Personally, I have worked in places where I have performed all of the skills below (router/switch/Unix/Linux/AD/firewall/proxy/web admin/sendmail admin, etc.), and also in places where just router/switch/architect layer 1-3 skills were the primary focus. I prefer the latter, and find this to be a personal choice as to what makes for a meaningful and fulfilling job. The fact that so few network engineers are to be found with all of these skills, I think, speaks for itself in that many network engineers have made the choice, and that choice is to be focused on layers 1-3, which, with DWDM through BGP, offers many challenging, different, and varied technology complexities the mastery of which makes work meaningful and rewarding.
-----Original Message----- From: Mark Stevens [mailto:mana...@monmouth.com] Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2011 7:53 AM To: nanog@nanog.org Subject: Re: Looking for a Tier 1 ISP Mentor for career advice. It takes me years to find such people and when I do, I try very hard to keep them! I have 3 key people that fit the "soft" attribute criteria Randal mentioned, but with a premium skill set in their specific function. Good luck with your task Leigh! Mark Stevens On 12/1/2011 10:21 AM, Leigh Porter wrote: > I am looking for just such a person now. Good Juniper, some Cisco and > Sysadmin experience with an ISP background.. > > I expect it will be immensely difficult to find somebody. What makes it even > more frustrating is that just such a person was not all that long ago made > redundant! > > So if anybody is looking for something to do around London... > > -- > Leigh > > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: randal k [mailto:na...@data102.com] >> Sent: 01 December 2011 15:19 >> To: Bill Stewart >> Cc: nanog@nanog.org >> Subject: Re: Looking for a Tier 1 ISP Mentor for career advice. >> >> This is a huge point. We've had a LOT of trouble finding good network >> engineers who have all of the previously mentioned "soft" attributes - >> attitude, team player, can write, can speak, can run a small project - >> and >> are more than just Cisco pimps. I cannot explain how frustrating it is >> to >> meet a newly minted CCNP who has zero Linux experience, can't script >> anything, can't setup a syslog server, doesn't understand AD much less >> LDAP, etc. Imagine, an employee who can help themselves 90% of the time >> ... >> >> Finding the diamond that has strong niche skill, networking, with a >> broad& >> just-deep-enough sysadmin background has been very, very hard. I cannot >> emphasize enough the importance of cross-training. Immensely valuable. >> >> Randal >> >> On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 4:39 PM, Bill Stewart<nonobvi...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> >>> And yeah, sometimes it means that you need to go >>> learn technologies like Active Directory >>> >> [snip] >> >>> In addition to learning scripting languages >>> >> ______________________________________________________________________ >> This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud >> service. >> For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com >> ______________________________________________________________________ > ______________________________________________________________________ > This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service. > For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com > ______________________________________________________________________ > > > This communication, together with any attachments or embedded links, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain information that is confidential or legally protected. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any review, disclosure, copying, dissemination, distribution or use of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail message and delete the original and all copies of the communication, along with any attachments or embedded links, from your system.
