Tips for a young people getting into networking

Brenvh

Brenvh

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2021
Messages
427
Reaction score
184
Location
Pretoria
Hi!

I've been interested in networking mostly from an ISP perspective for a few years now, most of what I know is self taught over the years, I also learnt a lot on this forum from you guys, which is why I'm asking here, lots of people that has obviously been in it for years and know what they are talking about. I'd like to ask how you got into networking, do you have any tips for me and potentially others that read this?, what is something you wish you did sooner in your networking career?, how important is a degree?, what other qualifications are often looked at or important. Just any general knowledge or tips you might have from your experience over the years is appreciated :)
 
For me personally it started from having an interest in Gaming, which at that point was far more challenging than it is today. This then turned into online gaming and so all the respective variables around that.

There was also an amazing public wireless network called Jawug. This was a great platform to learn about wide area networks.

My suggestion would be to try working at an ISP, even as a support tech or even an internship. If you are motivated and find a decent place to work the rest, should fall in place.

Basic IP routing understanding is a great starting point, the Mikrotik courses are great for that, you get all the value of a CCNA for a quarter of the price. And this can scale up to MTCINE depending on your appetite.

There are many different skills required in an ISP, some people specialise in certain. Some can do a bit of all, and some can do a lot of all. So it's all really about finding what part you enjoy.

Just my 2c
 
For the degree question if you were HR or a hiring manage and you got 50 CV's, 30 were along what you were looking for and 10 of those have a degree. Where would you start interviewing?

You can get along fine without a degree but you will always need to stand out in some other way to show you are worth interviewing.
Same when you eventually want to move into senior management. You will be competing against degrees, honours degrees, masters etc. What have you done to stand out and be included in that group?

As for the networking part I always advise people to go as broad as you can job wise when you start out to gain experience and understand the big picture but all the while studying and fine tuning one skill to be an expert in. So have your area where you are an expert but be willing to help out and learn other areas. Always be mindful though to not get sidetracked so much that you lose focus in your main skill unless its a conscious decision to change course.
 
PBCool said:
My suggestion would be to try working at an ISP, even as a support tech or even an internship. If you are motivated and find a decent place to work the rest, should fall in place.
Click to expand...
+1

I started as tech support at a small WISP and because of the size of the company I very quickly got my hands dirty on the network engineering side. Nothing beats learning on the job while dealing with real-world situations.

It was helpful (a decade ago) to read the CompTIA Network+ study guide. Specifically the chapters on IP addresses (and their classes), subnetting, routing, switching, and understanding the OSI model.
 
PBCool said:
For me personally it started from having an interest in Gaming, which at that point was far more challenging than it is today. This then turned into online gaming and so all the respective variables around that.

There was also an amazing public wireless network called Jawug. This was a great platform to learn about wide area networks.

My suggestion would be to try working at an ISP, even as a support tech or even an internship. If you are motivated and find a decent place to work the rest, should fall in place.

Basic IP routing understanding is a great starting point, the Mikrotik courses are great for that, you get all the value of a CCNA for a quarter of the price. And this can scale up to MTCINE depending on your appetite.

There are many different skills required in an ISP, some people specialise in certain. Some can do a bit of all, and some can do a lot of all. So it's all really about finding what part you enjoy.

Just my 2c
Click to expand...
Thanks to the people who innovated and made things as easy as they are today, online gaming is probably way different now than it was.

Our interests are quiete similar, the gaming part at least, although mine was more a mix of my previous ISP's constant issues, troubleshooting with them and FNO's, I always bothered them with random questions lol.

Thanks for your 2c, it's great that I can get advice like this from people like you.

I'll seriously consider everything you said, and find my starting point!


now05ster said:
Off topic, but the youngsters nowadays have no idea just how much truth lies in that statement.
Click to expand...
100% true, I have no idea how gaming was, I'm just glad it's as simple as it is now.


B-1 said:
For the degree question if you were HR or a hiring manage and you got 50 CV's, 30 were along what you were looking for and 10 of those have a degree. Where would you start interviewing?

You can get along fine without a degree but you will always need to stand out in some other way to show you are worth interviewing.
Same when you eventually want to move into senior management. You will be competing against degrees, honours degrees, masters etc. What have you done to stand out and be included in that group?

As for the networking part I always advise people to go as broad as you can job wise when you start out to gain experience and understand the big picture but all the while studying and fine tuning one skill to be an expert in. So have your area where you are an expert but be willing to help out and learn other areas. Always be mindful though to not get sidetracked so much that you lose focus in your main skill unless its a conscious decision to change course.
Click to expand...
I'll look at ways to stand out more, I'm sure with enough motivation anything should be possible. I'm honestly not sure which part of networking I would be most interested in, but starting somewhere should help a lot, thank you for the advice :)


Naaimasjien said:
+1

I started as tech support at a small WISP and because of the size of the company I very quickly got my hands dirty on the network engineering side. Nothing beats learning on the job while dealing with real-world situations.

It was helpful (a decade ago) to read the CompTIA Network+ study guide. Specifically the chapters on IP addresses (and their classes), subnetting, routing, switching, and understanding the OSI model.
Click to expand...
I'll take a look at the compTIA network+ study guide, I'll know more than I do now after reading so still helpful after a decade. Thanks for the reply!
 
If I had to start today, I would start playing with an actual Mikrotik.

From doing VLANs, DHCP, DNS and of course the more advanced VPNs, routing,firewalls, very good way to play around and start gettkng XP.
 
My_King said:
If I had to start today, I would start playing with an actual Mikrotik.

From doing VLANs, DHCP, DNS and of course the more advanced VPNs, routing,firewalls, very good way to play around and start gettkng XP.
Click to expand...
XP farming IRL, okay I might be able to do that, thanks Muta!
 
Brenvh said:
XP farming IRL, okay I might be able to do that, thanks Muta!
Click to expand...
Does not have to be new.

Cheap second hand one.

Once you have the feel of networking, much easier to understand other manufactures.

If you ever get stuck, most here will be able to assis you as well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X