNCIA, JNCIS), or CompTIA (Network+), to broader courses on network fundamentals and advanced network technologies.
Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician (CCENT)
We value a diversity of perspectives and encourage healthy discussion and debate, but unite behind our decisions. As a network engineer, you’ll open the door to a world of benefits and opportunities. In addition to working with a diverse group of employees and departments, you’ll be able to continue learning and growing as you stretch to think outside the box. Add to that the ability to earn a fantastic salary while working with technology (something you undoubtedly love), and you’ll enter a profession that can provide a lifetime of stable, rewarding employment.
You want to show your employer that you can be a responsible and effective leader. I decided to check out Cybrary and the courses they had to offer after seeing a few posts from people who had completed their courses. I’m happy to say that their instructors are knowledgeable and clear, and their course catalogues are extensive and offer relevant career path courses. If you’re just starting out in networking, you can quickly improve your knowledge by signing up for a course on basic networking.
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The bachelor’s degree can be in mathematics, computer science, or information technology. And really, it can be anything as long as the education is relevant to network engineering. Much like a network technician, a network administrator configures router emulators and switches.
Are you interested in a career that involves designing, administering, and optimizing a crucial component of a business? They are responsible for planning, implementing, and monitoring a company’s computer network. Network engineers design, administer, and optimize computer networks for businesses. Learn how you can get the education you need to get started as a network engineer. So how can you get into the role of network engineer, what aspects are there to the career path, what skills are required, and what opportunities are out there? Employers will usually expect you to do further study to get professional qualifications if you don’t already have them.
Popular Network Engineering Career Paths
Begin your learning experience and become a network engineer with certificate courses curated to land your dream job. In this IT Pro Challenge virtual lab, you will get hands-on experience using Wireshark to sniff network traffic and detect non-secure protocols being used in the environment. The skills you will learn in this lab are essential for network security analysts and penetration testers. The only way to improve your hands-on skill is to actually be involved in designing or managing different kinds of networks.
A bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, or network administration is commonly seen as a starting point for entry-level positions. SANS offers some of the most highly regarded, state-of-the-art academic programs in network engineering. And SANS Technology Institute provides both an undergraduate certificate in applied cybersecurity and a bachelor’s degree program in applied cybersecurity. Both are great ways to gain the hands-on skills needed to start a career in network engineering. However, it is possible to pursue a network engineering career without a degree. Real-world experience and continuous skill development through certifications, bootcamps, and online courses can help compensate for the lack of formal education.
Ultimately, the best decision is one that balances your technical skills, qualifications and interests as an engineer. Senior Network Engineers design, deploy and manage data communication networks, ranging from LANs to cloud infrastructure that connects wide areas. They present plans to upper management and oversee hardware and soft upgrades to improve network performance.
- They were interested in my CV because of the CV-rebuild and my background in customer service.
- Training courses and certifications demonstrate that you have the knowledge and expertise necessary for the job, which can lead to better job opportunities and higher salaries.
- A senior network engineer with ten to fourteen years of experience can make an annual salary of $102,000 on average and over $115,000 with more than fifteen years of experience.
- Matt Witmer, Senior Principal Engineer at Opengear, notes that many network engineers stumble into the field from positions such as system administrators or developers.
- You can make yourself a candidate for managerial or supervisory roles if you step up and share innovative ideas and concepts.
In this IT Pro Challenges virtual lab, learners are introduced to skills required to secure networks using PKI. Exercises in this lab teach users how to configure HTTPS, DNSSEC, NRPT, and EFS while learning PKI concepts. The how to become a windows network engineer topics covered in this lab are critical for learners to be effective in system administrator job roles in cybersecurity. After three years, most network engineers are able to design and implement new network solutions.
