So I've heard that some of the people that follow me here on EveDumps want to become Network engineers, And I don't know why. But I've never actually made a article on how to become one, As some of you may know already. I'Ve been working Fransisco for the past five years, But obviously it wasn't always that way. I live in a small city here in the South Texas border, And here there frankly aren't a lot of opportunities out there for network engineers, But somehow I've been able to get through and make the right moves in order to get to the position that I am In today, So I wanted to come by and deliver some value to you and provide you with a couple of tips on how you can become a network engineer as well. So a really quick story.
Just a couple of years ago I was a senior in college, And some of you may also be in that position right now. The position where you know that you want to be an IT, But you're not exactly sure what discipline or specialization that you want to dive into at the time I was considering a bunch of things aside from networking. I was thinking about doing things like database administration systems, Analytics business intelligence and web design, But thankfully I was working for a small, Consulting firm here in my area, So I was getting a ton of experience around not just networking but also things like systems administration on Windows, Linux, As well as some experience on firewalls and wireless technologies. It was in that I realized that my curiosity would always peak when I would think about how dis communication actually happened on a network, I mean give me a break if you ever had an experience where you just sit down and ponder.
How does my computer? How does my laptop or phone get out to a server out on the internet and display that information to me if you've pondered that in the past, It's very likely that you have an innate attraction to network engineering? So I connected those dots successfully and I was able to commit to doubling down on network engineering as a career, And so today I want to share some of the things that I've learned along the way, As well as some of the things that I think apply. Now, Today, More than ever, Because honestly, The world of network engineering has changed. So you might be somebody without any education or experience and I'm going to go ahead and clean off the slate, Because I also came from a position where I didn't have any experience of networking. So I'm gonna tell you right now exactly what I would do in order to break into the industry.
So I assure that you're gonna find some value in this article. So before we get started, Go ahead and smash that, Like button for the EveDumps algorithm and let's go ahead and get started, I would highly encourage you to stay to the very end of this article because I feel, Like the last tip, Could make all the Difference in the world, So tip number one is to invest in yourself, And by that I mean not necessarily to go to college, Get a two or four-year degree. It may be very surprising to you, But a lot of networking engineers. A lot of very successful ones have never set foot into college.
That's because our industry has a ton of certifications and education that you can get outside of a classroom, Namely we have companies like CompTIA and Cisco that offer network engineering certifications. So if I had absolutely zero education and knowledge about network engineering, I would start with CompTIA Network+ certifications. This will give you a good baseline and understanding of the networking world from a vendor neutral perspective, Meaning we're not talking about just how cisco does things, But how the industry as a whole approaches.
Networking, If you do have some work experience or you have a good grasp of network engineering a high level already. I would recommend that you go ahead and just skip this and go straight towards your Cisco, CCNA certification and, If you're wondering exactly where I recommend you get the certification training from its IT pro TV. For the past couple of months, I've been using IT pro TV for my IT training and I've got to say that I'm really impressed with the format and the trainers that t have here. Not only do t have great instructors and material, But t also offer labs, Which is something that not all providers do not to mention that their price point is extremely competitive and if you want to go ahead and get started with that, I have a link in The description where you can save 30 percent off your subscription so check it out if you'd like number 2 is to start building your lab today, When you're going through your training, It is extremely important for you to get a hold of some physical gear or virtualize. The gear this is one of those things that is extremely different from what I started coming into the industry. You can now purchase a program like CML the Cisco modeling labs in order to virtual lies, Routers and switches quite easily.
It's also extremely inexpensive to purchase this. All you really got to do is buy yourself a little Intel look or a small server to run in your lap and from there you'll be able to virtualize things like switches, Firewalls, Routers or pretty much anything else. That you'd, Like now the great thing about having your own lab and your own server, Is that you're also able to explore things outside of network engineering. So, Aside from things like the CCNA and the CCNP, You can also take a look at Windows administration.
You could even consider running your CML instance in the cloud in AWS or Azure. All of these other little specializations are going to help. You become a better network engineer in the long run. It's very seldom that you would be a network administrator that just works on routing and switching technologies.
You also have to have a good idea of DNS, Maybe even Active Directory, And in today's modern cloud era you probably also have to start learning how to network things into AWS and Azure. Now, If you're sitting there thinking to yourself, I cannot afford to do this. I can't afford to buy a $500 server. I can't afford that $200 license for CML.
What I would recommend for you to do is to really take a look at your finances. I have another youtube channel, Which you may not know about I'll put the link to that in the description is called win your wealth in that channel. I talk all about money, Investing in personal finance, So if you need help saving, I would highly recommend for you to go and take a look at that youtube.
Channel number three is to market yourself when I started this EveDumps channel almost ten years ago. I never thought it would grow anywhere near to where it has today. I'Ve only been posting a couple of articles every year and I'm pretty close to getting nearly 10000 subscribers. So thank you very much for that.
But even when my channel was a hundred three hundred subscribers large, I was very surprised to learn that a lot of the recruiters and people that were approaching me for positions were finding me online and without really wanting it to my youtube channel sort of became. Like a second resume to me, It showed employers and people that I cared about the industry that I cared about getting certified and teaching and mentoring. Others to do the same, So EveDumps is one way where you can start building a community and getting into the market, But another way that you can do that if you're not really great in front of the camera like me, Is maybe start blogging or going to Local networking events - I know I was forgetting something I just didn't know what it was yet by the way, If you like my new studio here, Along with my CCIE plaque, My TX ad, My WebEx room kit, Which is up there, You can't see that I really like this new design. Let me know what you think in the comment section below here's: another way that you could market yourself if you live in a small town or a small city like I do. I realized early on that there wasn't a huge need for network engineers in my area. So as a result, I started applying for jobs outside of my area.
I started looking in big cities like Austin, Dallas, Houston and, Ultimately it actually landed me. My first big network engineering job and, As luck would have it, It was actually for a contract job with Cisco through a company called Glo networks. If I hadn't made that move to jump to another city to ultimately move to another state and get some experience there, I probably would have never ended up back home with the role as an employee at Cisco.
So if you also live in a small town, I would HIGHLY encourage you to look outside of that area and make sure that you actually spend a little bit of time to try to get as much experience as possible. Number four is to begin looking for work and site projects, So I already talked a little bit about looking for work and potentially looking outside your area. But let's just imagine that you cannot find work. Take a look at your entrepreneurial side and maybe start your own business. Nothing is stopping you from knocking on business's doors and asking them if t have any IT services needs.
Who knows that could even be a great way for you to get a lot of great experience and also build a good site income for yourself, And if you decide to take that business to the next level, It could actually become a very large business. So definitely don't be afraid to go out there and knock on people's doors and ask how you can serve them. I would also always recommend for everybody, Whether you have a job or not, To always look for volunteer opportunities, Two ways that you can serve the community. Remember that you have a skill that not a lot of people have so make sure that you take advantage of that and you use it for good in your community doing this will look really great on your resume and really great to a future employer. You can also start your own site projects, So what's stopping you from building your own network in your own home lab, So you got your home lab already.
You want to build a fairly large network with complicated routing and switching and maybe even Wireless. Why not go ahead and show that off on your resume, Or maybe even make a youtube article all about how you went through that entire process doing something like that is a great way to show initiative and looks really awesome when you're trying to break into an Industry, Especially for somebody who doesn't have any experience having this higher level of initiative goes a really long way. Number 5 is to find and be a mentor now, You're, Probably saying but George. I don't have anything to give. I can't be a mentor.
All I need is a mentor that is absolutely not true. Now, While I always recommend that it's important that you have somebody to learn from, You also have to make sure that you are giving back to the industry yourself. You do know more than other people and you have the opportunity and the ability to teach other people how to get to where you're at when you do that, You develop a lot of great relationships, And you just feel good about yourself. You start to become more confident in your abilities and it's going to help you in the long run now finding a mentor can sometimes be difficult. It's often a good idea to not just approach somebody who's successful and ask them . Can you be my mentor? You must actually start to develop somewhat of a relationship with them.
Maybe start interacting with them on social media, Maybe promote their content. Maybe ask some questions here and there, And eventually you'll probably get to the point where you have built such a rapport with them, That t may even decide to mentor you without even asking, But you can always ask them once you feel the time is right now. Remember that your mentors time is very valuable, So a couple of things to keep in mind here make sure that every time that you meet with them, You make it worth their while you got to make sure that you're prepared with the questions that you want to Ask projects that you want their opinions on and ideas that you may have cooking in the back of your mind. Having a mentor is great because you are learning through other people's experiences, So you're learning about how t succeeded and also how t failed.
It's a lot easier to learn from other people's mistakes than your own mistakes. So remember, There's always somebody out there whose will to teach you and there's always room for you to teach somebody else as well. So the last and final bonus tip is to make the decision and take real action.
Some of the biggest hurdles and challenges that we face in our lives are not actually external, But rather t are internal mental hurdles. We say to ourselves things like we're, Not good enough. We have impostor syndrome, We set our own self-limiting beliefs about what we can do and what we can't do. These are all things that everybody who's successful deals with, But you got to remember that the way that you get past, That is by taking action, The difference between those people that do and those that don't are, The ones that take action and one of my favorite Books called the dip by Seth Godin. He talks about this idea of anything worth having has a dip, And the dip is essentially that long road that is going to take you from getting to where you are now to where you want to be so that might be to break into the IT industry.
It might be to become a network engineer or a security engineer or to finally get that CCNA, CCNP or CCIE level certification. Obviously, It's going to be hard and some of these are harder than others, And this is a key to every dip. You don't want to start the dip unless you are committed to finishing, And the interesting thing is that the most common thing is for people to actually start the dip passively walk into it and then realize at some point that it's too difficult and then quit the Problem with that approach is that it wastes precious cycles. You want to make sure that you're concentrating and focusing your energy on dips that really matter to you. So before even starting your journey, You want to make sure that you evaluate the journey and commit to yourself to take action and get through it.
And the absolute last thing that you want to do is start the dip and quit so there you have it . Those are the things that I would recommend to somebody who wants to break into the industry as a network engineer, If you found that helpful and want to stick around for more. Please hit that subscribe button and like this article, I would HIGHLY appreciate it.
Although no system is ever 100 percent protected, the ability for differentiating between typical network traffic as well as potentially harmful malware is considered crucial and provides the focus of this associate-level certification path. Also, if you wish to acquire this certification, you should gain the 300-410 Exam Dumps, which are being offered at the EveDumps.
