Hi IT gurus:

I have been working as a developer since last 5 years. I am trying to switch to Network Administrator. I had taken extensive training courses and have recently taken certifications in  A+, Network +, Security + and MS SA ( Windwos Server 2008 R2).

How will I land in Network Admin job? Please give me some suggestion.

Thank you all.

With all those study, knowledge and certifications, only thing you lack is confidence.

ANS - you are absolutely right. My confidence is weakest point due to the fact that I was not fully exposed to actual Networking responsibilites in the companies. How will I tackle the interview and how do I present myself with such knowledge but without much exposure in the real world Network Administration.

@donald_duck, if you're serious about Net Admin career (or NetSec for that matter), my advice is to embrace cisco and work toward some of its certs! I learned it the hard way, as I repeatedly tried refraining myself from vendor-specific certs, esp the cisco chain, but got thrown back into it again and again!

Regardless of what shop you happen to enter (Juniper, CheckPoint, Palo-Alto, etc), some of the preliminary skills acquired through cisco test preps are worth their weight in gold. My advice is : Do/or read through CCNA, if not CCENT materials at the least before taking up the role, if you envision a smooth transition ride. Network+, despite being a good starting point - barely covers the tip of the iceberg, A+ is hardly related to typical NetAdmin roles, and Security+ guides you through the first stepping stone into the joyous ride of InfoSec world! MS SA (former MCP?) is MS centric, and could come handy if you're into Windows Administration.

~@~

what kind of dev. were u? and why would you not be one....pays good..cool job!!

I think its a good idea. But landing the first job is always difficult. I am on the same boat..Good luck

5 yrs of experience is significant time. 3 mahina training garera 6 yrs experience dekhayera ta saathiharule gari khaka chhan...I don't think you will have any trouble. 

When you are doing good as a developer, why do you wish to switch to networking....???

I am bringing this thread up for further suggestions from the Sajha friends.

The main reason to switch to Network/System Administration is to have job security and possibly to get into Government job.

I am almost done with MCITP (i.e. Active Directory, Network Infrastructure, Server Administration Windows 2008 R2 Server)

Now being a developer, I am having hardtime to update my resume. I need to update resume that will reflect some concentration and experiences in Network/System Administration.

Saa Jha jee - you defenitely have better knowledge in this field. Please give me some feedback.

Help me guys.

Honestly, if you are serious about getting into the Networking field, you should focus more on Linux and go from there. Every major vendor base their network stack on linux/qnx/bsd.

Even better you were a developer, you'd understand many things a Network guy wouldnt grasp. You'd know how to interpret a stack trace, you'd know how to read syslogs and variables, you can write many tools/srcipts that will help you understand the visibility/behavior of a network.

One more area that might interest you is SDN, software-defined-networking. Look at Openflow initiatives, running the full internet table on commodity boxes with Quagga, Bird, or OpenBgpd on it. The possibilities are enormous.

Good luck.