Programming vs. Networking

Yes and no , the reality is its up to you , I also questioned what field to go into i have the mind for a programer but no disire to to become one.While I and a MCSE and a in network admin I preffer to more hands on work of a true techie(working with hardware etc , which i dont any more)

You must look at what you want , you can alway change careers later but it harder once your already in a 8-5 job(most programmers work much longer).

The field of programing is moving ahead and mainly in the direction of intergration with the net.

Admin is a whole mine field of its own, new technologies are apearing at times faster than they can be intergrated into our systems.New software(thanks to the hard work of dedicated programmers)are also apearing at sometime and annoying speed(look at Windows XP).

Finaly Microsoft is not the only certification you can get , it is one the best known and is a good starting point.you can look at IP tellephony , Cisco certification , there are some good lunix courses avalidle now the list goes on and on.
The job market will always need qualified people , I see no need for great concen if youve got it you will adapt to the new technology and software if not ...

What it does boil down
and its the reality no one can tell you what to do forever.

Its Your life ,do You want to do.

I just want to echo the previous response. The decision you need to be making is whether you get more satisfaction out of THIS or out of THAT (or out of one or the other related fields...).

In the field of networking (my area) there's a lot more opportunities than just "Admin", for example. There's design, support, pre- and post-sales (if working for a vendor), and even some "programming" jobs (so that's where Cisco IOS comes from!), etc.

In the general area of programming there's integration, application development, systems programming, and lots of opportunities opening up developing applications and networking tools, especially as it applies to the areas of "wireless" technologies. Very neat stuff indeed.

One other thing to remember is that any decision you make today (assuming you're less than 50 years of age!) is NOT a permanent decision. Ask almost anybody near you who is in their 30's or 40's.

So like the previous response suggested: it's your life, do what you really want to do.

One more piece of advice from an "old guy": If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right!

A good start up job for a soon to be entry-level programmer would probably be a programmer or developer position. You could also do software testing.

As an inexperienced developer, what you do will depend on who you work for. You could learn an existing software system, work on parts of a new system, or write small applications on your own. The work could vary (depending on your current knowledge and your employer's needs) from designing a web page to modifying a mainframe program, with everything in-between.

One of the cool things about programming (& testing) is that if you're interested in sales or manufacturing or health care or telecom or whatever, you can probably find a company in that area that needs programmers. Writing programs for that industry, you will learn the business rules for it. You really have two specializations -- the industry and programming.

As a tester, you might write (code) test scripts, create test data, write test plans, and run tests.

I wouldthink about what you really like doing. Do you love to write code and get it to work? Do you get a rush when you find the last bug and everything gels? If so, you're definitely hooked on programming.

If you're looking for something sort of in-between networking & programming, you might look at DBA jobs. An Oracle DBA cert starts with PL/SQL programming, so there's programming knowledge involved. However, you also have to know about monitoring, backup & recovery, performance tuning, and a whole lot more.

Both fields co-exist and support each other intrinsically.

A Network Administrator couldn't work unless some programmer has written the OS, device drivers and tools.

A programmer can not work if he hasn't got a machine.

As for the myth that the Network Administrators get paid more than programmers, well this can often be the case.

BUT they don't get paid more than Senior Developers, which often only takes 2-5 years to achieve.

I have seen a job advertised locally for a COBOL developer offering a ?550,000 salary!

To specialise in one of these fields, as many do, consider the fundamental nature of what you enjoy the most in IT...

Engineering - Networks.
Creativity - Programming.

It may interest to know that computer programmes are copyrighted in the same manner as Music, Books and Art.

If you see yourself as an artist in any fashion, you may enjoy programming more.

But I'm sure that we'll keep each other in jobs for a long time to come yet...

Best of Luck

Limbo