Making the Jump From Sysadmin to Network Administrator?

termdex asks: "I've been looking to move from systems administration to network administration for the last couple years but for some set of reasons networking seems to be an impregnable area of work. My experience has been like the often clichèd 'chicken and egg' scenario. Most employers aren't interested in candiates that lack serious network admin experience (ie: 80/20 network/other), but it would seem difficult to get that level of experience if you're currently a sysadmin. What advice can Slashdot readers offer as what works best in making lateral career moves? What experiences can you relate that shows difficulty or success?"

Comments

Re:But..

[pretzel_logic]

interesting point...

I created our CRM, admin the offsite Linux servers, sysadmin the macs and pcs. Handle the network. troubleshoot anything that gets plugged in to the wall. I make all the clients web sites, admin the databases, and write then CRM's.

I go offsite and set up LANs, do customer support for network and operations. I handle buying and purchasing bids for multiple companies, and do sales when I am needed for consultation at the conference table.

my title is 'tech guy' I have no degree and no certs. only skills and proof of skills. I am over qualified to work for large companies but under qualified at the same time. Its just one of those things, my advice is this:

do what makes you happy and follow your dreams.

dont lie on a resume. it will only backfire. dont list buzz words. instead make a list of things you have done.

Go work for a small company

[bill_mcgonigle]

You're stuck because you're in a big company where they actually have different people for network and admin jobs - that's your problem. Go work for a small company, where everybody wears at least 5 hats. If you really want to, you can go back to the corporate arena after a few years with any of those 5 job titles on your resume. I bet you won't want to, though.

Jack is uberskilled, under certified

[4of12]

Sounds like you deserve a couple of things to happen:

• take a 3 week vacation so people start to understand what value there is to your work when it's missing
• your manager to be visited by some other company's manager who's impressed by how smoothly the IT infrastructure hums along because of what you have setup and how you maintain it.

Maybe in the latter case the other company's manager won't tell your manager just how excellent you are, but rather just make you an offer.

Back on topic, though, I think that setting up LANs for schools or non-profit organizations as a volunteer would get you some experience that could come in handy in any bid for a network admin position. Getting familiar with all the fundamentals of home-made low-cost routers (*NIX box with multiple network cards), firewalls, and proxies is important, even if the elementary school doesn't have nice expensive Cisco routers running the latest version of IOS.