How Long Does It Take to Become a Network Engineer? - CCNA | CCNP

Key Takeaways

[Music] okay so I get this question a lot too a lot of a lot of questions that are popular here people get antsy and they want to know how long is it gonna take them to become a network engineer horizontal Alan does it take to you know gives you see scent get your CCNA get your CC and P and actually fall into the role or grow into the role of a network engineer like a lot of questions along these lines it depends it really depends for me it took before I would really consider myself like an engineer someone who not only knows how to you know get in and configure a basic router or switch configuration but knows how to troubleshoot and actually design a network that works I'd say it took me about three years before I felt like I was an engineer actually designing something know what what did that involve me doing well I was first of all I was studying a lot I was studying like crazy and I was also working crazy hours I mean you can ask my wife don't don't ask her she'll get angry about it but I was I was working late nights I was at data centers doing stuff studying a lot I mean it was it was a lot of work that's when I considered myself a network engineer and I loved you when you asked a question how long does it take to become a network engineer you're probably asking how long will it take for me to get my certifications and actually get into a role where I'm I'm working with network stuff that depends to but I would say it won't take you very long if you do the right things the typical path you'll take from from zero to network engineer will be finding like a entry-level help desk position right and there you're not going to be doing much networking you'll be dealing with PC issues and people calling in and it'll be basic stuff right nothing serious what you're wanting to do is move up from that help desk position to the network admin or a junior network admin or network engineer position that I think will not take you very long at all for me to go from just PC troubleshooting to working with Cisco router stuff it took me about six months now how did I do that well it's you know it's pretty simple guys first of all be study and be very vocal about your studying so what I mean is I was working on my seasoned and then later my CCNA I let everyone know I was working on I let the network admins and network engineers know I was working on it so yeah I was on the helpdesk but I was doing everything I could to get my hands on network engineering stuff so the network admin in the company I was always his shadow man I was on him when they would have maintenance weekend's which they do because you can't you can't make network changes during the day people go down and all hell breaks loose no they do the things they do big changes you know router upgrades on installing new routers things like that over the weekend I would stay I would stay late I would go with them to the data center I know I wasn't getting paid for it it was pretty much a volunteer work but I was getting a ton of value out of that I was learning they were seeing the effort I was putting forth so when it came time that they realized they needed help who they gonna turn to this guy the guy who's been helping them the guy who's shown interest who is working hard so how long it's gonna take you to become a network engineer really depends on how much time and effort you're going to put into this if you're just studying for your CCNA spending a few hours a night but you're not putting any effort and like marketing yourself or getting yourself into a good position to actually get your feet wet you're not gonna get very far you may be like right now you may have no IT experience you not even on a helpdesk you just trying to get your CSUN CCNA and get to that role that's cool I understand that you're doing the right thing but you you can find opportunities I would I would try to get on an IT some sort of IT position as soon as possible because that's the fastest way to get onto a network engineering role with other paths I've heard of people like volunteering helping out schools or companies who can't afford to pay I add Network admin staff I've heard of things like that happening so there's there's options you just got it you got to work at it so I can only really speak from my experience and the things I've heard from other guys but for me it took me six months to actually start doing work with Cisco stuff and this was again working pretty hard on that for I know guys who've gone through this cisco net academy thing and they'll complete that course and they'll get a job right out of the net academy they had like these job situation is set up which is pretty cool but I mean a big part of it is just if you want to if you want to get into networking get a network and what I mean by that is you it's really about who you know us anyone who is very successful in IT they'll tell you that a large part of being successful is who you know so do your best to find some networking events you know they've got the Cisco users group in certain cities look it up they might have one there in your city meet with fellows Cisco guys who who might want to offer a line' again you never know get into forums network chuck you know we've got people commenting below we've got our Facebook group I mean this is networking you never know who you're gonna meet and you never know when that doors gonna open so how fast you become a network engineer there are a lot of factors involved in that but the biggest factor is you how hard are you working towards that goal anyways guys I hope this like was encouraging to you I know it for some it might be like ah I'm really trying hard Chuck I'm really trying to get there I understand that if you have any questions leave me some comments below I'm willing to help out I've been through a lot of this I've helped other guys get into it as well so just let me know but I hope it's been encouraging to you and again I'm giving away five of david bumbles CCNA packet tracer lab courses you know guys again we're pretty close to Christmas so five now we're not gonna do five today today we're gonna do 20 giving away 20 of the CCNA packet tracer courses if you want to enter please first of all if you've already wanted please don't enter again why do you need another one so if you haven't already one and you want to enter to win this packet tracer course sir there's a link below it'll take you to a page to enter and go from there anyways thanks guys and Merry Christmas we're almost done that's about it and of course like I said before to be a winner you've got to be a subscriber of both Network Chuck and David baubles channel which you can check out below and that's about it guys thanks for sticking with me and yeah I'm gonna see tomorrow [Music]