New Member Introductions Thread

[NetworkGroover]

HA!

NO. its "LUL"

Damn - corrected twice!

[bertschs]

Hello (again) everyone.  Good to see everyone back after the old site died.    I saw a post from dlots on reddit and followed it back here.  Whee!

I'm from Minnesota, US and am a network engineer at a large MSP.

I've been into computers for as long as I can remember.  I ran a BBS in the early-to-mid 90s, started playing around with Linux in 1995, got my first job in 1997 doing UNIX sysadmin work (primarily SunOS, Solaris, and BSD) for local ISPs, and then shifted a bit into networking in 2000.   I've also done a bit of programming and datacenter operations along the way.

See ya around.

[deanwebb]

Welcome back! You're now our newest old member!

[zarawatsonn]

I am Zara from Bangalore, India working as Business Development Executive.

[deanwebb]

I am Zara from Bangalore, India working as Business Development Executive.

Hello and welcome, Zara. I'm Dean from Texas, and as you can tell from my avatar, I'm a huge fan of Bollywood. Not yet as familiar with South Indian cinema, but I can still...

[christerpaul]

Hi I'm Paul, a fresh grad with no experience. Altough i passed ccna exam last 2013, i consider myself new to networking and i really dont know what lies ahead of me on this field. Im super excited. Let's gooooo 🙌

[deanwebb]

Hi I'm Paul, a fresh grad with no experience. Altough i passed ccna exam last 2013, i consider myself new to networking and i really dont know what lies ahead of me on this field. Im super excited. Let's gooooo 🙌

Hello Paul! Where are you living right now? That can affect the kinds of jobs you're offered. Larger cities tend to have more level 1 and level 2 support jobs which would probably be what you want. There will also be a number of small businesses that might want you to be their entire IT department.

[NetworkGroover]

Hi I'm Paul, a fresh grad with no experience. Altough i passed ccna exam last 2013, i consider myself new to networking and i really dont know what lies ahead of me on this field. Im super excited. Let's gooooo 🙌

Hello and welcome.  I can share with you my experience.  Doors started creaking open when I got my CCNA, but didn't really open up and welcome me until I had at least my CCNP - highly recommend you knock out the CCNP R&S to give you strong foundation, then figure out where you want to go after that.  As Dean mentioned though, if you don't have a lot of bills to pay and can afford to go with a bit of a lower pay rate, it would really behoove you to take a level 1 or 2 job to get actual working experience.

My career has been kind of weird - I made a jump from not working in the networking field straight into engineering rather than working my way up from an entry job - and at times it really bites me in the arse and drives me nuts because I really have ZERO days of operations experience.  I just didn't have the option to take an entry level job because, well, I have a family and San Diego's cost of living is @#$#ing ridiculous.

Anyway, enough blabbing - welcome again! 

[icecream-guy]

Hi I'm Paul, a fresh grad with no experience. Altough i passed ccna exam last 2013, i consider myself new to networking and i really dont know what lies ahead of me on this field. Im super excited. Let's gooooo 🙌

what'd ya grad in?  IT, specifically network and security there are a wide variety of career options.  set your goals and get after achieving them.
Welcome aboard.

p.s. if'n ya gots any questions, offer 'em up. will do our best to answer.

[christerpaul]

Hi I'm Paul, a fresh grad with no experience. Altough i passed ccna exam last 2013, i consider myself new to networking and i really dont know what lies ahead of me on this field. Im super excited. Let's gooooo 🙌

Hello Paul! Where are you living right now? That can affect the kinds of jobs you're offered. Larger cities tend to have more level 1 and level 2 support jobs which would probably be what you want. There will also be a number of small businesses that might want you to be their entire IT department.

Hi sir Dean! Im from Philippines. Right now, I'm considering taking just any IT-related entry-level job that would put me into network engineering field. Because almost all job openings for network engineer here needs year(s) of experience. Would that be ok? Btw, thanks for the reply sir! 

[christerpaul]

Hi I'm Paul, a fresh grad with no experience. Altough i passed ccna exam last 2013, i consider myself new to networking and i really dont know what lies ahead of me on this field. Im super excited. Let's gooooo 🙌

Hello and welcome.  I can share with you my experience.  Doors started creaking open when I got my CCNA, but didn't really open up and welcome me until I had at least my CCNP - highly recommend you knock out the CCNP R&S to give you strong foundation, then figure out where you want to go after that.  As Dean mentioned though, if you don't have a lot of bills to pay and can afford to go with a bit of a lower pay rate, it would really behoove you to take a level 1 or 2 job to get actual working experience.

My career has been kind of weird - I made a jump from not working in the networking field straight into engineering rather than working my way up from an entry job - and at times it really bites me in the arse and drives me nuts because I really have ZERO days of operations experience.  I just didn't have the option to take an entry level job because, well, I have a family and San Diego's cost of living is @#$#ing ridiculous.

Anyway, enough blabbing - welcome again! 

Hi sir and thanks for the reply After getting a job(hopefully), my plan is to save money for trainings and for knocking out the CCNP R&S exams and from there, I'll evaluate which path I'll take. I know the road will not be easy but there is something inside me that tells me that it will be worth it in the end I think I'll go for taking level 1 or 2 job to get actual working experience

Your career has been kind of weird as you said but its inspring though Even though you didnt start from the bottom, you still manage to do it! Thanks for the stories sir! I appreciate it! Cheers! 

[christerpaul]

Hi I'm Paul, a fresh grad with no experience. Altough i passed ccna exam last 2013, i consider myself new to networking and i really dont know what lies ahead of me on this field. Im super excited. Let's gooooo 🙌

what'd ya grad in?  IT, specifically network and security there are a wide variety of career options.  set your goals and get after achieving them.
Welcome aboard.

p.s. if'n ya gots any questions, offer 'em up. will do our best to answer.

Hi sir Dave! Im an ECE graduate and Im introduced to this field in our lecture days in school. Since then, i always find it interesting when talking about networking. Thanks for the advice sir!

[deanwebb]

Hi I'm Paul, a fresh grad with no experience. Altough i passed ccna exam last 2013, i consider myself new to networking and i really dont know what lies ahead of me on this field. Im super excited. Let's gooooo 🙌

Hello Paul! Where are you living right now? That can affect the kinds of jobs you're offered. Larger cities tend to have more level 1 and level 2 support jobs which would probably be what you want. There will also be a number of small businesses that might want you to be their entire IT department.

Hi sir Dean! Im from Philippines. Right now, I'm considering taking just any IT-related entry-level job that would put me into network engineering field. Because almost all job openings for network engineer here needs year(s) of experience. Would that be ok? Btw, thanks for the reply sir! 

Any entry level gives you good experience, I agree. Look for temp/contract jobs at call centers, supporting major corporations.

[icecream-guy]

Hi I'm Paul, a fresh grad with no experience. Altough i passed ccna exam last 2013, i consider myself new to networking and i really dont know what lies ahead of me on this field. Im super excited. Let's gooooo 🙌

Hello Paul! Where are you living right now? That can affect the kinds of jobs you're offered. Larger cities tend to have more level 1 and level 2 support jobs which would probably be what you want. There will also be a number of small businesses that might want you to be their entire IT department.

Hi sir Dean! Im from Philippines. Right now, I'm considering taking just any IT-related entry-level job that would put me into network engineering field. Because almost all job openings for network engineer here needs year(s) of experience. Would that be ok? Btw, thanks for the reply sir! 

Any entry level gives you good experience, I agree. Look for temp/contract jobs at call centers, supporting major corporations.

try this
http://www.indeed.com.ph/

you might find jobs like this Junior Network Admin in Makati, company looking for ECE background, 1 Year experience
http://www.indeed.com.ph/cmp/B--MIRK-Enterprises-Corporation/jobs/Junior-Network-Admin-9f46d82e26d688d6

[NetworkGroover]

Hi sir and thanks for the reply After getting a job(hopefully), my plan is to save money for trainings and for knocking out the CCNP R&S exams and from there, I'll evaluate which path I'll take. I know the road will not be easy but there is something inside me that tells me that it will be worth it in the end I think I'll go for taking level 1 or 2 job to get actual working experience

Your career has been kind of weird as you said but its inspring though Even though you didnt start from the bottom, you still manage to do it! Thanks for the stories sir! I appreciate it! Cheers! 

Trainings are good, but make sure you don't become too dependent on them.  Learn to do your own research - it goes a long way (I don't mean to sound snarky if that does since I know you've been in school so largely already know how to do this).  When you have that down, you can pretty much work on anything given enough time (I've shocked myself sometimes).

Anyways, there I go blabbing again.  Honestly, all you need for the CCNP R&S are the official cert guides(OCGs), some gear, a blog, and the lab manuals.  Blog about your journey, what you've learned, and give back to others following your path.  When you write about a subject, it encourages you to not look like an idiot, so you really dig into what you're reading (This is especially true for me since my ADD causes me to wonder frequently).  So you learn the theory from the OCGs, reinforce and root it with your blog, and train hard on CLI with the gear and lab manuals.  You can probably get all the gear/books you need for the same cost if not a little less than a training class that only lasts a week.

Do all of this and I promise you that you'll not only crush the exams, the knowledge will largely stay with you rather than the usual brain dump that unconsciously occurs a week after you take the exam when you do something like a boot camp.  Then you're at an interview like, "Uhhhhhh." - not good.  Getting the CCNP R&S cert will be a great bullet-point on your resume, but you WILL have to prove yourself at the interview - if the interviewer is worth their salt anyway.  You'll know when this happens because they won't ask you things like, "What's the default bridge priority for STP?" - they'll ask you things like, "Ok - tell me what you know about OSPF versus BGP and why one might prefer one over the other.", or "Say I'm at a computer, and I request a webpage.  Tell me everything that has to happen to build that webpage on my computer screen." - in other words, open-ended questions that show you have a knowledge of networking in general - not that you just memorized silly values that can easily be googled when you need to remember.  (Lord knows, we can't remember everything - except maybe burnyd)

EDIT - Oh!  Yes - if you can put in the time required, it can be VERY worth it.  Also one of my favorite things I tell people is, "The only person who can stop you is you." - it's so true.  You're going to be told no - don't accept it - keep training and keep trying.  If my old foolish arse can do it - you certainly can.