What Is Your Next Job?

[deanwebb]

 

Something to consider... but, no matter how good things are at your current job, they can always go weird at some point in the future. New manager, layoffs, sudden urge to outsource, corporate relocation, executives arrested for securities fraud and suddenly there's no revenue... any of these things and other crazy stuff can happen that will cause you to no longer have a good fit in your current role.

So, what is your next job?

What plans do you have for finding work with another employer? Who in your network would you sound out? What kind of work would you want to do? What changes would that involve? What kind of experience should you seek now to help get ready for that just-in-case jump?

Likewise, there's also internal promotion and lateral transfer to consider. Do you have an opportunity to get into something that you're curious about? Is there a chance to work a few months in another location? Are team lead or managerial positions opening up that you want to look into? What about senior roles or architect positions? Does your company have a consulting arm that you want to jump over to - or are you a consultant that would like to "go native" and do work on your company's internal network?

For myself, I am working on internally arriving at a "senior" designation for my role. For that, I'm pursuing my CISSP and doing the very best job that I can with the tasks that I'm given. I don't want to be doing work because I'm a warm body. I want my manager to give me tasks because he knows I'll get them done like a true pro.

And while I absolutely love my job, if I came in one day and realized that writing was on the wall in the form of resignations, retirements, a sudden surge in the amount of training that I was doing... well, stuff like that makes me think about possibly talking with the vendors I work most with about becoming an SE for them. I know it's a job that can have me living in the land of Hotel an awful lot, but I also like doing demos for technology I really enjoy. 

So... what's your next job? Discuss. 

[icecream-guy]

Customer recently gave our team official notice that the projected date of data center closure is end of FY 2018,  (9/30/18). So I'm looking at looking, the team has dropped from 14 to 8 in the past 6 months, so there is some bailout going on. Being 51, I'm very concerned about age discrimination in the job market place. I just keep learning as much as I can to keep myself viable as possible.  I ain't no city boy, living in the burbs outside Washington DC. this place is a hell hole for commuters, getting in and out of the city can take some time (hours) on a daily basis, (I live and work outside the city in Maryland and have a 25 mile, hour long commute just about every work day. So my next position would be an easy drive, in a campus style setting (so I don't have to pay for parking). pretty much doing what I've been doing, routing and switching with security mixed in. I need a stable job for the long term, contract work really doesn't cut it anymore as I get older. Looking for a good company, working with decent technology, with good people, that I could spend the next 20 years in, and retire without worrying about getting disposed for some young kid just out of school with knowledge, but no experience for half the salary, or having to dive in and out of the city on a daily basis.  Either that or I'll hit the lottery big in the next 2 years, ride out the rest of my contract, retire and become an expat and  beach comb on some beach in the Caribbean. (P.S. we have a $hit load of work to do to move all the services out of this huge data center in the next 2 years with little to no budget, and the place we're moving into isn't even built yet, projected completion in fall 2018, occupancy sometime thereafter, I'll leave those calculations for you to figure out)

[deanwebb]

Yeah, that's quite a lot of writing on the ol' wall, there.

Over here, an hour drive means 50 miles, which is what I do. I know in security, there's a huge need for people to fill roles, so there isn't as much pickiness there. Talent is the most important factor in that field.

Are you doing a contract now? Because I know some employers absolutely refuse to consider hiring contractors as FTEs.

[icecream-guy]

Yeah, that's quite a lot of writing on the ol' wall, there.

Over here, an hour drive means 50 miles, which is what I do. I know in security, there's a huge need for people to fill roles, so there isn't as much pickiness there. Talent is the most important factor in that field.

Are you doing a contract now? Because I know some employers absolutely refuse to consider hiring contractors as FTEs.

yeah, do contracts.  I could do something like a Firewall Engineer, or something like that, but I'm the one that is picky because 3-4 hours a day in commute is not in my "fun" plan.

BTW, you did ask.

[deanwebb]

True, true. My Multinational Global Conglomerate will hire contractors to FTE roles. 

If you want to move to Texas, lots of fun stuff in DFW area, where it's not half as humid as Houston.

Which is another consideration of "the next job"? Is relocation an option? If so, that opens up those possibilities. Of course, not all relocations are equal, just ask the guys that have done a stint in Kuwait...

[wintermute000]

It would need to be pretty attractive for me to jump ship, and given the size of my parent org and what I do know of our BU's performance, there's next to zero chance of being forced to look for something in the short-medium term (say 18 months). To be honest, 3/4 of the people leaving my neck of the woods (consultancy) go straight to a vendor SE role for big bucks. It seems to be the natural way of things.....

I hope that if it came down to it, I'd have enough time and budget to have the luxury of picking and choosing.

In the dream scenario it would be something like doing one or some of below full time, no more 'normal' networking.

- Orchestrated leaf/spine underlay, open standards overlay (VXLAN + EVPN or similar) to some form of  openstack or CoreOS+docker compute. Wouldn't mind working on NSX and I do love the product but I think that in the long run Vmware is under just as much threat as Cisco. ACI can go do one.
- BGP-LS/PCEP and automated carrier MPLS-TE / circuit provisioning. Though TBH I probably don't have the CCIE-SP/JNCIE-SP level chops you'd probably want. Would love to play on North Star or similar.
- SD-WAN. That Viptella stuff looks amazing, as does Riverbed's SteelOS. If Cisco can finally get rid of Prime and drive IWAN completely through APIC-EM and deliver their  branch NFV platform correctly that looks fascinating as well.

Also there is the question of whether you stay technical, can't see myself doing anything else but I probably don't want to be debugging in terminal sessions in 20 years time LOL

What I do know is: my next job won't be anything in Ops or managed services. No unless the only other option was to starve under a bridge, and even then I'd think twice about it.

[deanwebb]

I actually don't want to go managerial, but I think that I could do it.

[dipenshah]

Well I don't have a job :p Still have a lot to learn being a student.

But, I would really like to work in an environment which has best of the both the worlds Networking and Programming.

[deanwebb]

Best of the programming world? For me, it's when the programmers leave me alone and I don't have to...


... tell them it's not the firewall!

What in programming do you enjoy most? You may enjoy a role as a small or medium business IT guy, since that's where the IT waters are the muddiest, allowing easy access to multiple technologies. Sometimes, it's whether you like it or not, but it's always good information to learn.

[routerdork]

It's an election year. I'm hoping for the White House 

[deanwebb]

It's an election year. I'm hoping for the White House 

Actually... being part of the White House IT staff could be verrrrrrrrry interesting...

[NetworkGroover]

It's an election year. I'm hoping for the White House 

Actually... being part of the White House IT staff could be verrrrrrrrry interesting...

If Hillary becomes president, you won't have a job.  She maintains her own servers/network.

[that1guy15]

With how this month has been Im about to say screw this and start a wood working career.

[that1guy15]

BTW we need this as an emoji

[wintermute000]

It's an election year. I'm hoping for the White House 

Actually... being part of the White House IT staff could be verrrrrrrrry interesting...

If Hillary becomes president, you won't have a job.  She maintains her own servers/network.

sick buuuuuuurn