Cody Deluisio - What Is A Network Engineer?

From the outside, the whole information technology profession can seem mysterious. Mentioning IT summons various images ranging from artificially-lit cubicle farms to young professionals roller skating through well-decorated lounge spaces that feel more like a coffee shop than a workplace. Both are valid, and examples of both can be found. However, there really is quite a bit of difference.

For example, network engineers are the people who keep the internet running. Whether it is a web page, voice communications, or email message, network engineers are responsible for keeping the data flowing. They work both with the hardware of the internet as well as the software that manages it all.

Many professionals like Cody Deluisio prefers network engineering for those who want to invent something new to contribute to the IT industry. At the entry to mid-level, network engineers can be found in any environment with medium to large data networks — banks, airlines, universities, etc. They might have job titles like network administrator, network operations center engineer, or unified communication engineer.

At higher levels, they often work as consultants and are called implementation engineers or network architects. Most engineers have a computer science undergraduate degree with a master's in computer engineering. However, that’s just the start. Following university education, most network engineers then progress through various certification programs.

This certification rang from relatively easy study courses followed by a test to monstrous certifications that take months of study and cost thousands of dollars. The Cisco Certificate Internetwork Expert Certification is often referred to as the PHD of network engineering. There is one certification that is harder to achieve than the CCIE, the new Cisco Network Architect Certification, however, it is so new that no one has earned it yet.

The exam for the CCIE is a multipurpose process. To begin, there is a difficult written exam that must be passed to take the lab exam. The lab exam is given in two parts. In the first session, the prospect must build and configure an extremely high-end internal backbone under time pressure.

If they are successful, the prospect leaves for the day. Overnight, instructors break that newly built equipment in every creative way possible. In the morning, the prospect returns and has a limited amount of time to fix every newly created issue.

In terms of compensation, certification without work experience means little. However, the experience, this certification can mean major increases in take-home pay. The CCIE can mean an additional thirty-five thousand a year for an experienced network engineer.

Hope you understood and consider choosing network engineering as your full-time profession. This is one of the best industries if you want to invent something new with the help of IT tools and programs. But in order to do that, you must be an expert in this to ensure quality work in this field.