How to become a network engineer

Firstly your CV will be completely reformatted, updated, and tailored to the IT industry. Our specialist recruitment team will work with you on a one-to-one basis to place you into your new IT role. The course, Implementing Cisco Enterprise Network Core Technologies, helps candidates to prepare for this exam.

Senior network engineers can earn from £50,000 to in excess of £70,000 a year. After working as a network support engineer, you might find you prefer the people side of the role. If this is the case, you could begin to more towards customer relationship management, or pursue a teaching or training career. There’s even the chance to follow both paths, by teaching part-time at an evening class or similar courses. If you’re interested in broadcast engineering but not sure which area you want to specialise in, you could choose another engineering course that includes software modules. CompTIA Security+ is the first security certification IT professionals should earn.

How much does a Network Support Engineer make?

Working overtime is another option that will help you be paid more than an average salary for your job. If your personal circumstances and commitments allow, you could also work unsocial hours with an hourly pay rate higher than your standard hourly rate. Professional development and specialising in a specific area will warrant an appropriate salary increase. Still, you might need to consider setting up a job alert, making a job search, and moving to another company or department to maximise your earnings or find relevant opportunities for progression.

Your career path will depend, to a certain extent, on the size of the organisation you work for and the scope of its IT systems. However, you’ll often have to seek out appropriate training for yourself, especially if you’re seeking a promotion, a career move or are self-employed. Being on the user end of IT systems https://remotemode.net/become-a-windows-network-engineer/ is also helpful as this will give you an idea of the types of problems that may arise. Self-employment and freelance contract work are possible with experience. Salaries vary depending on the size, type and sector of the organisation you work for and the size and scope of the computer and network installations.

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To become a Network Engineer, you will need a Degree in Network Engineering, Software Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Network Security, or Computer Science. To earn more as a Network Engineer, you could specialise in an area such as cybersecurity or progress to manage a team or project. They are in demand as they have a valuable position as the backbone of the computer networks of various companies. Moreover, they are conversant with the latest technologies that ease the workload of their clients.

For the last 46 days of 2022, a vast majority of women in the EU work for free. Women bring home 13% less in their pay packs than men for an equal job. And when compared to those male colleagues, they’re effectively working without wages from 15 November onwards (known as Equal Pay Day in Europe). All employees want to be paid what they are worth, and to feel valued for their contribution to their company or organisation.

Module 4 Understanding Network Security

Your experience level directly affects where in the salary range your earnings will fall. Senior salaries are usually achieved by those who become fully qualified in their field. Your initial per year salary may also be influenced by factors such as the region and city where you work, with London typically offering more than other major cities. Whether you work in England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland will also alter the job’s average gross and net earnings. You just have to connect the computer network of your employees to your cloud network.

This takes around six weeks of full-time study or twelve weeks of part-time study to complete. Complete a selection of professional, accredited and industry recognised IT courses by CompTIA, Microsoft and Cisco. The training is delivered via multimedia rich video tutorials, presentations and quizzes, through a portal that you study from home. You will begin your journey by studying fully accredited courses from reputable industry leaders – Microsoft, CompTIA, and Cisco. You will be given access to your own study portal which includes video tutorials, presentations, and quizzes, specifically designed to ready you for the practical application of the theory that you will learn. You may find your role changes over time, particularly if you move to working for bigger clients with larger teams of internal and outsourced engineers.

Being self-employed will mean you have more opportunity to tailor your career to emphasis the areas you prefer, or the way you like to work. Large companies, such as Microsoft, provide an extensive range of installation and customer support services and they recruit graduates and experienced staff into all areas of IT support. Some organisations, including many local authorities and other public sector bodies, outsource all their IT systems to specialists, so these specialist companies often have vacancies for people with networking skills. I first started my journey into IT by purchasing my first PC and on it was Windows 95. After a few weeks of running it I started to try to install different programs and then broke it so had to re-install windows. The hard disk broke and I had to replace that and eventually I got another computer and connected them together with a switch, plugged the internet router into the switch and setup my first network.

From solving basic problems to designing IT systems, or dealing with security issues, the tasks involved can be varied, especially if you’re working with smaller clients. And it’s a role that’s frequently outsourced on a contract, or freelance, basis. If you’re currently working as a network engineer and want more diverse challenges, then self-employment could be the solution. Connectivity between employees and computer systems is vital for most businesses, and if you find out how to become a freelance network engineer, you can benefit from the growing surge in demand for those skills. Enrolling in an apprenticeship in network engineering is a good way to gain hands-on work experience while working towards a professional qualification.

Infrastructure Engineer

Your apprenticeship is made up of learning on the job, but also gaining the academic skills to put into practice in your day-to-day job. As a result, you’ll complete the apprenticeship as part of a structured learning programme alongside working in the role. The learning programme is made up of a suite of modules and milestones and you’ll be required to evidence your work against these modules via tasks and assignments.

• Again this will probably be done on a rota so it’s not always you giving up your spare time.
• Anyway this post has gone on far too long and I hope that it helps somebody somewhere reach their goal of becoming a network engineer.
• Which means it will be important to understand the rules regarding IR35, and there’s a wealth of useful advice on the IPSE website to help you avoid any problems.
• See if there are Facebook pages or other social media groups for IT professionals, or people who are interested in programming.
• You might be asked to capture the initial problems or requirements from customers or employees, audit and monitor networks for performance and security, or provide support to on-site engineers.
• The approval process ensures that staff delivering a given programme are appropriately qualified and, where appropriate, possess relevant technical and industrial experience and professional practice.
• It’s mainly an office based role as (thanks to modern technology) you can manage the technology in different locations remotely.

For some apprenticeships, you may also undertake additional technical qualifications, which include studying for, and taking an exam. Once you have completed your modules and milestones, you’ll then move to your End Point Assessment (EPA) which is typically made up of an interview and a project. Once you pass this stage, you will receive your apprenticeship qualification with us. Most network engineers prefer to be freelanced rather than working for a specific company. However, freelance network engineers are network engineers that independently offer their networking services hourly or weekly to clients rather than working under an employer.