Monday, September 8, 2014

An Outline For Future Blog Posts

I created this blog because I keep hearing from NOClings and help desk types that they cannot break out of their job and become a network engineer.   Here is an outline of what I am going to be blogging about in the (near) future.  This outline can change at any time.  If you think something should be added and discussed, feel free to contact me and let me know.

  1. Get a two or four year college degree 
  2. Know your Unix!
  3. Shell scripting
  4. Learn C as a programming language
  5. Write documentation
  6. Network with people
  7. Learn how to make cables
  8. Ask for networking grunt work
  9. Get your networking certifications (CCNA / JNCIA)
  10. Start labbing with GNS3
  11. Buy some cheap networking gear
  12. Subnetting
  13. Read the documentation!
  14. You MUST know how to troubleshoot
  15. Protocols
    1. Layer 1 protocols
      1. T1 / T3
      2. SONET
      3. Fast Ethernet
      4. Gigabit Ethernet
      5. 10 Gigabit Ethernet
    2. Layer 2 protocols
      1. Ethernet
      2. VLAN
      3. Spanning-Tree
      4. 802.1q / Trunking
      5. LACP
      6. Q-in-Q
      7. CDP
      8. Frame Relay
    3. Layer 3+ protocols
      1. TCP / IP
      2. UDP
      3. Static Routes
      4. OSPF
      5. BGP
      6. MPLS
      7. HSRP / VRRP
      8. QoS
      9. ACLs
      10. NAT
      11. NTP
      12. SNMP
  16. Applications
    1. Traceroute
    2. Telnet
    3. SSH
    4. Ping
    5. DNS
    6. NMAP
    7. RANCID
    8. Graphing applications like MRTG
    9. Syslog
    10. TACACS 
    11. RADIUS
    12. Cisco ACS
    13. Ciscoworks
    14. Visio
    15. Packet analyzers (e.g., Wireshark and TCPDump)
  17. Other networking devices / protocols
    1. Netscaler
    2. F5
    3. TDM Gear (SONET / DWDM)
    4. Riverbed
    5. Bluecoat
    6. IPv6
    7. VoIP
    8. Wireless
    9. Firewalls
  18. Soft skills
    1. Have the best resume possible
    2. Improve your interviewing skills
    3. How to find the hiring manager
    4. What questions to ask the interviewer
    5. Negotiating your salary
    6. Is this potential job right for you?
    7. Emotional intelligence in the work place
    8. Time management
    9. It's OK to make mistakes.
    10. Politics

2 comments:

  1. Rachel, this is fantastic! Keep it coming. Unix, C, Shell scripting.....not having them is killing me...

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  2. Thanks, I appreciate the compliment! I'm trying to do 4-5 blog posts a week - they take a lot more thought and effort than I realized. :-)

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