What is the Certification Path for Network Engineers in 2023?

The Modern Network Engineer Career Path Dilemma: Which Certs do I Get? In Which Order?

When I started in IT 10 years ago, I kinda stumbled into it.

I was always technical, but nobody ever told me it was such a formal career path. Along the way, I figured out my passion was networking and began my journey.

Networking is nice for those of us who like certifications. It was always CCNA, CCNP, then CCIE. To date, however, I haven't achieved any of those...

Around Covid-19 in 2020 is when I started to go down the network engineer path. I soon realized that network engineering was changing: there is no layer 2 in the cloud (or interior routing protocols...), network programmability seems more important, large complex LAN's are shrinking, and there are plenty of network engineers with 10+ years experience waiting to out run me in the CLI jockey race.

How does a new network engineer compete? What's the wave to ride?

I thought, "If there's a way to combine networking with the cloud, I'll be set."

Serendipitously, as I was about to finish my CCNA, I received a job offer from Microsoft to work as an Azure Networking Support Engineer. I put down my Cisco Press books and began learning Azure networking.

Almost a year later, I've started my traditional networking path again and fired up my CCNA lab and restarted my CBT Nuggets subscription (if you don't use them, you should).

It was exhilarating. Hard coding base configs into my routers and switches, one device at a time, pulling and plugging in the console cable every step of the way.

Now, I'm desperately trying to bring my traditional networking skills up to par with my Azure networking skills.

I figured out that nobody wants an "Azure Network Engineer"...

There's plenty of Network Engineer positions and many of them do look fondly upon my Azure networking experience but the hard truth is they want it all. On-prem, cloud, and network security.

It seems like these days, for well-paying roles, it's not enough to be just a cloud network engineer AND it's not enough to just be a traditional network engineer.

There's an arms race to get networking, cloud, NetDevOps, scripting, Linux, and cybersecurity skills to be fluent in today's network environments.

I'm not saying network engineering ever existed in a vacuum. There were always peripheral technologies and skills you needed to be familiar with to be successful.

But it's different now, and we know it.

So is the traditional CCNA -> CCNP -> CCIE path the prescription anymore?

CCNA is easy to defend. No questions there really.

CCNP is pretty defensible, too. By most accounts, with hands on experience you can study and achieve the CCNP inside of 6 months. Not too bad. The question is, where in the timeline of certs/skills should it fall?

CCIE? It's nice... Definitely valuable... but at a minimum of a 2 year journey. is it worth the pain, anguish, and opportunity cost?

With so much technology competing for network engineers' attention, and job descriptions reading more like Software Engineering roles, it's hard to maintain such a pure, ninja-like CCIE focus.

You have:

• Cloud Engineering - Azure Network Engineer Associate, AWS Advanced Networking Specialty, GCP Cloud Network Engineer. Not to mention, you probably want the administrator/solutions architect cert to get a broader handle on the cloud.
• DevOps - Kubernetes, Terraform, Git, Docker, Python, Ansible, Linux, Infrastructure as Code... EVERYTHING AS CODE!
• Competing networking vendors - Cisco isn't in very many of Gartner's Magic Quadrants these days... Aruba, Extreme Networks, and Juniper are eating Cisco's lunch in the LAN space. Fortinet and Palo Alto are killing it with Firewalls.

So, what is a new network engineer to do? It's hard to justify going long on Cisco certs. At least at first.

My Proposal

• CompTIA trifecta (A+, Net+, Sec+) and technical support - Build a strong foundation in IT and learn desktop support, system administration, network administration, and IT operations to a functional degree. Get A+, get a job, and get the other two while working. 6 months - 1 year.
• CCNA and a network administrator title - If networking is your path, this is still the best option to get hands on knowledge. 6 months - 1 year.
• DevNet Associate - Now that you've got the networking job, learn to automate you're work and get hands-on experience doing so. You'll learn DevOps skills like Python, Ansible, and Git which will pay off in the long run. 6 months.
• Pick a cloud - If it's Azure, get the Azure Administrator Associate and Azure Network Engineer Associate. If the AWS or GCP, get their equivalents. It's likely wherever you're working, they're already using one of these clouds so just pick that one and get as much experience as possible. 6 months - 1 year.
• Network Security - Palo Alto and Fortinet are the biggest players in the firewall market. However, if you're company uses something else and there's an opportunity to get real-world hand-on, then study that and get certified to an associate level. 6 months.
• Get a Network Engineer title.
• Cloud Network Security - Azure, AWS, and GCP all have a Security cert. You'll learn about their firewall, monitoring, SIEM, and IAM. Pick one and get it. 6 months.
• CCNP Enterprise - Now that you're a well-rounded "modern" network engineer, get a professional level knowledge of networking. CCNP Enterprise is still the best way to achieve this. If you find yourself in a data center, maybe CCNP Datacenter. Make sure to do the automation specialty exam so you can combine it with the DevNet Professional for a nice "twofer". 1 year.
• NetDevOps - Increasingly, everything should be done as code. There are many learning paths to learn DevOps and there are some affordable and reputable boot camps. Getting a strong foundation in Linux, CI/CD, GitHub, Python, Ansible, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Jenkins, and the cloud will make you much more effective and marketable. It's important to pick up another cloud, too. Knowing both Azure and AWS to a functional degree is optimal. 6 months.
• Get a cloud networking job - It doesn't have to be a networking specific title per say, but getting a Cloud Engineer or DevOps Engineer role is what you're looking for. Ideally, it's a team that's looking for a networking subject matter expert to add to their Ninja Turtles repertoire.

Now you're really the Swiss Army knife that the market wants these days. Easily commanding $180k+ dollars.

You're a Cloud Network Security Engineer, NetDevOps, automation genius who can save the world with minimal downtime and latency.

You've got all the buzzwords.

Let's not talk about artificial intelligence... I just can't.

If you add up all my time estimates, that would be 5-7 years... WAIT WHAT?! That's considering you don't get sick, lose your job, have a kid, or any other huge amount of things.

Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? In 5-7 years, you could've definitely gotten a CCIE. If you made it your mission, you could get it inside 3 years!

With a CCIE under your belt and 4ish years of experience you could definitely land a $180k plus job!

Sooooo, is this more meandering, "modern" path even worth it?

There's a very good argument to just go the CCNA -> CCNP -> CCIE route and THEN start layering in all this gobbledygook.

Damn, I might've just convinced myself...