Question to those working in networking

[Dist]

I have a question to anyone here who works with networks in any sort of role in a medium or large sized company. After going to my day school for my OU CCNA course i talked to a few blokes there who are also on the course who have been doing IT and networking for 10 to 20 years some of them, and they talked about how a lot of their IT and networking jobs are being done oversees, putting some of them or their co-workers out of the job.

So my question is, how 'secure' do you feal in your job, do you think your department will be made smaller to cope with the current economic downturn? Also, has their been much opertunities for people trying to get into an IT job where you work, or has your company cut back on hiring new IT staff for low level jobs?

I understand that a lot of you proberly wont want to name your company or anything like that, but some general advice on my questions would be welcome. I am going to continue my ICT degree and my CCNA even if its a terrible time to go into such a field because i enoying working with such technology, but would like to get an idea of just how hard a time i will have once i finish my degree.

 

[iaind]

A good subject...

The company I work with is small (just over 100 users) with 4 IT staff. As we're in the public sector and most of the company's revenue comes from council benefits, I think the company itself is very secure.

I would doubt that outsourcing network and operations management of a company this size would be either cost effective or efficient. We're there to provide a service to the users on site and to manage the hardware that's there.

I've said this so often to people starting out, but the best thing you can do is to get experience, even if you dont get paid for it. Qualifications alone wont get you into it..

Obviously a lot of companies are beginning to outsource things abroad, but it really depends what sort of thing you want to get into. Software development especially is very prone to being outsourced but desktop support wont be

 

[Ev0]

We're public sector, about 4-500 users.

Historically everything bar an over-seeing manager was outsourced in IT.

Over the last 2 years they've been bringing it all back in house as it offers better value and much better service.

The network however is still looked after by a third party company. Nice guys who worked for IT Net/Serco when it was outsourced. However the in house IT support guys (4 'server' people, 2 desktops) do feel like we could do with someone in house for it sometimes, and then cut back on what they do which should again decrease costs and increase service.

However I'm not sure how cost efficient that'd be, probably not enough work to keep someone busy all the time so would have to do other stuff as well (the server guys all cover more than one 'specialist' area).

 

[dave-lew99]

I don't work in networks, i am however a software developer

When i joined, the company had a staff of 4, now i'm there plus they're taking on two other members of staff immediatly and probably 2-3 more over the next 12 months.

Job security, i'm set, i won't be going anywhere for a long time, company security - we're doing pretty well as we produce a product which is in demand all over the world plus new R&D work we're doing which will be profitable in the end.

I also tend to look after the day to day running of the small network and servers - we're a small company, it doesn't take much.

As for other companies, in the last 12 months i know of 3 people who have been taken on in IT related positions, so good jobs are out there, you just have to have somthing which puts you in front of anyone else applying - ideally real world experience, but even just having running high end services at home (ie you have set up a server or two on different platforms, tried some enterprise protocols eg 802.1x etc)

 

[slylittlefox]

I work for a Network Support company who provide bespoke networks to clients upto 100 users, we probably care for around a thousand machines across our WAN.

Job security wise, so-so. I'm worried about how much I'm allocating to project budgets because of the current climate, and as a consequence the job is taking longer to do on average, and so I'm worried about the powers that be giving me the heave-ho for not being prudent enough.

On the other hand, I disagree with some of the things we do (outside of my control) along with the pay rate, and so have been giving serious thought to leaving.

As such, job security isn't too much of a concern - and (hopefully) thanks to my experience, securing another (higher paid) role wouldn't be too difficult.

As for other companies, in the last 12 months i know of 3 people who have been taken on in IT related positions, so good jobs are out there, you just have to have somthing which puts you in front of anyone else applying - ideally real world experience, but even just having running high end services at home (ie you have set up a server or two on different platforms, tried some enterprise protocols eg 802.1x etc)

Agree with everything but your very last statement - my mum has knowledge of 8021x But I know what you meant

Whereabouts in Manchester are your firm based?

Edit: Seems your company has offices a few minutes from my home address on the Wirral - small world!

 

[iaind]

I think he was thinking more along the lines of .1Q than 11G

 

[dave-lew99]

Agree with everything but your very last statement - my mum has knowledge of 8021x But I know what you meant

I meant more just playing around with stuff you don't normally find at home but which are quite normal in an enterprise - VLANs/Auth/AD/LDAP things like that.

Myself i run loads of different things because i wanted to have a go and learn about it, so i've got different networking things such as VLANs, VOIP (IAX/SIP), OSPF, VPNs plus a mix of Windows, Linux and Solaris servers.

The funny part is that i don't really need to know any of that to do my job and neither really has anything to do with my degree!.

Whereabouts in Manchester are your firm based?

Edit: Seems your company has offices a few minutes from my home address on the Wirral - small world!

Yeah we're based on the Wirral, i'm part time at the mo (and have been since last October). I'll be back full time in June.

 

[kefkef]

Agree with everything but your very last statement - my mum has knowledge of 8021x But I know what you meant

Haha, reminded me of a meeting a couple of months back with the finance director at our place, i asked for a provisional budget of ~£2m to implement a campus wide wireless network at two hospitals, he replied that it shouldn't cost that much as he had set up his own wireless router and network at home and it was so easy that he couldn't see why it should cost that much.

I replied that i was a dab hand at carving the sunday roast and sewing a button on, so could i have a job as a heart surgeon then! Thankfully he saw the funny side!

 

[Dist]

Thanks for the replies, it's good to know there are still good jobs out there that are secure.

As for setting up my own stuff at home to get a bit of experience, i do plan on taking advantage of microsoft giving free windows server 2008 to students to put on my old pc to test and such. I know there will be certain things that i wont be able to test though, like the whole domains thing as from limited understanding of the server side of windows, my home PCs (vista home premium) can't join a domain because only the buisness or ultimate versions can join a domain.

I was also thinking of perhaps purchasing some cisco kit off ebay to aid with my CCNA and to get a bit more experience, but i think the day schools that the OU require for my course provide some good hands on experience, as well as providing me with remote access to a real ccna lab when i need it.

 

[dave-lew99]

I'd strongly advise you to check with your academic institution if they have access to MSDN-AA and are willing to let you use it. That way you can get pretty much any MS software for free.

 

[Ev0]

Forgot to say, we're also taking on people at the moment, trainee desktop job (with very good starting salary imho for what the job is) and also replacing someone who is leaving.

 

[brainchylde]

Sorry to hijack thread but, Dave, I notice from your website profile that you set up Asterisk PBX in your organisation. How are you finding it? We currently have a system which is leased from BT but we're always looking to move on, if possible. Could you give me a brief via e-mail/msn at some time?

 

[atomiser]

i currently work for a large public sector organisation with in excess of five thousand users. worked my way in straight from college as a trainee. did the whole help desk / installs / desktop support thing for eighteen months and got bored very quickly. an opportunity came up to get involved in networking so i grabbed it with both hands. i'm out of the networking side of things now, since i have moved onto security...so i'm still quite involved, but a bit more indirectly. job security wise, yeah i would say it's fairly secure... i have seriously itchy feet at the moment though, i *really* want a new challenge, and i get quite a few calls from recruiters... but, i also want to buy a house, and for that i need a stable income... it's a tricky situation to be in, at the moment i am merely grateful that i am employed! public sector is very 'comfortable' if you can get into it, but be prepared for lots of red tape and glacial progress in pretty much anything you do! as with everything, it helps to know what your doing (!) but always remember it's not what you know but who you know!

 

[dave-lew99]

Sorry to hijack thread but, Dave, I notice from your website profile that you set up Asterisk PBX in your organisation. How are you finding it? We currently have a system which is leased from BT but we're always looking to move on, if possible. Could you give me a brief via e-mail/msn at some time?

I've added you onto MSN, will talk to you about it there.