On Mon, Nov 3, 2014 at 9:42 PM, Larry Sheldon <larryshel...@cox.net> wrote:
> For learning--work beside an Old Hand that knows it and has a good record. Speaking of that, I've been wondering for a while if there are ever network engineer "apprenticeships," so to speak, or if you guys knew of any people or companies who do things like that. Based on my observations, the flat "knowledge" of everything will take you only so far; there's a lot of tips, tricks, non-conforming platform behavior/bugs and "unwritten rules"/"best practices" that really only come with the time of being a net admin. I was envisioning something like the electrician or plumber-type things where you learn the technique from a master artisan of the craft. It seems like a job where the best training *is* that hands on where you get to see all the big/fun equipment and learn from production decisions that were made, strange hardware/configuration problems, etc, but I'd never really seen anyone/company who does these types of things, and I'd really like to get more experience in the field. (everybody I look for that wants a network engineer wants a network engineer, with experience already) Finally, just more of a general question, what else would you recommend to someone who wants to get into the network engineer/operations roles? This could be anything, from books to classes, to whatever. I do already have my CCNA and A+ from while in high school, (my networking I-IV prof was adjunct at the local CC, so we could dual enroll in the local CC and get them to pay for our cert tests :D) and most of a bachelors in Networking and Systems Administration from RIT that I'll be finishing up over the next little bit. I also love radio (K2FUR! :)), so something with cellular really fascinates me, although any sort of networking/ops/disaster recovery really is my passion. Anyway, thanks for your time and potential suggestions! Alex
