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A Day in the Life of a Network Engineer

A network engineer handles all of the 鈥減lumbing鈥� for a company鈥檚 computers, connecting offices with T1 lines, hooking them up to the Internet, and configuring all internal systems such as net routers and firewalls. The position usually spills over into some Unix systems administration work, but 鈥渂asically, it鈥檚 a plumbing job,鈥� says one engineer. Configuring a start-up Web company is a pretty easy network design job; most of these companies have a small staff and only one location. But if you work for Citibank, for example, the network is incredibly complicated with tiers and tiers of network engineers. If you鈥檙e willing to wear a suit and tie every day, go to work for a bank where you鈥檒l make twice as much as anywhere else. A network engineer needs to know how to use some basic network devices like 鈥減acket sniffers,鈥� but the work itself doesn鈥檛 utilize a lot of tools. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a 鈥榥oodly鈥� job; you have to be able to think your way through problems and understand how stuff works,鈥� says one professional. You don鈥檛 spend a lot of time typing, but rather in front of white boards (like a chalk board you write on with markers) drawing pictures to visualize your solutions. A typical day demands atypical hours; network engineers usually work off-hours when they鈥檙e tinkering with something, otherwise they鈥檒l interrupt everyone else鈥檚 work. It鈥檚 the earmark of techies to show up later, often around 10 or 11 a.m., but they鈥檙e usually there until 7, 8 or 9 p.m. And most likely they鈥檙e wearing a pager and are always on call. Networking has a culture unto itself, and a subculture among those who work on the Net. But networking is really only glamorous to people in the field. 鈥淎nyone in the general public would not be like, 鈥榗ool, you鈥檙e a network consultant,鈥欌�� says one insider.

Paying Your Dues

鈥淚 took one networking class in college and everything I know about modern networking I learned on the job,鈥� says one engineer. Today there are certifications, like CCIE (Cisco Certified Internetwork Experts), and the classes are quite difficult. 鈥淏ut from a manager鈥檚 perspective, it seems as though the people who are certified aren鈥檛 actually very smart. They鈥檝e spent two years studying for this test, but they鈥檝e never actually set up a router before. I look for intelligence and enthusiasm, because you鈥檙e going to learn it all on the job anyway.鈥� Routing and networking is a mindset鈥攗nderstanding how stuff flows from one place to another鈥攕o it does help if you studied math, computer science, or engineering as an undergraduate. 鈥淗owever, one of the best network engineers I know was a literature major in college. So your actual background really means nothing. It鈥檚 all about tenacity鈥攂eing able to sit in front of a problem that you have no idea why it鈥檚 doing what it鈥檚 doing until you solve it, which is usually at 2 or 3 a.m., because you have to do this stuff when no one else is around so you don鈥檛 interrupt the company鈥檚 work.鈥�

Present and Future

Networks evolved along with teletype in the early 1970s when businesses started to connect to one another with things other than the telephone line. As teletype went back and forth, the first network administrators were responsible for managing the exchange of data between two offices, such as law firms or large financial institutions. Keeping those machines running was more of a systems engineering job, though it was still considered networking. The first wired networks evolved in the late 1970s and early 1980s among very large companies. Most engineers in that era came out of the phone company, which required extensive networking of wires and switches. Then the Internet was born in the early 1990s, and all sorts of people became network engineers. In the near future, networking is going to get more complicated because all the standards are new. Currently, there are so many advancements in hardware that companies are upgrading their networks every six months. 鈥淏ut in the next ten to fifteen years I see network engineering becoming more similar to your basic plumbing job,鈥� says one engineer. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a high paying job that鈥檚 pretty well defined and not particularly exciting or glamorous. But how often do you upgrade the plumbing system in your house? Hopefully only when it breaks. And you鈥檙e going to see networking get to that level. As more home users have broadband, the network is going to become very static.鈥�

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Quality of Life

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