A Network Engineer design, implement, maintain and support Information Technology infrastructure within an enterprise or service provider.

# Table of Contents
- Who is a Network Engineer
- How to begin
- Why are a lot of people not taking this path
- Closing Thought
- Resources


Who is a Network Engineer
A Network Engineer design, implement, and monitor Information Technology infrastructure w•thin an enterprise or service provider. It basically has to do with making sure employees computers are a able to communicate with each other via cables, switches and routers, communicate with other employees in their branch office, or share resources. The network engineers would set up this infrastructure at the main office, then configure the network devices. This configuration can be done remotely or in person. I know, I know, you read it correctly, remotely, most of the time the Network Engineer do not need to be in the office to configure or monitor the IT infrastructure.

How to begin
They are a lot of conflict on the best path to take to begin this journey. The best bet is to begin with studying the CompTIA Network* study guide, as this is a vendor neutral certification.. Taking the exam after studying for it is not really a must, the main thing is you get the knowledge and jump to something more advanced. Diving right into the Cisco Certified Network Associate or Juniper Network Certified Associate might seem cool at first, but when you are stuck with questions and you ask someone or make a google search, more new terms will be brought up and then you end up just giving up. While through the Network* material, if you find it easy, skip it and dive right into a vendors infrastructure.

Why are a lot of people not taking this path
• It is not preached about enough: I heard about the word Packet during my was year in College, and it was from a course mate. A Getting the right resources is not easy: They are a lot of computer networking books out there and sometimes knowing the right one to begin with is why.
• Electrical communication engineering is confused for network engineering: Electrical communications has to do with designing electronic circuits and devices. Network engineering is concerned with configuring those devices with IP addresses, domain names, etc, so the devices can communicate with each other.
• People think network engineering is extremely difficult so they opt to the known cool paths thinking that if the path is popular then a lot of folks are finding it easy. Example: Software development, Cyber security, etc.

Closing Thoughts
If you are looking to start something easy, then I hate to break it to you that nothing really is easy. But with perseverance, hard work, consistency, and repetition the sky is just starting point. Begin your journey then dive right into a vendors infrastructure like Cisco, Juniper or Huawei.


Resources

https://www.amazon.com/CompTlA-Network-NIO-007-Guide-Certificationebook/dp/B079J2RLMN


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LzuIch-wQo?list=PLG49S3nxzAnmpdmX7RoTOyuNJQAb-r-gd




Source: https://charlesuneze./2020/06/06/starting-a-network-engineering-career/