Network Engineer Roadmap for Beginners

[00:00:00] I wanted to get into this question about your advice on getting into the industry, on getting

[00:00:08] into networking or tech in general. But for those aspiring people who are trying to get

[00:00:17] into this area and get their first roles in this area, what would you say is your best

[00:00:22] advice to those people? What were their steps to getting in be? Or generally, what is your

[00:00:28] best advice for them?

[00:00:30] Yeah, so whenever you want to get into networking, I would say the main thing you need is experience.

[00:00:35] And then people are going to say, how do I get experience? Because most jobs want experience,

[00:00:38] right? So what I would say is, first of all, get the knowledge. You're going to need the

[00:00:43] knowledge either way because nowadays companies, they don't want to take the time to train you,

[00:00:48] some companies. So what you want to do is you want to get the knowledge. And there's tons

[00:00:52] of knowledge in the internet. You can get it for free from YouTube. You can get a paid course

[00:00:56] for dirt cheap on Udemy for like 10, 15 bucks, which is what I did. When I first got started,

[00:01:00] I took Udemy course for $15 by Neil Anderson. Fantastic course, like a 40-hour course. And I

[00:01:08] went through that thing like five times, literally five times. Because when I first got started

[00:01:12] networking, I was like, you know, everything was like new to me. So I didn't know how to

[00:01:16] like study, how to like get started. So I went through that course so many times. I would like

[00:01:21] watch it like, like as I'm working out, as I'm going to the gym, just to, what I like to do is I

[00:01:26] want to like brainwash myself into understanding networking technology, right? Because I heard

[00:01:31] someone say like, if you hang around with network engineers or hang around with people that are in

[00:01:36] a particular industry for a while, you end up going to know things like without even, like you'll be

[00:01:41] unintentionally learning. So I wanted to get to the period of unintentionally learning networking.

[00:01:45] So that's either hanging out with my uncle or like watching videos or just like, you know,

[00:01:51] just like do it as entertainment time, right? Like try to like listen to a podcast or anything

[00:01:56] like that. Like that's, I try to get to that like mojo of like, let me just learn, learn, learn,

[00:02:01] learn, learn. So I spent quite a bit of time learning. And like I said, to get started,

[00:02:06] I would say get the knowledge. That's the first possible thing. The first thing you need to do is

[00:02:10] get the knowledge because without the knowledge, it's going to be hard. And even when you get started,

[00:02:14] it's going to be even harder too. So you might as well learn now just to understand just the

[00:02:18] basics first. So once you've learned the knowledge, I would say get a certification

[00:02:24] and to get a certification, I would say go for the CCNA. And like I said, certifications are good,

[00:02:29] but the issue with certifications is that they're the way, the way they work is there's just multiple

[00:02:34] choice questions, right? And with these multiple choice questions, like, you know, you can, you

[00:02:39] can know the knowledge, but still do bad on the exam, right? Because it's a, you got to be good at

[00:02:44] test taking. So you also want to learn the skill of test taking as well, because that's just

[00:02:48] the nature of certifications and how they test you. But I would say get better at test taking,

[00:02:53] but at the same time, get the real world experience. So if you possibly can try to get any job in tech

[00:03:01] anywhere, whether it's help desk, whether it's a knock roll, it really just depends on your

[00:03:05] experience level. But try to get any sort of experience that you possibly can. It doesn't

[00:03:10] matter where, because people say, where do I go? Anywhere. Having even a little bit of like

[00:03:14] unrelated experience in tech is going to help you no matter what, right? And who knows, maybe

[00:03:19] there's network engineers at that company that you can network, network with, right? So there's a

[00:03:23] lots of potential as soon as you get your first level of experience, right? So I would say get the

[00:03:30] experience, learn the knowledge and get the, and get his, and get a certification, like a CCNA.

[00:03:37] But, but like I said, I would say, start off to, if you want to, the big thing I want you guys to know

[00:03:43] is pick one field, right? Like if you want to do networking, stick to that as long as you possibly

[00:03:50] can, right? Because that way you're in your, your knowledge of networking is going to go up, up, up,

[00:03:55] up, up, right? That way you can, your knowledge base is going to get increased. But if you go into

[00:04:00] networking and go to cybersecurity and go into cloud, all within a year, you're going to have like a base

[00:04:05] level of knowledge of all of them. And then, you know, that's not going to really help you in your

[00:04:09] career. So I would say, just pick one thing, tunnel vision. If you are going to do networking,

[00:04:14] the roadmap that I would say is learn the knowledge first from like a video course.

[00:04:19] And then with that video course, get, get a certification during that time, try to land a

[00:04:23] role as a basic level, you know, IT job, tech job. It doesn't really matter. Sometimes you can get

[00:04:30] lucky and get a position that's like closer to networking, but if not, you know, it's okay.

[00:04:33] Okay. Work within that position, try to network with people who are in networking roles, whether

[00:04:40] it's people that work at NOC, people who work in troubleshooting. Also like go into LinkedIn

[00:04:45] and network with people, try to find someone like in your town, in your city, who is a networking

[00:04:50] engineer, who you can literally talk to, who you can ask advice from, because having that person

[00:04:55] is going to be very important because they're going to give you like the, the real time advice

[00:04:59] because obviously things change, right? The industry changes quick. So you want to have someone who can

[00:05:04] give you that real time advice. Cause if you're watching a video from YouTube from like five

[00:05:08] years ago telling you advice, it may not be relevant now. They may not be relevant.

[00:05:12] Sure.

[00:05:12] Tech is always changing. Tech moves fast. Like there's AI now, like you want the real time advice

[00:05:16] and you want the real advice, you know, like find someone who's going to be like brutally honest and

[00:05:20] real with you and tell you like where to go because most people will just tell you get this, get that.

[00:05:25] But everyone's different, you know, where your starting point is different for everybody. So

[00:05:29] having someone who can literally sort of be a mentor, it's going to be very important to try

[00:05:34] to find that person, particularly like a real, like in real time. So like someone like in real life that

[00:05:39] you, that you can meet and talk to, and then like ask questions, like hop on a call whenever. So find

[00:05:44] that little person that can help you. So now you have your, you know, your certification, you have

[00:05:50] your experience, you have someone who's mentoring you, you have a little bit of experience,

[00:05:54] like you should have enough knowledge to get started in this career. But in my case,

[00:05:58] obviously I went to the degree route. You can also, if you do have a degree, you can leverage that as

[00:06:02] well. But I've seen people without degrees with this or with just basic level associates degrees that

[00:06:07] are able to land jobs and networking because like I said, if you have the knowledge, they'll hire you.

[00:06:12] Like you don't need a degree. A lot of people say you need a degree, maybe 20, 30 years ago.

[00:06:18] Nowadays, it's different, I would say. Like if you have the knowledge, you have the skills,

[00:06:22] skills and you can interview well, like you're going to be fine. You're going to be fine. And

[00:06:27] you just got to find that company that's willing to take a chance on you, see that you're willing to

[00:06:31] learn. And it's just, it's going to be a grind. It's literally going to be a grind. No matter where

[00:06:36] you start, whenever you're new to things, it's going to be harder. When I first got started,

[00:06:40] it was a bit difficult because like, like I said, it, I, like I, when I first got started,

[00:06:46] I was new to it. You're going to go through periods of pain, of struggle. You're going to feel like,

[00:06:51] is this even worth it? Should I even like, is this path even worth it for me? But you have,

[00:06:55] those are the moments and times where you have to stick to it. You have to stick to it. You have

[00:07:00] to take your time and effort and just know that with time and effort and, and goodwill, eventually,

[00:07:06] you'll, you'll, you'll land that role. So like I said, it's getting the knowledge, getting the

[00:07:09] experience, getting certifications and finding a mentor. Those are the main four, I would say,

[00:07:13] if you can get that made for a lockdown and sticking to that one path, you're golden.

[00:07:17] Amazing. That's, that's some great advice. And I, and I like the structure of it. You know,

[00:07:21] those are the four steps guys. If you're going on this path, Wally has given you some, some great

[00:07:27] steps to follow as a roadmap to, to getting into this field. And if you follow that your, your chances

[00:07:34] would be way higher. The big one, I would say the big dog certification that if you want to become

[00:07:39] a network engineer, you don't, you, you're 100% sure you want to become one, get a CCNA. Don't waste

[00:07:44] your time with any of the certification. That is the gold standard certification right now, I would

[00:07:49] say. And it's been a while, it's been existing for a while. And really what it is, it's a Cisco

[00:07:55] certification, which is basically, I'm not gonna lie. It's a little bit of a difficult certification,

[00:08:00] especially if you're new to the industry. And that's why a lot of people kind of shy white, shy away

[00:08:05] from it because they think it's, Oh, it's too hard. It's too difficult. I don't know if I should do that.

[00:08:10] Because like I said, that's just, you know, it's a mental thing, right? Because anything with a long

[00:08:15] period of time and study, you can pass it, right? You just have to put in the work.

[00:08:19] Yeah.

[00:08:20] But when it comes to the CCNA, it covers a ton of stuff. It covers routing, switching. It basically

[00:08:26] covers like how to configure stuff. It covers a tons of layer one, uh, configurations, things like

[00:08:32] that. So there's a lot that goes into the CCNA. Um, and I would say that's the main certification

[00:08:37] to get another certification would be, uh, the GNCI. That's another one that's really, really good.

[00:08:42] Um, because there's another vendor that's Juniper. It's basically like the CCNA level

[00:08:46] of Juniper. Um, but it's, like I said, that was also vendor specific. So the main issue with that

[00:08:53] is like all with the two certifications I brought up with Cisco and Juniper, they're only going to teach

[00:08:57] you their sort of tech stack, their configuration. So you're only going to be familiar

[00:09:02] with their sort of configurations, which, um, that's one big issue I'd say is that, you know,

[00:09:08] you'll be only, you'll understand how they run their commands. But like I said, once you know

[00:09:13] networking, it doesn't really matter which, which way you go because you can still like the CLI,

[00:09:19] yes, it's different, but you can still learn the CLI, um, with some time because like you can,

[00:09:24] like most of the commands are pretty much similar, right? Like I said, so you wouldn't have to really

[00:09:28] worry about that, but I would say go for the CCNA. It's the best certification right now to become

[00:09:33] a network engineer. Um, like most of my coworkers all have it pretty much. Um, every network engineer

[00:09:39] that I know pretty much has a CCNA. Um, and obviously like if you guys do have the CCNA, um,

[00:09:44] that should be more than enough to sort of get your foot wet, um, and kind of get started. But obviously

[00:09:49] there's all those other certifications like the CCMP, which is like the next level certification that

[00:09:53] I'm working towards, um, that that's much, much more difficult than CCNA. Then I wouldn't recommend

[00:09:59] anyone get the CCMP until they've had CCNA with experience because it's just, it's going to be

[00:10:05] overkill.

[00:10:06] One thing I wanted to ask you just based on your advice is where do you see yourself, uh, in the

[00:10:14] next few years? Is this networking area somewhere that you see yourself working in over a long period of

[00:10:20] time? As you said, like if you stay in an area and build up your skills in that one area, you just

[00:10:26] keep going up and up and up. But, but, but also I know for a lot of people moving around as well is

[00:10:32] something they say, you know, yeah, you can learn a bit of this, learn a bit of this, and then you'll

[00:10:36] be more well-rounded or things like that. So, so, so what's your thoughts on that? And for you,

[00:10:41] where do you see yourself? Uh, do you see yourself in this networking industry long-term,

[00:10:47] or do you see yourself moving into other areas of tech that are related as well? What, what's your

[00:10:54] thoughts on that?

[00:10:55] Yeah. Yeah. So obviously with tech, it's very exciting. There's so many different issues you

[00:10:59] can get into. Um, and there's like two schools of thoughts, right? You can either, you know,

[00:11:04] learn one skill, master that skill, get better and better and better become more marketable because

[00:11:09] you're the best in the world at skill. Or you could be the person that, you know, learns a skill and

[00:11:14] sees, okay, I can use my networking to get the cloud and then gets into cloud. Because like,

[00:11:18] obviously like maybe you can get bored after a certain period of time. And I know people who

[00:11:22] know they get into networking and after like maybe four or five years, they're like, okay,

[00:11:25] I want to jump into something new. Like I've been doing this for a while. I want to start something

[00:11:28] fresh. So they'll get into cloud, they'll get into like network automation. And one of the cool things

[00:11:33] about networking is like, you can get into cybersecurity, you can get into cloud, you can get into like

[00:11:38] automation. There's the, like, like just cause you're in networking doesn't mean you can get,

[00:11:42] you can get stuck there. Like there's so many sub niches that value the skill of networking.

[00:11:48] So it's gonna, it's gonna literally help you like crazy. So I would say like, even in my case, I'm,

[00:11:54] I've like at the point where like, should I, should I like master networking, keep, keep going, keep

[00:11:58] grinding or should I kind of jump around? So I'm, I'm in that phase where I'm like, even I'm a little

[00:12:03] bit confused because it's like a, it's a difficult path. Like I'm not a hundred percent sure,

[00:12:07] but one of the fields that really have been exciting me is security. And it's particularly

[00:12:11] like network security, because obviously we're networking there's, you know, there's a subset

[00:12:14] of networking that's network security. And that niche is like very interesting in my opinion,

[00:12:19] because I like the idea of like stopping, stopping bad actors and like trying to protect the network

[00:12:24] from like, cause obviously like you, you want to keep things secure. So there's a different sub niches

[00:12:30] within tech. And like I said, in my case, I, I really can't answer that question because I honestly,

[00:12:37] don't know where I'll go. Um, like in the next four years, but if I do, if I did have an idea,

[00:12:42] I definitely want to be in security, probably network security. Um, and like I said, like having

[00:12:46] that networking knowledge is going to help. So even if you get into networking, you end up like,

[00:12:51] Hey, I don't really like this. Like it doesn't really matter because you can still go into

[00:12:55] another niche within tech because most companies that I've seen, they all value networking because

[00:13:00] most people that are not in networking end up not even learning it because they're like, oh, it's,

[00:13:04] you know, why do I need to learn this? Right. Because it's like, you know, sometimes like,

[00:13:09] I'm like in your case, do you really learn networking as a cloud engineer?

[00:13:14] Yeah, you do. Um, you have to understand it to a certain level, depending on which

[00:13:18] area you're learning. And for me working in cloud infrastructure, you need to have a good

[00:13:25] foundational understanding of networking within the cloud within configuring is your, you're using

[00:13:31] IP addresses, you're working with subnets, you're configuring virtual networks. Um, you do have to

[00:13:36] have an understanding of networking. It might be more specific to Microsoft and networking within the

[00:13:44] cloud, but yeah, you, you, you need a good understanding of networking. And I feel like

[00:13:49] most roles, as you said, cybersecurity, very much so cloud, very much. So

[00:13:58] yeah, most areas you will have need to have an understanding. And it's funny, um, because as you

[00:14:03] were explaining, I was just thinking of, you know, I, how, how you spoke about wanting to move into cyber.

[00:14:10] And if you did, it would be network security. And similarly with me, you know, I started in a

[00:14:17] cloud infrastructure role as a, as a cloud administrator, as your administrator, and I moved

[00:14:22] into a cloud security. So it's like security is so interesting because everything has to be secured.

[00:14:29] Each area has to be looked after. And so there's network security, there's cloud security, there's

[00:14:35] different parts of security and whichever area you start with, you're, you're able to leverage those

[00:14:42] skills to move into the next area. And I also had a friend who was working in desktop support,

[00:14:48] like he was a desktop engineer. And he was asking me like, you know, I want to move into cybersecurity,

[00:14:54] but, and I've been working in desk as a desktop engineer for like, like over a year, but like,

[00:15:01] how do I get experience in cybersecurity? But I was like, bro, you're working as a desktop engineer.

[00:15:07] You work with firewalls, you work with IPs, you work with all this stuff. You already have

[00:15:13] experience in cybersecurity. You just need to leverage that and communicate that to where you

[00:15:18] want to go next that yeah, you've been working somewhat in cybersecurity. So, so it was really

[00:15:24] interesting you say that. And yeah, of course in cloud, especially in my part of cloud and cloud

[00:15:29] security and understanding of networking is, is almost is required. So, so yeah, it's super interesting.

[00:15:37] Yeah. It's crazy because like most people don't even understand like the skills are learning.

[00:15:41] Like if you have, like, like I brought up with the experience thing, like your friend,

[00:15:44] like people don't understand like the experience you're getting, you can leverage it. Like you don't,

[00:15:49] like most people don't understand that, but like what you do on a day-to-day basis,

[00:15:52] even if it's like very minute or very little, the fact that you're able to work with the

[00:15:56] equipment, you're gaining experience no matter what. Right. Like I said, sometimes you'll be

[00:16:00] working on a firewall and be like, Hey bro, like just like your friend, like that's the easy way in

[00:16:04] because you can always talk about what you do on a day-to-day basis. And obviously like,

[00:16:08] if you want, you can, you know, you're working with that equipment. You can ask, you know,

[00:16:12] your manager, you can ask your, if there's other coworkers who can literally just like,

[00:16:16] you know, you can just like peer mentor and like watch what they do on a day-to-day basis.

[00:16:19] And that's literally getting experience. You can ask questions right then and there.

[00:16:22] So it's, it's crazy. The, the career track you can get into once you have experience.

[00:16:28] And like I said, it's, you know, once you're in networking or once you're in a certain field,

[00:16:32] you can, it's going to open more doors for you. And, and there is one thing that you guys

[00:16:36] got to kind of be wary of is something called shiny object syndrome, because you can be in a position

[00:16:42] where, you know, you, you know, you want to pick a field or you're, you're dead set on a field.

[00:16:48] Then you see another person in this field, you're like, Oh, should I jump into that?

[00:16:51] And you see another person in this field in cloud. Oh, should I get into that?

[00:16:54] And then you see another person do automation. You see another person, my bad.

[00:16:56] You see another person do like a bunch of different like things. And you're like, bro,

[00:17:02] where do I go? You know, and you end up in this position where you, you think every other,

[00:17:06] every other field in tech is better than your field or the field that you're getting into.

[00:17:12] And you're in this kind of weird position where you end up stuck between all these fields and

[00:17:17] you don't know where to go. So that's like another thing that you got to be wary of is just because

[00:17:21] you see, you know, someone doing security, someone doing data analytics, don't jump off your wagon,

[00:17:27] stick to what you've been doing. And, and try to stick it out for, I would say two to three years,

[00:17:32] minimum, just so you can get that base level experience. Because as soon as you start jumping

[00:17:37] around, you're going to be wasting time. You're not really going to be in that level of, I would

[00:17:42] say mid tier without that level of experience. Cause if you're just jumping, jumping, jumping,

[00:17:48] it's, it's not a good idea. Try to stick to a certain path for a decent amount of time.

[00:17:52] Once you've kind of mastered that path and you felt like you've learned a lot, you gain a tons

[00:17:56] of experience, then it's the time to transition, right? You can get into either like security or cloud.

[00:18:01] So that's what I would say. That's some, that's a really good point. Like

[00:18:07] the grass is greener on the other side. Oh, wait, cloud, they make more money.

[00:18:16] Or man, their stuff looks pretty cool. Or they get to work remotely. I want to do that.

[00:18:22] And then you end up like switching. And then when you're in cloud, you start to look, oh, cybersecurity.

[00:18:29] Oh, and then you're like, oh, software. But no, that's such a great point on really focusing on

[00:18:37] one area and building up the skills before doing the jumping. Because loads of people are jumping

[00:18:43] for a salary hike. And on a recent podcast, someone spoke to me as well about this. And he was like,

[00:18:49] yeah, you can only job hop to a certain point where you're going to stay mid-level or you're not going

[00:18:56] to be, you know, you're not going to be able to job hop much further. And you're not going to be able

[00:19:01] to get those salary rises if you are, you're, you're not, you haven't stayed in one place and

[00:19:07] picked up the learnings and, and gain the experience to a level that another place would see that, okay,

[00:19:15] yeah, this person is at this level and we want to bring them in at this amount. Right. So, so it's,

[00:19:21] it's a, it's a really good point that you make on there with that one.

[00:19:24] Yeah. And what analogy I like to say is like, think of it like sports. Imagine if you just picked

[00:19:28] one sport or you, or you played seven sports, right? If you want to make it to the NBA,

[00:19:34] you're playing seven sports. You're probably not going to make it to the NBA. Right. But if you stick

[00:19:39] with basketball and only play basketball, right. And then, you know, you're going to be what they call it,

[00:19:44] like you'll be an expert in that field of, of, of hooping. Right. And then you can actually,

[00:19:48] you know, demand a higher salary because you're one of the best in the world. Right. So if you want

[00:19:54] to get to that position of expertise, like you guys are jumping for, if you guys are going for salary,

[00:19:58] you're almost better off sticking to one field and being the best as you possibly can in that field.

[00:20:03] That's honestly the best way. If you just, if you're going for salary, you may take,

[00:20:07] like, you may not have those big salary cases in the beginning, but over a long period of time,

[00:20:12] like maybe 10 years in the, like in 10 years, you're probably going to be making more because

[00:20:17] you'll be, you'll, you'll be able to demand a higher salary because your knowledge level,

[00:20:21] your experience level in that one particular field is so high that they'll be like, yeah,

[00:20:25] we have to, you know, you can demand a higher salary versus jumping around and getting these little

[00:20:30] boosts, but you're never actually getting that yet. You're like I said, that mid tier level of

[00:20:34] experience, but never getting to that expert level where you get like the, the crazy money,

[00:20:38] you know.