Introduction to Becoming a Network Administrator

00:01

Hey, everyone, welcome back to the course in this video. We're to talk about the network administrator job role so we'll talk about what a network admin is. Also, talk about some of the common job responsibilities, some of the skill set that you're gonna need to be successful as a network admin. We'll talk about some common certifications as well as, well, talk about the general salary range you can expect as a network administrator.

00:22

So what is a network administrator? Well, these air individuals that do things like configuring different pieces of network equipment so things like routers, switches, firewalls and other security appliances, and they also maintain all those those devices. As a network administrator, you're probably more likely to just be kind of doing that figuration of maintenance

00:41

and managing sort of that day to day

00:43

as you evolve your career into rules like network engineer and network architect. That's where you'll actually be going into organizations and planning out the actual infrastructure of the company and figure out the best ways to optimize

00:57

both from an equipment standpoint budget standpoint, as well as from a data standpoint of what the organization actually needs before your kind of entry level network admin role. It's really more about that day to day configuration and maintenance and troubleshooting of different network devices and the network itself.

01:15

So what are some of the common

01:17

things that you could expect to be doing as a network? Admin? Well, things like setting up configuring the hardware like I mentioned, right. So router switches, firewalls, different types of security appliances like ideas, right PS systems, intrusion detection systems if you don't know what that is

01:32

and just setting up those different appliances on the network, making sure they're configured properly that they're not breaking anything once you plug them in

01:38

before me, things like hardware and software installation. So for adding it like a hardware firewall or software firewalls, or we're adding different security to our endpoints,

01:49

we're gonna be performing. Those tasks here is including firmware updates as well,

01:53

mapping out the network topology, especially if you're coming brand new into a company. You. If there's nothing existing, you may have to go into a company and map everything out, usually not a huge issue at larger companies, but at a smaller company that maybe hasn't had someone that can rely on for the networking aspect of things. You may have to come in and actually figure out what devices you actually have in your network

02:15

and build out a topology from there.

02:19

And then troubleshooting is probably, I would say that's probably at least 80% of your work week. 80 to 90% of your work week is gonna be troubleshooting issues, and one tip on that or t shoot to t shooting, as we call it. One tip on that is that it's usually fundamental stuff, so always start at with your fundamental skills and networking,

02:38

and that will usually

02:38

help you figure out what the issue actually is. If you try to go for all the fancy bells and whistles, that's usually not the case, and I'm speaking from a background as a network administrator slash network engineer from years ago. But still those that skill set applies for the troubleshooting.

02:54

So, speaking of skill set what are some common skills that you might need tohave as a network admin slash engineer slash even architect

03:04

understanding Windows Active directory, having a skill set in there,

03:07

understanding how to use it, how to create user accounts, how to take him away. Security of that, that's a skill that you wanna have now granted in some organizations. A system administrator might be doing everything around active directory, but is a network admin you definitely wanna have. That knowledge is, well,

03:23

understanding of different operating systems, things like winning Lennox, Windows and Mac OS, primarily Windows and Lennox

03:30

working with different equipment. So building a skill set with Cisco or Palo Alto Networks. Hardware devices. So firewalls, routers, switches, etcetera, working with those those kind of the two main players in the game

03:43

server experience working with not just on Prem servers but also cloud servers understanding Azure Cloud Understanding a ws cloud and how to spin up a server. How Thio put your company on a server list environment, which isn't actually serve Earless. You're just using

04:00

the cloud servers and not your own but understanding servers. How how you can set things up from both an on prem and in the cloud environment.

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Virtualization, understanding, virtualization software. So things like VM ware

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And then, of course, I mentioned before troubleshooting right. That's one of the skills that you really, really want to build.

04:17

So what about certifications like How do you get your starters and network at man like, What kind of search should you be going for? Well,

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one of the de facto kind of standard search for a network admin is gonna be the CCN A, which is a Cisco Certified Network associate.

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I will say that I got my start, my very first start, as a as a network admin. It was as a junior network admin

04:41

by I read a book, right. So I had an interview for an internship in another state.

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So while I was on the flight to go to that state, I knew nothing. I mean, I knew about computers, but I had no experience, right. I hadn't played around really or anything. This is way back before the World Wide Web became very popular and everything. So everything was kind of knew her back in my olden days, right? And back in the ancient times. Um and so

05:06

there was these books called I think it was like Sam's Teach yourself. I think it was a brand was Sam's or something like that, but basically was like teach yourself this topic in 24 hours or seven days or whatever, right? So I brought a book called Teach Yourself Networking in 24 hours. And so on the flight out to this other state, which was, think, four or five or six hour flight,

05:27

I read through the book. And so I knew enough about the terminology, and I kind of had a grasp on some of the fundamental concepts. So when I went in for the interview on the internship, I got the job and then I learned everything. Hands on, right. So I'm very big on getting your hands on skill set.

05:41

And so I learned everything hands on. Within a couple of weeks, they offered me a full time role, is a junior network admin. And then from there, I moved into network admin network engineer, And then I decided to get out of tech for a while and going to health care and all that, and that's a long story for other days. But I want to give you the context that hands on skills are the most important thing. So as you're going for Sirte,

06:00

especially the network admin, you wanna make sure that you understand what you're doing. You put your hands on things. That's one of the things I like about C. Sienna is that sort forces you to get hands on experience. And that's why it's kind of the de facto standard for a network admin role. Now you can also get comped US network. Plus, it gives you that high level overview of networking. But if you really want to work and get a certification,

06:23

I really would recommend the CCN A. It's personal opinion as well as sort of industry opinion that you go get ccn a again. You don't need search to get the job, as you see in my example there, but it's really encouraged for you to get a search if you're gonna go get one to go get something like C. C N A.

06:40

That being said, I also recommend you try to pick up some fundamental cloud Certs. So once you have a grasp of networking, it's good then transition as you're looking to pick up additional certifications

06:50

in kind of your newer role, I would look at is you're in AWS and grab up some of their fundamental sort so you could understand how to network in the cloud.

06:59

So again, networking in general is pretty similar across the board. But there's some nuance is that you wanna understand for cloud environment. And so I recommend those is kind of a secondary

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batch of search to go get again. You don't need search to get the job, but if you're going to get search,

07:14

I recommend getting a couple of cloud ones as well.

07:16

So now, since we're spending money inserts, right, let's talk about salary. So here in the U. S, you could expect kind of arranged for a network administrator to be in kind of that 40 to just shy of six figures. Now, as you're moving into network engineer and network architect, sort of those mawr experience advanced rules.

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That's where you cross that six figure barrier. Usually, in fact,

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once you're in more of the architect role, you're probably looking, especially if you get like your Cisco C C. I E. Which is a Cisco certified inter networking expert. If you get more advanced things like that and you've got years of experience, you're probably gonna be looking at least 120,000 or more per year. But again, that's for those more experienced roles

07:59

as a network architect, Network engineer.

08:01

You're kind of network admin entry level. You're looking 42 95 plus K, probably in most bigger cities here in the United States, you're probably looking about 50 to 60 k, at least maybe up to 70 K starting out

08:15

and then probably up into the nineties as you get a couple of years experience and you get some sorts under your belt.

08:20

So quick quiz question here for you Network and then set up configure which of the following

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there's a firewalls, switches, or do they set up configure servers?

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All right, so if you get all of the above, you are correct, right? Network Ammons kind of cover that gamut of any appliance that you need for the network. They're going to set it up and configure it.

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So in this video, we just talked about what a network admin actually is in some common responsibilities that they have. We also talked about some of the common skills that you're gonna want to get to be successful in the network admin.

08:50

We also talked about certifications again. See, Sienna is kind of the de facto standard for network admin, but I also recommend you grab a couple of cloud search, there's nothing wrong if you wanna go for Conte is Network Plus or other networking certifications. These were just some of the de facto ones that you might see in the industry,