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Average Day of a CCNA,CCNP,CCIE?

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Hey guys and gals,

I’ll be graduating in the spring with a degree in IS. I’m 22 and have obtained the A+ cert. I recently begun studying for the CCNA. My question: What is an average day like for those in the networking field?

Consider things like-tasks, hours, amount traveling, is there high-turnover?(to name a few)

Easy Question, but a lot of points!!!

–I look forward to your responses–

Sean

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Average Day of a CCNA,CCNP,CCIE?

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I don’t think there is an average day because the employment situations vary so widely. I’ve worked in a variety of situations but am currently working as a network specialist for a state-wide government agency with about 1600 users.
While most ofmy job is at the central office where the majority of the computer resources are, there are also 18 branch offices with a server, LAN and WAN that have to be supported so a road trip of 200-500 miles comes up once a month or so. Hours are standard business hours with roughly 2 weeks of 7×24 on-call every quarter.

State jobs are generally coveted not for the pay, but for the benefits and job security and as a result, turnover tends towards the low side.

Tasks involve planning for future growth, ongoing monitoring of the network and servers for performance, hardware repair/replacement as necessary, configuration and installation of routers and other network equipment and interfacing with equipment vendors. Typically at this level, you also handle network

Average Day of a CCNA,CCNP,CCIE?

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Average Day of a CCNA,CCNP,CCIE?

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Part 2 (contd) …network issues that are escalated from the Help Desk because of nature, complexity or a need for further research of the problem and potential solution.

You can expect to spend a lot of time reviewing logs, maintaining documentation, researching solutions and capturing network performance statistics. When things get too quiet, there is usually another ILOVEYOU virus just around the corner to spice things up. And there is a little bit of traffic cop in monitoring the network for appropriate use and making referrals for intervention when indicated.

paul

Average Day of a CCNA,CCNP,CCIE?

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Thanks for your time/information.

sean

Average Day of a CCNA,CCNP,CCIE?

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Hi, I agree with Paul that there is rarely a “typcial day” but we also spend a great deal of time monitoring traffic and performance of servers. Really depends on size of the network and segmentation of labor. Two people are responsible for backups at central office and satellite offices are responsible for backups to specific shares that we then backup nightly. Also do hardware upgrades/troubleshooting; network planning (research win2K now); adding and diabling accounts (we have temp workers);researching errors, satellite offices are reasonably small so most administration is done remotely (PC anywhere)but we dispatch an admin when necessary (and always do a full check of every office -112 of them – every 6 months). Hours are 8-5 with one 24×7 on call weekend once a month. Run reports for upper management on network performance and make recommendations for upgrades/expansion where necessary. Travel approx. once a month for 2-3 days either for meetings or work at a specific office.

Average Day of a CCNA,CCNP,CCIE?

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Average Day of a CCNA,CCNP,CCIE?

In reply to Average Day of a CCNA,CCNP,CCIE?

(continued) Other task include basic troubleshooting on routers, hubs, pc hardware such as nics, cabling, etc. Some tasks are done once a week,every week (updating virus definitions, running full backups, testing tapes for corruption). Then, there are tasks you don’t expect – a hard disk crashes, a router goes out, etc. that changes the dynamics for the day. Hope this helps.

Average Day of a CCNA,CCNP,CCIE?

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Sounds good Ivachon, I look forward to my career,

Sean

Average Day of a CCNA,CCNP,CCIE?

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There is no typical days in this field. You go to work expecting a quite and peaceful because you were out a little late last night / hangover. When you walk out of your house your pagers goes off because someone tripped over a network cable that plugs the router into the external switch. It takes you 10 minutes to drive what normally takes a 30 minutes. Just to find a cable was unplugged and noone else could figure that out.
There is a lot of documentation, reports, testing, testing, and then somemore testing just to make sure everything is functioning correctly… I have been fortunate in traveling mainly just local trips across town no more than 25 miles, with the exception of classes and out of state meetings.

Average Day of a CCNA,CCNP,CCIE?

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Average Day of a CCNA,CCNP,CCIE?

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cont…
One last tid bit on the turnover rate. I’m a consultant so my turnover is very high but the money in consulting versus full time more than covers the stability.

Hope that was helpful……

Average Day of a CCNA,CCNP,CCIE?

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Average Day of a CCNA,CCNP,CCIE?

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I am not currently working in the routing field, but my son is. From what I hear, you can also expect to be a one stop shop for all problems including hardware. Jack-of-all-trades sort of.

Average Day of a CCNA,CCNP,CCIE?

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Average Day of a CCNA,CCNP,CCIE?

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Hi Sean,
My name is Kevin and I am an MCSE, currently studying for my CCNA. I recently switched jobs from being the Senior Network Engineer at Tulsa Public Schools http://www.tulsaschools.org to my current position, Deployment Manager at TanData http://www.tandata.com.
In my previous job at TPS, a typical day would be come to work ~7:30am, check the network to see if any of the ~240 NT servers were down at our 92 facilities. Do some routine NT admin like entering user accounts, work on any special projectlike a specialty software install or something, and basically just check out the Internet or study for my next certification. There was frequent travel throughout our 92 facilities to re-boot routers and such.
Now, in my current position, Deployment Manager. I find that I do less technical, hands-on work and more actually telling others to do technical work. I am on the Internet doing research much more and generally spend more time in front of the computer than when I was an engineer.
Hopethis helps!
Kevin S

Average Day of a CCNA,CCNP,CCIE?

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Your answers were all very helpful, Thanks for taking the time to help me. I decided to give the first two answers the points. First-movers advantage applies to Forums right?

Sean

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