With all those study, knowledge and certifications, only thing you lack is confidence.

ANS · Sep 2, 2011 3:43 PM

ANS - you are absolutely right. My confidence is weakest point due to the fact that I was not fully exposed to actual Networking responsibilites in the companies. How will I tackle the interview and how do I present myself with such knowledge but without much exposure in the real world Network Administration.

donald_duck · Sep 2, 2011 3:58 PM

@donald_duck, if you're serious about Net Admin career (or NetSec for that matter), my advice is to embrace cisco and work toward some of its certs! I learned it the hard way, as I repeatedly tried refraining myself from vendor-specific certs, esp the cisco chain, but got thrown back into it again and again! Regardless of what shop you happen to enter (Juniper, CheckPoint, Palo-Alto, etc), some of the preliminary skills acquired through cisco test preps are worth their weight in gold. My advice is : Do/or read through CCNA, if not CCENT materials at the least before taking up the role, if you envision a smooth transition ride. Network+, despite being a good starting point - barely covers the tip of the iceberg, A+ is hardly related to typical NetAdmin roles, and Security+ guides you through the first stepping stone into the joyous ride of InfoSec world! MS SA (former MCP?) is MS centric, and could come handy if you're into Windows Administration. ~@~

SAAJHA · Sep 2, 2011 4:11 PM

what kind of dev. were u? and why would you not be one....pays good..cool job!!

Atrix112 · Sep 2, 2011 6:10 PM

I think its a good idea. But landing the first job is always difficult. I am on the same boat..Good luck

damauli_guy · Sep 3, 2011 9:33 PM

5 yrs of experience is significant time. 3 mahina training garera 6 yrs experience dekhayera ta saathiharule gari khaka chhan...I don't think you will have any trouble.  When you are doing good as a developer, why do you wish to switch to networking....???

Jangali Maanab · Sep 3, 2011 9:41 PM

I am bringing this thread up for further suggestions from the Sajha friends. The main reason to switch to Network/System Administration is to have job security and possibly to get into Government job. I am almost done with MCITP (i.e. Active Directory, Network Infrastructure, Server Administration Windows 2008 R2 Server) Now being a developer, I am having hardtime to update my resume. I need to update resume that will reflect some concentration and experiences in Network/System Administration. Saa Jha jee - you defenitely have better knowledge in this field. Please give me some feedback. Help me guys.

donald_duck · Jan 10, 2012 1:07 PM

Honestly, if you are serious about getting into the Networking field, you should focus more on Linux and go from there. Every major vendor base their network stack on linux/qnx/bsd. Even better you were a developer, you'd understand many things a Network guy wouldnt grasp. You'd know how to interpret a stack trace, you'd know how to read syslogs and variables, you can write many tools/srcipts that will help you understand the visibility/behavior of a network. One more area that might interest you is SDN, software-defined-networking. Look at Openflow initiatives, running the full internet table on commodity boxes with Quagga, Bird, or OpenBgpd on it. The possibilities are enormous. Good luck.

Sleepless · Jan 10, 2012 7:26 PM