IT Career Path - Networking - System Admin

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  Quantumcat on 20/01/2023 - 20:12

  +2

  If you're going to move to the mainland anyway why not move sooner and study what you really want to study?

  • 

    pmt0912 on 20/01/2023 - 20:39

    I forgot to mention, due to my partner business in Tasmania, at the moment we cant move easily until next year.

    About what I really want, honestly I dont know. I read through CCNA and Azure/AWS, to me, I can take either of them. Because I lack of practical work and especially work environment, so I dont really mind which one

    • 

      Clear on 20/01/2023 - 20:56

      CCNA is a good introduction to networking. As for how many businesses still use Cisco gear is another question. Azure and AWS are very relevant in business. Not enough people know Azure in my experience.

      • 

        pmt0912 on 20/01/2023 - 21:14

        To be honest, I put keywords CCNA on seeks, only show 5-600 jobs while Azure or AWS shows 3.5k jobs in Australia . Everyone is saying CCNA , but this seek searches make me worry.

        • 

          Clear on 20/01/2023 - 21:14

          @pmt0912: They are different career paths.

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  Mechz on 20/01/2023 - 20:38

  +4

  SDN is killing network engineer jobs and has been for a few years now.

  Learn automation in your own time and get a job WFH on a helpdesk to start. Troubleshooting can be 90% of the job if you don't know how to do it correctly. Or it can be 10-25% if you do.

  Not many places will hire a qualified network engineer with zero real world experience.

  • 

    pmt0912 on 20/01/2023 - 20:40

    In this case, System admin is still.better choice ? Because I have time to study, but not enough for a Uni degree 😜.

    • 

      Mechz on 20/01/2023 - 20:51

      +6

      Get the Helpdesk job and study part time. Lots of employers will pay for courses and certs.

      • 

        jstndckns on 20/01/2023 - 22:53

        +2

        This. Real world experience is so much more valuable than just a TAFE certification, employers looking for fill "intermediate" roles such as Sysadmin and Net/Sec roles will unlikely give you a chance if there is a candidate with at least a little bit of experience in a real world IT job, there is a lot to learn beyond just technology problems in a corporate job and the way that things are done will likely be completely different to what you have experienced so far.

        I don't think the "Network Engineer" will necessarily be killed off by SDN, but I think their responsibilities have changed over time and will continue to change, but networking fundamentals will come in handy for any IT role, so it can't hurt to learn.

        If you go for the helpdesk job at the very least you will get to network and socialise with others in the same industry and also understand better what path you might want to go down.

      • 

        ForbiddenCouponJutsu on 30/01/2023 - 16:41

        Absolutely second this.

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  salmon123 on 20/01/2023 - 23:01

  -2

  Should've been a tradie or a real-estate agent…

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  Marty-69 on 20/01/2023 - 23:04

  +1

  (basic) network skills are always good to have but I wouldn't do a CCNA. Containers and cloud are booming and to me it seems like there's more AWS than Azure in Australia. Almost every company has something going in the cloud so it's good to know at least the basics. Both provide a lot of free on-line training.

  • 

    nuker on 21/01/2023 - 10:23

    Yes, AWS is where you want to be finally, but to be good at cloud you need strong Linux and networking. Plus Python, ideally.

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  alexlim2000 on 21/01/2023 - 01:18

  +2

  If you still have 1 year in tazzie,
  get an IT job - whatever type of IT job, it helps to have experience to then jump to be a junior admin (ideally Azure/AWS).

  In the mean time, do all the free Amazon / MS Azure certs - they're fairly easy, and show taht you put in effort to learn the basics.

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  Indomietable on 21/01/2023 - 16:08

  Whatever the you choose you need to offer competitive advantage especially when you have no experience.

  Contribute to some open source project.

  I would put more weight on candidates with open source contributions over one with various profesional certification. It somehow shows that you have passion for it and not just doing it for the money.

  You will learn a ton of stuff that will set you apart from other sys admins / network engineers and hopefully have positive impact to the communit.

  • 

    Quantumcat on 21/01/2023 - 20:53

    I don't think they have any programming experience though

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  ForbiddenCouponJutsu on 30/01/2023 - 16:38

  +1

  I was in legitimately exactly your position a few years ago.
  I did IT at TasTafe until I finished my advanced Diploma.

  I had a very hard time getting a job down here, I started applying for work experience things with a mates workplace just so I could get something on my resume.
  Even those fell through due to "insurance risks".

  I wasn't able to get a job in IT for about a year after I finished my advDip until a friend referred me for a job on the Service desk.
  Nowdays that business is hiring for Service desk all the time, but it got my foot in the door back then.

  I've been working in It in Tas for around 6 years now, and I have to say it's still really damn hard to get a job in anything like Network admin or Sys Admin without prior experience in the job already.

  My suggestion is:
  Go to the mainland, get your hands dirty in as many different fields of IT as you can, don't stick around in one job for too long and keep pushing for better jobs and better pay.
  If you want to come back to Tas after a few years, I suspect you'll be a far better candidate than you would be just staying in Tas.

  The job opportunities on the mainland are significantly better than in Tas imho.