How to Become a Full Stack Network Engineer

For the past two years, I was trying to upgrade and complete my skills and education to finally become a modern Full Stack Network Engineer. I have 12 years of work experience, and as I know, I am one of the last living people who had seen and worked with Windows server 2000 and Novell Netware. From the day I chose this career path, I was learning new technologies but never really focused on a specific field? to become professional and now I think to not deform to a living fossil I needed to come out of my cave and explore the new modern world. Even if I had to get along with TikTok and other social networks.?

We all know that network engineering is one of the toughest careers in the IT field and needs a full time studying and deep understanding of new technologies. In addition, the fundamentals of this job title are changing due to cloud infrastructures migration and computer network automations.?Knowing these conditions and concerns about the future of my job made me change my attitude to the industry.

By nature I am a man of curiosity, and to find the best path of a successful change that can help me to find a more exciting and sustainable job, I have searched many websites, blogs and posts.

In this article I would like to share my findings and opinion regarding the best roadmap to become a full stack network engineer.

1. Education first. Although there are few official education (college degrees) that cover network engineering, all other general knowledge a person can get from studying in university can be very useful in the rest of his way. For example, learning the basics of a programming language can tremendously help a network engineer in device and network automation in the future.
2. Get a job. no matter if it is an intern with no payment. but if you are lucky and have a useful friend in the IT department, the best choice would be a junior system help desk. The point is to have a general view of computer hardware/OS, network infrastructure and services. Personally I believe that learning any technologies without physical engagement with devices and infrastructures will hugely reduce the performance of education. On the other hand, dealing with end users gives you a priceless experience that can be replaced with nothing else. I recommend you to mostly work in network device installation, network cabling and system hardware maintenance.
3. Now it's time to upgrade yourself. Today's network infrastructures are totally based on commercial devices and technologies, so a network engineer has no other way but to attend training courses and get related certificates. Based on my experiences and researches the best and most demanding certificates in 2021 for a rookie are as following:?

• CompTIA Network+: Old is gold. Although network+ is one of the oldest courses in this field, it has updated regularly and I trust it as the most complete course in computer networking fundamentals for beginners. This course will guide you through the maze of network technologies to find your way.

• Microsoft Modern Desktop Administrator Associate: Recently Microsoft has completely changed its certification path and it’s even a bit hard for me to find an appropriate certificate with my old fashion mind. Everyone knows that Windows 10 is the most popular operating system, and has over 87 percent of the market share. So Whether you like it or not, every network engineer will maintain infrastructures for windows clients. Also, don’t forget that you need a real job and this skill will help you to get it ASAP.

• Linux LPIC: ?I personally still couldn’t get along well with Linux yet but we all need to get hands on. Many IT services and infrastructures are working on Linux distributions and a primary knowledge can be very useful.

• Microsoft Windows Server Hybrid Administrator Associate: There are lots of major network terms, services and protocols like Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, Virtualization, Cloud and so on that a network engineer needs to overcome and the best choice is to get familiar with them and their configuration properties through Windows Servers environment. To get this certificate the candidate must pass “Configuring Windows Server Hybrid Advanced Services” and “Administering Windows Server Hybrid Core Infrastructure” exams.

• CISCO CCNA: The new generation of CISCO courses and certifications is the best change between all IT companies I have seen in recent years and this course that in its new generation became an integrated one, is the door to the CISCO world. The new CCNA covers a vast variety of CISCO technologies at associate level in the simplest and the most understandable possible way. CISCO devices and technologies can be found in almost every small to enterprise company around the world and getting such a certificate gives you a bold advantage in the job market.

4. Go Pro. Now you are eligible enough to take the next step and choose your expertise. There are many networking jobs available like Network Specialist, Network Administrator, Network Technician, Network Analyst, Network Manager, Network Engineer, Network Solutions Architect and so on that all have their own characteristics and professionality level. Also, there are many technologies that need experts with special dedicated skills. I prefer to continue with Network Engineer job title and out of all available training courses, I recommend the followings:

• CISCO CCNP Enterprise: No doubt, the best course that can deepen your knowledge about network infrastructure is CCNP Enterprise. You can extend your routing, switching, SD-WAN, Wireless and Automation skills in complex enterprise networks. After getting this certificate, your salary rate will raise impressively.

• VMware VCP-DCV: luckily in summer and unfortunately in winter, all the time Network engineers live in data centers and virtualization is the core technology there. VMware is a top brand and market leader in the virtualization industry and the most demanding product between all vendors. Certainly, a deep knowledge of data center virtualization and combining it with your networking skills will lead to a higher level of IT professionality.
• CISCO CCNP Security: No other company can cover network security courses better than CISCO. Add this to the truth that CISCO is a market leader in network security to realize the precious and application of this course in the real world. Because of the integrity and being comprehensive, anyone with a CCNP Security certificate can easily learn and overcome other companies' security devices.?

• Fortinet NSE: Trust me, no big company works with a single vendor in its security layers. Fortinet security devices are always pioneers in the security technologies and standards section and completely trustable. Many companies are currently using these devices in the core and edge layer of their networks. The NSE series of courses can change your attitude to security and make you a perfect security specialist.

5. Get Experience. Don’t be afraid, you are ready, raise your position or change your job. Experience is not free, you have to join more professional teams and work on more challenging projects. If you don’t use your knowledge in an enterprise productive environment you will definitely lose your skills and keep in mind that no knowledge can replace experience.

6. Eagle Eye. Learn how to work with the monitoring Tools including: SolarWinds, Zabbix, PRTG and so on. Advice from a friend, we all will retire while sitting on a chair staring at a monitoring software, so accept your destiny.

7. Skynet is Activated. Network Automation is the future of network managing and this is the best time to learn. There are plenty of automation tools like Python Libraries and Ansible along with many free courses that can easily be found on the Internet.

8. Fly Over Clouds. Don’t lose any chance to learn and work in the cloud infrastructure field, your career future is here. Very soon a day will come that there are no traditional networks and absolutely no traditional network engineers.

I hope this article is useful for you, I will try to post articles about each certification I have mentioned. Thanks for reading.