What knowledge and qualifications......

mrbios

mrbios

mrbios

Soldato
Joined
7 Jun 2003
Posts
16,131
Location
Gloucestershire
Does it take to be a network consultant? (one that is half decent ;))

This is my ultimate goal in IT, for someone of 21 I feel I have a decent amount of knowledge though obviously not enough and I want to learn more

In the near future I'm going to be doing an MCSA or MCSE funded by my work, what other qualifications would you suggest I looked into in the near future?

I'm sick of working with end-users and cannot wait to move up in the world, trying as hard as possible to get all the knowledge ill need to move up not only for job enjoyability (I love the work I do, I HATE the people I work with and for) but also for money purposes as well
 
Hi Mrbios.

I'd suggest picking up a CCNA as even if you're not working with cisco kit directly its a great background for routing and switching, also a fair amount of other vendors use an IOS-like command set for their networking kit. Academic courses or vendor-neutral certs such as Network+ can be good for balance rather than just learning from a specific manufacturers' feature set. Security awareness is increasingly important too, so maybe also pick up something like the Security+ as well just for a grounding in the area. Knowing a fair amount of unix/linux can be useful as a lot of network appliances are based on Linux or BSD.

I personally started off with a degree in Networking and Communications, this included a placement year where i picked up a CCNA and a couple of MCPs (i didn't bother finishing the MCSE as i'd decided to go down the networks rather than server route).
 
Cisco is always a good place to start.
I first certified as an MCSE in 1999, and I have worked with Cisco kit for the last 3-4 years so I recently decided it's time to get Cisco certified.
 
If you're wanting to go down the network route only then I'd personally start with Network+ for a generic qualification. After this move to vendor specifics when you get the opportunity to work with the kit, and more importantly other people who know the technology.

In answer to your original question. IMO, to be a consultant in any field you need many years in your chosen industry/trade at a high level and working with people who are at least as good as you. Add on some high level quals (for networking CCIE or similar level) and an impressive project/skills matrix list then you'll be getting there.

The word consultant gets added very easily to job titles in the IT industry. They're supposed to be the true guru's who change how business think about IT and design it, I donder is a 'technical support consultant' with a years experience would do that?
 
mrbios. you don't ever stop working with end users, I'm afraid. :) I've been in the game for near on 16 years now and the users don't get any brighter, bless 'em.

Not that I know a whole lot about the network plus, but as a generic qualification, it's not bad. The CCNA is worth getting as a 'starter' qualification, if taught correctly, there's a good grounding there in basic TCP/IP, and enough to get you started with dynamic routing protocols etc. Much of the principles of networking are applicable no matter what the vendor of your equipment, but in many hardware implementations, as mentioned above, a cisco like command line does appear to be a de-facto standard.

Unfortunately, there's ultimately no substitute for experience. And you can't learn that. If there's any scope for getting involved with project work where you are, try and get involved. If you're able to get involved with any network designs or even new hardware installations, so much the better.

*edit* I forgot to mention: Best of luck to you in whatever you do!
 
Last edited:
At the moment my "end-user" is the worst kind of end-user (I hope) .... kids, please tell me it gets better :( :p

Thanks for all the replies, networking is my primary interest and it's what I have been building on for the past 2-3 years which is why im looking to advance myself in those areas to one day get a nice job I hopefully enjoy
 
if your wanting to be field based, aim for a CCNP which is a broad enough skillset to be a 'consultant' - ie a specialised, skilled network technician.

the term consultant in IT is abused, imho a consultant is someone who knows a topic to borderline anal levels.
 
MossyUK said:
the term consultant in IT is abused, imho a consultant is someone who knows a topic to borderline anal levels.
Click to expand...

This is too true. I have know people who have worked on a furst line desk for 6 months who got moved to a senoir role on the desk call themselves a consultant. Saying that..... my hairdresser calls herself a consultant too ......hair wise, not IT wise thank god.
 
People have mentioned Network+; I, myself, have this and I'd recommend doing it.

I much preferred the CompTIA courses to the MS ones I've done.
 
The N+ covers the fundementals of networking, worth a read just to brush up on your skills.

Currently studying for the CCNA my self but i'm finding it hard to get experience to back it up as most IT roles aren't hard core enough in networking. I've resorted to setting up my home lab

MW
 
Network+ is a good starting point but you really need a minimum of CCNA, ideally CCNP and a good few years experience to be a consultant although as others have said there is nothing to stop anyone calling themselves a consultant these days :(

I've been working in IT Security for about 5 years and have picked up N+, Security+, MCSE Security, CISSP, CISA and a few vendor certs (studying for CCNA) and I still come across plenty of things that I don't know on a semi-regular basis and whilst my company calls me a consultant I still think I have a way to go before I really deserve that title.

Best advice I can give is to focus on one area sooner rather than later, having a broad knowledge is all well and good but the real money is in knowing one area better than anyone else (or at least 99.99% of people).
 
ricky1981 said:
Best advice I can give is to focus on one area sooner rather than later, having a broad knowledge is all well and good but the real money is in knowing one area better than anyone else (or at least 99.99% of people).
Click to expand...

The problem i have there is i have no idea what to go for, I don't know what area of networking it is i enjoy most i just love doing more and more complicated things over a large area

Any you can recommend? I don't really like security that much, and backup solutions don't really interest me, but anything else switch and server related i really enjoy
 
Best route then would be to work towards the Cisco qualifications, perhaps look at VOIP or IPv6 as both of those will only become more important and if you get up to speed on them then you shouldn't be short of well paid work as long as you're a smart chap. You might find you have to study this sort of thing outside of work and just try to latch on to any work you can find with your current place that includes it since despite all the press, it's not hugely common as yet outside of larger companies.

Worst case you choose one route and find it's not for you so you can try another, but that is better than dabbling in a lot of different areas as there will always be a lot more people more qualified than you. Obviously if you know all areas very well then you're laughing but that takes a looooooong time, by which point your knowledge in some areas will already be out of date :(
 
Ok cheers for all that :)

Another path i might decide to take up is systems analyst, I've looked at the few details of what a systems analyst does on day to day stuff and it plays on some of my interests so any recommenations for qualifications in that department?
 
Cisco and Microsoft are always good starting qualifications to aim for once you've got some of the Comptia ones out of the way. Depends what systems you want to "analyse" since Microsoft certs will be less useful in a Unix environment ;-)

At the moment I think networking is a better area to get into than Microsoft/server management since there are an awful lot of tools that are simplifying/automating server management and if/when cloud-based computing really kicks off then server management will be largely outsourced.

Virtualisation is another good area to get into but unless you make very quick progress it's probably a bit late to really milk that as there are a lot of people going down that route already whether it be VMware or Hyper-V/Softgrid.
 
ricky1981 said:
Cisco and Microsoft are always good starting qualifications to aim for once you've got some of the Comptia ones out of the way. Depends what systems you want to "analyse" since Microsoft certs will be less useful in a Unix environment ;-)

At the moment I think networking is a better area to get into than Microsoft/server management since there are an awful lot of tools that are simplifying/automating server management and if/when cloud-based computing really kicks off then server management will be largely outsourced.

Virtualisation is another good area to get into but unless you make very quick progress it's probably a bit late to really milk that as there are a lot of people going down that route already whether it be VMware or Hyper-V/Softgrid.
Click to expand...

I couldnt agree more with what Ricky is saying, I think that Virtualisation, even though I now consider it a main stream technology, its still a good area to get into, especially the VMware side of things...

Stelly
 
I'm 21 and in a similar sort of position.

Though people obviously have a dislike for people taking on the name 'consultant', what else do you call it, if consulting is what you do? I.e. my company refers to me as a consultant, tells our clients that I'm a consultant. I spent Friday in meetings with Directors from an asset management company, advising (or consulting?) them on what direction they should be taking with regards to virtualisation.

I see your collective point, and maybe I'm just up my own ****, but a consultant does just that, consults. A consultant (in my mind) is paid to have a good knowledge of all aspects of any field. I.e. they don't have to be extremely technical, but rather have a good understanding of current and future technogies, the implications of using such technologies on all parts of the business etc.

Another example, during the meeting yesterday, the client expressed an interest in a new 'feature' that they'd like us to provide, now I don't know exactly how it's done (i.e. I could probably do it on my own from memory, but if something unexpected occured I'd be left scratching my head), but I know that our Linux team can oblige, what sort of training will be required, what costs and timescales are involved in the project. They are experts in their field, and whilst they have much more knowledge of the subject than myself, I am the one referred to as a Consultant, they are referred to as Linux Engineers. I don't see it as being superior to them; it's a job title - that describes what you do, rather than what you know.

However, I am technical in my own right - I specialise in Virtualisation, and was on-site at a council/EU subsidary today rolling out ESX on a small server farm our build team has just rolled out.

As for what to look at - whilst obviously technical skills are important, I'd say that your personal skills are just as important, if not more important, the higher up you get. At the end of the day - anyone can get a qualification, but it's rare to get somebody who's dedicated, loyal, friendly, good at managing, speaks confidently etc. Depends on who/what you want to be :)

Apologies if this sounds at all arrogant; I just wanted to try and give the other side of the argument.
 
Last edited:
Wether consultant is overused or not, the higher scale of "consultant" is where i aim to be one day, so in the context i have used it in the OP it fits the bill for what i want :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom