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Are Cisco sysadmin jobs easy to find? How well are they paid in comparation with a Unix sysadmin? Does it worth to get their certification?

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closed as too localized by Mark Henderson♦ Jan 9 at 5:30

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The networking field can be more difficult to "break into" than a typical *nix sysadmin position for a few reasons.

  • Very difficult to get hands on experience with enterprise class networking equipment. Sure, Cisco IOS simulators exist. However, there's no real substitute to learning by configuring a real physical network. Most larger companies have a dedicated team of experienced network engineers, and typically only hire people with experience. Most smaller companies don't have large enough networks to give you enough experience to be qualified for the more advanced positions.

    By contrast, a Unix/Linux sysadmin can download, install, and tinker with hundreds of different Linux and Unix distributions. Having virtual machines available for essentially no cost, there's no real excuse for an up-and-coming sysadmin not to tinker.

  • The network team, compared to a sysadmin or server team, typically will not require as many engineers to maintain. A properly designed network can be maintained by a relatively small staff. In some smaller companies, you might even see one or two of the sysadmins handling the day to day network configuration.

My advice to you would be to first grab some books and look into taking the CCNA test. This will give you a good indicator of your interest level in networking. If you find that you enjoy the material and studying for the test, and want to continue, great! However, realize that getting your certification will not guarantee you a job. I can't stress this enough -- Make sure you understand how and why it all works, not just the configuration steps. There's nothing worse than interviewing a CCNP certified engineer for a position, and them not being able to explain OSPF.

When looking for jobs, a sysadmin background could give you a distinct advantage. One option would be to look for a typical sysadmin position that has some minor networking components to get your foot in the door. Ideally, they'll have some older equipment that you can setup and stage into a "test" network, and learn the ropes on. Work your way up from there.

Good luck!

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Thanks for this great answer. I already have my certification, but indeed it's difficult to get experienced with enterprise class equipments. Nice answer, thanks! – hyperboreean May 5 '09 at 7:01
No problem. If you can stomach it, working tech support for one of the big network companies (Cisco, Juniper, Force10, etc.) is a great way to gain experience. They typically hire trainable but not necessarily experienced network people. You'll get tons of experience with many different configurations, and of course become really good at troubleshooting. – Dave K May 7 '09 at 18:55
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Another place to get experience is at an outsourcing agency as a junior network engineer - Lots of smaller corporates / big SMEs don't have in-house network guys, but use outsourced networking. There are lots of fairly small networking companies that provide this to the enterprises. You'll get a much better variety of experience with a company that does networking than at an end-user – Richard Gadsden May 8 '09 at 14:56
I used to provide first-contact support for Cisco customers, and it's a great stepping stone into getting a position where you can use your CCNA. I wasn't interested in progressing further there, but a lot of the people in our call center went to work for the actual Technical Support teams, and then moved on to corporate placements from there. – Mark Henderson♦ Jun 8 '09 at 7:34
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up vote -1 down vote

Cisco sysadmin jobs are generally netadmin jobs.

Their certs are reasonably useful indicator that you know what you're doing.

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