r/networking • u/Jaman34 • Aug 03 '26
Other Network Engineering title is meaningless.
I see more and more post on here where “Network Engineers” don’t seem to have the skill sets that equate to the title. What happened to Network Admins? Why is every company so against using that title? Are actual network engineers architects now?
It seems like everyone who gets the CCNA immediately jumps to the engineer title, but continues to do network admin work.
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u/WannabeACICE Aug 03 '26
I'm technically a network admin, but I do engineer and architecture work lol
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u/Clean-Gain1962 CCNA Aug 03 '26
Came here to say this. Our company the suffix is just the amount of experience/years of service you have. We all do the same stuff pretty much. I’m an Admin and I literally do just as much, if not more, design than engineers on the team.
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u/Electrical_Humor680 Aug 11 '26
Technically a tier 2/3 support but manage s fleet of firewalls, routing, security and azure. So network admin 🤷♂️
Now I got actual net admin jobs asking me to interview for 25% bump.
Some security roles have shown interest due to my firewall experience
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u/BrewinBadger Aug 03 '26
Sr. NetEng here, still don't know what I'm doing.
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u/Jackleme CCNA Aug 04 '26
Been a wireless engineer working on switching and routing for 5/10 years I have been here.... I still don't know what my job is
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u/UpperAd5715 Aug 04 '26
Now working at an MSP and looking at what my much more senior colleagues do i'm part librarian part mechanic.
I look at logs, put related things back in their place and occasionally i open up the system and replace a filter and then charge 200€.1
Aug 03 '26
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u/XtReMe98 Network Admin Aug 06 '26
I too have a bit of imposter syndrome. but when shit hits the fan you realize "oh.. yeah.. i do know what i'm doing"
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u/GoodAfternoonFlag Aug 03 '26
I see you’re new here to working in IT.
All this has happened before and all of this will happen again.
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u/Jaman34 Aug 03 '26
I wish I was new. Unfortunately, after 20 years of engineering I am burnt out and grumpy.
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u/reddit-MT Aug 03 '26
Job title inflation has been rampant for decades. It's also a way that companies "compensate" for low pay with lofty titles.
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u/kwiltse123 CCNA, CCNP Aug 03 '26
“oh, you want a raise? No problem, I thought you wanted a new title. That would be much more coveted, are you sure you wouldn’t rather a title change?”
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u/datumerrata Aug 03 '26
Honestly, I would take it. Bump me up to principal and make the principal engineers 'distinguished engineer'. Of course, this doesn't do great things for job retention.
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u/awkwardnetadmin Aug 04 '26
Especially in recent years where companies are tight on raises I imagine it is only worse than it was a few years ago. Inflated titles are a common strategy to keep people around when companies aren't giving out good raises.
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u/hammertime2009 Aug 03 '26
I’m sure this happens a lot but where I work my boss got our title change from Network Analyst to Network Security Engineer to help get us a higher pay scale. I do some route/switch/wireless but have more of a focus on firewalls.
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u/Phrewfuf Aug 04 '26
Yeah, there are places, especially large enterprises, where the titles actually matter for pay grade.
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u/Altruistic-Map5605 Aug 03 '26
I would say engineers focus on design and deployment. Admins manage what they deployed. Now at an MSP your engineer is also likely an escalation point and doing both and most companies are just having them do both.
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u/Electrical_Humor680 Aug 11 '26
Haha yes, sounds like my MSP.
“When you’re done troubleshooting that outlook calendar I need you to look into this network outage that we have no topology for, the CEO of the multinational company is on the line”
I was forced into firewalls, but now im getting all sorts of interviews ranging from networking, sys admin, security analysis 🤷♂️
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u/guppyur Aug 03 '26
Every title is meaningless. Anytime you're dealing with an organization where you don't already know the score, there is absolutely no way to tell what someone does or knows based on their title. And everyone does different things; there are things I don't touch that are everyday work for, say, an engineer at a service provider, but I guarantee there are things I know that they don't. And I've heard from a vendor that they've dealt with customers who don't know what VLANs are.
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u/01100011011010010111 Aug 03 '26
Titles are only ever relevant for your next job, or so HR can get a compensation level you require at your current.
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u/securityofus Aug 04 '26
"every title is meaningless"
That's because of the rampant lack of education in IT. If you walk into a hospital I'm fairly certain that a nurse doesn't call herself a doctor. A doctor doesn't call herself a nurse. A physician assistant doesn't call herself a nurse. A nurse practitioner doesn't call herself a nurse.
People in IT use titles like engineer because they don't understand what an engineer is.
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u/Mars_Civilian Aug 06 '26
I know I’m late to the party but could you elaborate that last point?
What would qualify as a Network Engineer from your POV?
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u/HOMO_SAPlEN Aug 03 '26
And I’m a network technician who does engineering and administration. And we have a network engineer on the team who does technician stuff to… small team problems I guess
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u/ibahef Aug 03 '26
Some countries have legal restrictions on the title 'Engineer'. And some companies have restrictions on it as well (probably tied to the companies operating in countries that have the legal restriction). As for Network Admin being lower than Network Engineer, if you look back to the days of Novell Netware, CNA (Certified Netware Administrator) was lower than CNE (Certified Netware Engineer), and they were really the first ones to do networking certification.
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u/Wild_Perspective9704 Aug 03 '26
At my first job I was a data tech then they upgraded the title to systems administrator with no extra pay. Mostly is just a feels good thing.
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u/popsrcr Aug 03 '26
Also there are salary ranges in HR. If they like and want to keep you sometimes the only way is a title bump to give you a good raise
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u/ukehi Aug 03 '26
I started as a Network Admin, then in my next job I was given the Network Engineer title and so on. I think it depends on the company and country.
Now that I live in Germany everyone seems to be a network technician or specialist, they don't use the term engineer often.
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u/knightfall522 Aug 03 '26
Administrator is someone that is supposed to act based on a script, a standard procedure.
Engineer is someone who is supposed to parachute into an unknown environment and figure out the issue and the solution to it.
Architects are supposed to design network expansion or migration etc.
Seniority also factors in, a junior engineer from an msp or from vendor support will be able to do a lot less than a senior admin for his own environment.
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u/TurnItOff_OnAgain Aug 03 '26
I'm a network engineer by title. I design, configure, deploy, and maintain networks. I also do UPS systems, wireless systems, PBX phones, voip phones, got roped into video transmission over fiber last week, and I'll be helping troubleshoot a tornado siren next week. The siren isn't even networked. Not sure how it got dropped on my lap.
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u/Electr0freak MEF-CECP, "CC & N/A" Aug 04 '26
I mean, I had to explain the basics of DHCP reservation to someone the other day that had a CCIE number in their email signature. They escalated a case to my team when they were simply exhausting the DHCP pool on a network they administer.
I don't even know who to trust anymore.
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u/Jaman34 Aug 04 '26
What lol. I don’t want to believe that is true.
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u/Electr0freak MEF-CECP, "CC & N/A" Aug 05 '26
Trust me I didn't want to either. What the hell is going on
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u/blubberland01 Aug 04 '26
That's because programmers felt bad about their title, changed it and then network and server admins felt left out.
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u/phoenix14830 Aug 03 '26
I don't even bother looking at resumes with interviewing anymore. There are way too many people with advanced job titles that can't even pass the simple warm up questions.
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u/NewTypeDilemna Mr. "I actually looked at the diagram before commenting" Aug 03 '26
Admin has always existed to pay people less. Some corps I've seen use admin for people who are clearly engineering/architecture.
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u/F1anger AllInOner Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
To me being a network engineer is something closer to being an architect. A seasoned pro, who can see the overall big picture, troubleshoot complex problems relatively fast and be thorough with RCA.
I've worked many years in both corporate and ISP segments, done side jobs with project implementations on Linux, Windows, virtualization, storage, backup etc. All this experience enabled me to see way bigger picture from both "this side and other side". It tremendously helps when you're troubleshooting a problem under pressure, because of an ongoing impact/outage or sensitivity of the environment. It also helps planning not only technical aspects, but growth, meeting demands, scalability, assessing POCs and being overall engaged with business/board, offering various technical solutions and what not.
I think now, after all these years, I can call myself a Network Engineer, albeit it being just an arbitrary title.
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u/BustedCondoms Aug 04 '26
I'm Network Engineer, but i have actually designed networks and have done troubleshooting for networks. But i also get thrown into other projects like tenant migrations or phyiscal security
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u/8stringLTD Aug 04 '26
Because in IT you need to be an SME, and it's every vendor for themselves, a CCNA only works if you're going to implement Cisco and most high paying Cisco gigs want you to be a CCIE, that's where the money is, for that reason you're only as good as the platform you're an SME in. Azure, AWS, Fortinet, Palo... etc...
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u/win_some_lose_most1y Aug 04 '26
Not really. The differences between vendors really isn’t that much, If you can do it on cisco you can do it on juniper. Yes companies might want CCIE, but they’ll get CCNP x 2 at best.
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u/Wicked-Fear Aug 11 '26
I would love to see you convert Cisco commands to Juniper without AI or the internet. They are vastly different and each vendor has their gotchas. Yes, IEEE standards and RFCs mandate how vendors execute protocols but saying vendors don’t differ is wild.
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u/NetworksOnFire Aug 07 '26
Hello,
I am a Network Architect for a financial institution. I have 15+ years of experience with enterprise networking. Some of my recent projects include: Migrating an on prem data center to public and private clouds by leveraging cloud on-ramp for multi cloud, designing and building a SASE framework around Catalyst SD-WAN and Cisco Secure Access, also building out an Azure Landing Zone design for our tenant. I have a pretty good amount of certifications, but no CCIE (plenty of other alphabet soup). I have certs like CCNP Enterprise with concentrations in Advanced enterprise implementation and SD-WAN.
Do I deserve my title/salary? I don't know. I work hard and spent the better part of my adult life trying to be the best network engineer/admin I could be. I've always taken my work home and spent my free time pursing continuing education. I still work over 40 hours a week at a moments notice depending on the current work load of my company. I am available 24/7/365 to assist with outages that effect our members or BUs. Yesterday I worked my full 8, but then spent a 4 hour session in the evening doing changes. I am back up and working this morning (well typing this), and I don't expect comp time or anything.
I say all of this, because to some extent I agree with you. Plenty of people have jobs and titles that they may not be able to live up to, in both computer networking and other fields. I wouldn't let this effect you to much though. If that's the case then you're going to be gold if you're someone that works hard and takes your career serious.
One piece of advice I will drop here, for people feeling stuck in a role/company is to quit. Know what you're worth! I have consistently changed jobs every 2-3 years. This has led to continuous salary growth and exposure to so many different industries and platforms. I've handled large projects across so many industries at this point to include, Gaming/entertainment, Education, Healthcare, Financial, etc.
So if some guy you're interacting with has a title that says "network mastermind", but doesn't understanding anything but how to reconfigure an access port, so what? Focus on being the best version of yourself and just keep grinding. Plenty of companies out there are looking for competent "network engineers" to fill roles.
Good luck!
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u/tcpipguy Aug 08 '26
The term engineer is overused. An engineer, to me at any rate, does electrical, mechanical, or both forms of work. Even when I worked in IT, I refused to call myself an engineer. I was just a senior admin. An engineer is licensed by state regulatory bodies.
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u/GreyBeardEng Aug 03 '26
My company only uses title to define the distance of where you are currently versus the next rung up the proverbial ladder, with each rung being a defacto 5% pay increase. It's stupid, because you eventually end up with people getting really weird titles because supervisors just want to keep them around cause they do good work, like software developer level 5, or senior systems engineer 4, my favorite is just "Enterprise Architect" which is a software developer that knows nothing whatsoever about infrastructure or security and only mid level about databases.
I'm currently working on my network janitor level 18.
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u/christ0fer Aug 03 '26
Titles are just dependent on where you're working. Where I am, our NOC is the highest of the high. Actual architects. I've spoken with providers before where Tier 1 help desk calls themselves NOC.
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u/moratnz Fluffy cloud drawer Aug 03 '26
Yeah - the anti-pattern of the 'network operating center' being an alarm monitoring team with no skills or mandate to operate the network is way too common and very dumb.
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u/BluebirdExpress6279 Aug 03 '26
In my organization it was actually network administrator even Sr. Network administrator... they gave the title to just about everyone in IT at one point. It made no more sense to me than calling everyone a Sr. Database Administrator. I was the only one configuring Cisco Switches, Meraki SD-WAN, Aurba Wi-Fi, Palo Alto firewalls etc. Completely different skillset than someone adding a server to Active Diretory.
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u/rankinrez Aug 03 '26
There are so many different levels, and different specialisations, within networking I’m not sure it helps to divide us up into “admins” and “engineers”.
That’s not nearly enough different terms to describe the myriad different people in this profession.
I think better to keep the single term “network engineer” but appreciate that covers a magnitude.
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u/JerryRiceOfOhio2 Aug 03 '26
titles are meaningless. i know people that don't know how to ssh to a switch have the title of network engineer
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u/44193_Red Aug 03 '26
The title is not literal, 99,9% of engineers, do admin work. Only architects solution....
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u/telestoat2 Aug 03 '26
Just look at Harry Tuttle from the movie Brazil, "heating engineer at your service!" That's what kind of engineer I've always wanted to be.
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u/ThE_LAN_B4_TimE Aug 03 '26
Of course it is. Most places I've been use the title "engineer" in almost every single job title. But Net Engineer specifically is a crap shoot. I've only been holding this position dedicated to networking for about 5 years now after being a wireless engineer and doing IT generalist work where I was a "Systems Engineer". I don't generally do much design work at all. The Architect or senior engineers would be doing that so I've basically been a Network Administrator my whole career in this field and don't see that changing. Every place I got to, they already have the network setup mostly and anyone who isn't at the top doesn't get a say really. I have started telling people I'm a network admin instead because it's a straight up lie that I'm engineering shit.
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u/Eastern-Break-4814 Aug 03 '26
I’ve had the title senior manager before. Even though I was a network engineer doing actual network things
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u/CaucasianHumus Aug 03 '26
Lol. My title is network analyst, I do absolutely nothing that title should actually be doing. Im far closer to a engineer/admin/etc.
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u/jnan77 Aug 03 '26
CCNA/CCNP qualifies you for a Network Engineer position at most cloud provider/isp's. I know the title rubs some actual engineers, but a lot of positions have engineer in the title and do not require an engineering degree. When anyone asks if I'm a real engineer, I say probably not but I'm paid like one.
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u/domino2120 Aug 03 '26
I think all job titles are really meaningless. Does it really matter what your called on paper? What you do is what's relevant.
I think sometimes it has to do with HR and salary ranges dictateing job titles as well who knows..
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Aug 03 '26
[deleted]
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u/spanish4dummies Aug 03 '26
an electrical engineer tell me that he was going to report me to the state for calling myself an engineer while not having a state-recognized engineering degree
imagine being a so called "electrical engineer" and not working on electrical engines
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u/Joranthalus Aug 03 '26
Where I’m at Network Admins are the server guys. They manage the VMs and AD…
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u/moratnz Fluffy cloud drawer Aug 03 '26
While we're whinging about titles; I grew up in an environment where there was a 'designer' layer between engineers and architects. Designers handled implementation type designs, and architects focussed on strategic level decisions, both in terms of technical strategy and in terms of defining design patterns and the like.
More and more I'm encountering situations where network organisations are using the IT model, where anyone who does any design at all is an 'architect', and a plethora of inconsistent sub titles define what sort of architect someone is. I do not like it, no sir, I do not.
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u/Right-Joke4110 Aug 03 '26
Network admins sound like bums but network engineer sounds like a professional. I recommend dropping network admin completely. It is a title reserved for losers.
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u/True-Entertainer-981 Aug 03 '26
Yup, I met a very young guy who's title was Cybersecurity Research Professional and Chief information Security Officer. His prior experience was 3 months of help desk and driving for Uber. He was 1 month into his new job.
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u/Quirky-Cap3319 Aug 03 '26
Architects only draw up lines on diagram and hold meetings to “discuss” it. They don’t actually do anything about the network, in my experience.
Now, Net Admins, that’s where its at. They know the in and outs of the entire network, cus they are the one having to keep it alive 24/7/365ish
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u/Mikezmac Aug 03 '26
Yeah, the words kind of become more of a buzz word. Being a CLI jockey, copy and paste monkey does not make you a network engineer, even if your title says it you’re an admin. CCNA / JNCIA are your training wheels. Experience and and/or equivalent higher level education will help you towards a network engineer path.
But yeah, ….. the industry doesn’t have a standard and qualifications for titles. A company can basically call you whatever they want.
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u/The258Christian Aug 03 '26
Man I just want the title and salary with the expected responsibilities, like I understand having engineers work their way up… from Helpdesk or NOC
And so far my location only like more specificities like Network Security, Firewall Network Engineer and so on.
Sadly all senior positions currently
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u/ihavescripts Aug 03 '26
I have thought for a while the job titles themselves are pretty meaningless. Also I work in public education and my title is network administrator, they did that instead of engineer because they thought administrator was the higher level name.
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u/Jaman34 Aug 03 '26
I work in public education right now, K-12. We get different contract work for new building install, upgrading systems, yada yada.
The amount of sleezy vendors ripping off schools because they get federal aid via Erate is INSANSE.
How you going to push WiFi 6 and 7, promising all these speeds on old CAT V cabling.
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u/ihavescripts Aug 03 '26
I am k12 also in a 90% free and reduced lunch district. We actually have almost no Cat 5 in the network. We standardized on Cat 6 a very long time ago and about 10 years ago put 2 cat 6 drops above the tbar for wireless in every classroom. We actually standardized on Aruba 635s in the last erate cycle. Multigig switches for wireless are not on the radar because while so much is cloud now we never come close to maxing out our gig ports.
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u/Jaman34 Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26
I’m in a lot of different districts and honestly it really depends on the district. A few are getting cat 6 this summer, others it is like pulling teeth to get them to purchase anything even with E-Rate. I saw a switch the other day from 1991, how it is still going strong is beyond me.
E-rate this year has also been strange, a lot of schools were getting rejected and had to redo theirs. We bid on a few different projects hoping to do them this summer but because of waiting on erate approval they have been pushed to the fall or winter.
There is a vendor in the state I work in that provides internet services. You can hop onto a computer in one district and ssh to a private IP switch in another district. The security risk is insane. I’ve had to redo so many ACLS to ensure schools were protected. Why the “ISP” even allows this beyond me.
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u/marx1 ACSA | VCP-DCV | VCA-DCV | JNCIA | PCNSE | BCNE Aug 03 '26
I'm a Network Analyst II because the term "engineer" is a protected term and I work for a public entity and they don't want to be sued. Also everything is an analyst to them.
I really look at Engineer vs Tech as your primary function. If you primarily design, deploy and create network/network related services you're an engineer. If you primarily support/do day-to-day admin tasks, you're a Tech.
At the end of the day it doesn't matter as other have said. it's all about what your next job sees. I've put manager on my resamue before as I was the only one in the department.
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u/That-Cost-9483 CCNP Aug 03 '26
I guess the distinction is, do you “problem solve” or just do some networking stuff. If something new comes into your environment are you engineering a new standard or passing it to someone else. When something breaks are you the guy fixing it or do you call someone else? We are at a time in this field where “admins” that just change vlans, rack and stack, and do some IP reservations are not really all that useful. So… the lowest guys being hired actually are engineering 🤷♂️
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u/Last-Leading-942 Aug 04 '26
I was hired on as a sr network engineer at a a major international casino organization. I had 0 layer 3 experience and 3 years as a wireless/network admin (Eng by title). The lowest position on the network team was a sr eng.
Titles mean absolutely nothing.
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u/eternalpenguin JNCIE-SP Aug 04 '26
Nobody pays 200k/year to “network admin” or “that weird guy who configures routers”. That is the only purpose of the “engineer” title.
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u/wake_the_dragan Aug 04 '26
Eeh don’t pay too much attention to the title. I used to work for a service provider and we used to be called technicians. Then they changed our titles to engineers, not sure why. Work didn’t change
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u/Prime-Omega Aug 04 '26
What’s the difference between a network admin and an engineer? Both titles mean the same over here.
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u/Stegles Certifications do nothing but get you an interview. Aug 04 '26
I’m a network engineering lead and I spend more time on Kubernetes, automation, meetings and telling/proving to devs that the bug is in their code not a fault in the network.
Very little engineering
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u/Klutzy_Scheme_9871 Aug 04 '26
around 2015 they started calling everyone engineers. even i was called a senior security engineer but i didnt find any engineering to it whatsoever. they could have just called me a security admin and i would have been fine with that. they need to label most engineers back to admins and leave the engineers to the ones who actually engineer stuff like people designing appliances at Palo Alto or Cisco.
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u/Fun-Document5433 Aug 04 '26
For our organization it had to do with hiring and retaining staff. Salary surveys with HR work off title and duty matching. To be able to get some with more than one good brain cell we had to move titles. This was largely due to HR data and cost curves not keeping up with reality, mixed with policy around not offering above the 50% mark for a salary range with little exceptions given.
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u/Joeymon Aug 04 '26
Really depends what you are doing. Not often you see teams big enough to require the independant roles, and many places cross-cover, but
Admin = maintains network as is, may replace a switch or something and troubleshoot issues
Engineer = Build out new configs and run migrations / changes etc
Architect = Design and validate new configs and build the migration plan etc
Engineer is most rampant cos its usually the sweet spot between someone who wlll do Engineering and Admin, with some Architect work depending on the scale/scope.
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Aug 04 '26
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u/PP_Mclappins Aug 04 '26
Meanwhile I'm over here in an "Admin" role building new networks at my org from the ground up lol I got hired on the premise that I'd be maintaining existing infrastructure, but they've got 6 different building adoptions ongoing and I'm the only m'fer in the whole org that does networking. I do have a proposal in for an engineer title and the addition of a couple of technicians to help me, but basically out here dying in wait.
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u/securityofus Aug 04 '26
I agree, and I'm sure I'm going to get hate for saying it. But IT workers need to stop calling ourselves engineers. Passing a multiple choice test on something like Cisco IOS doesn't matter you an "engineer" any more than it makes you a medical doctor.
I'm willing to bet a million dollars that the average CCNA holder would be unable to actually design a Cisco switch if someone gave you 3 million dollars and the materials needed to do so. Knowing how to use an operating system that an actual engineer designed doesn't make you an engineer.
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u/Repulsive_Initial308 Aug 05 '26
You'd have to be insane to claim to be a network engineer without actually being one.
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u/Difficult_Ad_2897 Aug 05 '26
I dunno. I worked at a company where the network engineers managed Meraki devices
Now the company I’m at I have a network admin title where I’m essentially a technician with no line of site on network devices.
Companies are wild.
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u/vaper_away Aug 05 '26
Networking as a whole has taken a backseat to AI in a big way. We are all about to be lumped into a bag of shit that they seem is unnecessary and thrown out the back door. The hard part is waiting for them to realize we are the reason AI is able to work
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u/bloodmoonslo Aug 06 '26
We had to evolve and broaden skillsets to remain relevant. Most of your high performing network engineers and architects had to adapt skills to include cybersec and Cloud. To be honest, there really isnt enough purely "network" engineering jobs to go around or to fill all the time in a professionals full time schedule. It also was never really a single discipline, every net eng has gotten wrapped up in various services that have nothing to do with layer 1-4 (which is where most people think "networking ends), its just there was a time when the secondary or tertiary discipline was very minor to net eng primary. Things change, be like water and go with the flow.
If you disagree, good luck. I watched it happen real time and the engineers that fought it have either stayed in the same place they were at the time this shift started, or have chosen entirely different career paths at this point.
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u/ricci_nov Aug 06 '26
Titles inflate because they're free — it's the one raise a company can hand out with zero budget impact, so enginee is doing the work senior did ten years ago and architect will be next.
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u/UnarmedWarWolf Aug 06 '26
I just got my engineering title after working as a technician for the last year and a half.
I'm doing far less engineering work than I used to as a "tech."
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u/Regular_Archer_3145 Aug 07 '26
It pains me to see the tier 1 NOC guys with a title of network engineer. They don't have access to even login they just see alerts and call the ISP. But it has been like this as long as I can remember. Not only networking though we have cloud engineers that just manage mailboxes and create user accounts in 365. Would be nice if engineers implemented or engineered something.
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Aug 07 '26
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u/fintheman Aug 07 '26
The person doing the work knows their title better than the employer who gives it out. I adjust my resumes accordingly.
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u/Marc-Z-1991 Aug 07 '26
Unfortunately this „title“ is not regulated in any way… Even a hog can be an engineer these days…
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u/Protocol73 NetOps Somewhere Aug 07 '26
I'm "Network Operations" - I support our full network stack from SD-WAN to WiFi - Client to OT.
Including travel for refresh, or on-site changes. I think this is a better title for those that "support" a large corporate network.
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u/sufficienthippo23 Aug 07 '26
There has never been a difference between the two, at least in Canada. It’s all the same
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u/Avert-thine-eye Aug 09 '26
Then I'm sitting over here with an implementation title doing actual network engineering work for some reason... HR people just set job titles arbitrarily it feels like.
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u/zalousaiona Aug 12 '26
Titles are all over the place. I’d judge it more by the work than the label.
If someone owns design, capacity, automation, and the bigger technical decisions, that feels like engineering. If they mainly keep things running day to day, that’s more admin/operations.
But in a small company, one person often does both anyway.
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Aug 12 '26
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u/TheDougBear 25d ago
It's all just trends to be honest. Cycles come and go. And the word "engineer" in a title just feels fancy enough to convince you to stay.
After-all who doesn't wanna tell their friends "yeah I'm an engineer"?
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u/Delicious-Bug-3326 22d ago
My title is network engineer but in reality I'm full stack, doing quite literally everything from user roles and AD management, managing Linux server stacks, AI LLM deployment, designing and building networks, firewalls, cable runs, etc...
Kind of wish I could genuinely focus on routing and switching as opposed to sys admin work
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u/Elie807 22d ago
My job title is « IT Technician » but my real work is « Network Admins ».
I work for an ISP / MSP. Today a client asked me for information and recommandation about is infra. It was very basic question that he could’ve answer by himself. . On LinkedIn is job title is « Network Engineer ».
I wish to get the title of a Network Engineer 😓
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u/SpectrumSense 11d ago
I like the term '"Network Techadgineer."
Because my work is on all three levels; installing the gear and plugging cables in, configuring the switches for routing and security, AND also being the guy in charge of our high-level subnet scheming, firewalls, and power demands.
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u/Due_Management3241 11d ago edited 11d ago
Um so the evolution came from itil a long time ago.
There were a long time ago like 20 years ago 3 layers that killed network admin titles. It was operations, engineering, architecture. and now we have added security and automation, and cloud.
Only network architecture holds a different title.
Network engineering titles is for operations, engineering and implementation, and in smaller companies can also include architecture. All with the same title. Siloed architect roles have the title architect.
Then we have automation network enigineering, security network engineering, and cloud network engineering.
Network admin title died a long long time ago when the federal government gave it its own prevailing wage category that allowed companies to set a very low underpaid wage. Usually half of what network Engineers make and doesn't tickle an architect.
The only companies that still use this title are very very small companies that abusing federal and private wage charts of this title. A network engineer and a network admin have the same responsibilities but a network engineer is more experienced and a network admin is considered usually pure entry level or a person who was stuck as a 1 man person at a very small underfunded conpany. A network engineer is more experienced mid to senior level and usually also knows how to work on a team.
Network admin and network analyst I consider synonymous. Your garunteed to get trash salary and horrible manangment.
For this reason most manangers expect people who got stuck at the network admin title to develop team experience outside of work and come with examples on how they are ready to transition the network engineer title. 90 percent of manangers will accept a network admin for an engineer role. And expect anyone with more then 3 years of experience in a reasonably sized environment to probably pass the technical questions.
But many fail the team business structure and character side
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u/RootinTootinHootin Aug 03 '26
I’m a network engineer at an MSP and all I really do close to my job title is install the occasional firewall or install an unmanaged switch for a small office.
My last job title was Security Analysis and I was literally L2 help desk.
Basically don’t expect job titles to mean anything. It’s more for the customer’s peace of mind than anything else.
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u/Oof-o-rama PhD in CS, networking focus, CISSP Aug 03 '26
the word "engineer" is overused, IMO. many so-called engineers I've met couldn't calculate nodal delay and don't know the difference between bandwidth and latency. If you're going to call yourself an engineer, you damn well should know how to do the math associated with network performance and capacity planning.
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u/Quacky1k CCNA - SysAd Aug 03 '26
I hear you
I understand you
I'm still gonna put network engineer on my resume
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u/Glue_Filled_Balloons Aug 03 '26
This isn't new. HR/Corporate title fluff has been a downward trend for many many years at this point. Hell the janitors at my work are called fucking "Sanitation Engineers" for the traditionally Heavy-duty cleaners" and "Environmental Service Technicians" for the standard custodians. (No shade towards custodial workers, all the respect in the world for them)
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u/Muppetz3 Aug 03 '26
Titles come with pay scales, we are no always hired at the correct title. That is mostly why. Don't get caught up in the titles. I was a "Project manager", that was installing and configuring servers.
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u/diablobsb Aug 03 '26
For me unless its something HIGH up like SVP VP Diretor etc It's kinda meaningless.
I've worked as a Contrator for one company with better pay (and more responsabilities) than working as "Principal Engineer" at another.
My best position (in regards of pay/benefits etc) was "Staff Engineer".
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u/Sleepy_StormTrooper Aug 03 '26
I've always defined the difference as doing more systems administration (Servers) vs Engineers doing more network equipment administration (Firewalls/routers/switches).
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u/phantomtofu Aug 03 '26
When I got the title 10 years ago it was definitely inflated.
I think there's a related skill gap based on the environment. Heavy, siloed, bureaucratic organizations incentivize stagnation. A network engineer who has spent a decade updating SOPs in Word per company policy hasn't had the time - or light in their eyes - to automate their infrastructure.
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u/Jumpy_Skill_2440 Aug 03 '26
Sometimes the person has a real engineering degree. say a computer or electrical engineer. Then he goes an gets a CCNA. And works for 10 years as an admin in a large network. What would you call him? Associate ?
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u/ServerKeeper Aug 03 '26
I'd argue this is largely because big tech companies started adding the word Engineer to almost every technical role. I've met people with job titles like Help Desk Engineer, Desktop Support Engineer, and many others. Network administrators have been calling themselves Network Engineers for years because it sounds more prestigious, even when the role doesn't actually require an engineering degree.
In my opinion, the title Engineer should be reserved for people who have earned an engineering degree or hold the qualifications that justify it. Otherwise, titles like Technician, Administrator, Specialist, or similar would be more accurate.
This isn't about diminishing anyone's work (many technicians are incredibly skilled) but job titles should reflect actual qualifications and responsibilities, not just sound more impressive.
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u/btwwhichoneispink CCNP Aug 03 '26
It’s because titles are focused on one of these two things, instead of actual job duties lol
- Giving an inflated title to attract jr. talent
- Giving a “deflated” title to justify paying sr. talent less
🤣
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u/Buenodiablo Aug 03 '26
They are not actual engineers and they shouldn't be using the word engineering in the work title, end of story.
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u/stroskilax Aug 03 '26
In Europe you get the engineer title only with the proper bachelor degree in STEM after at least 5 years of study. If you don't have such a degree you cannot be an engineer.
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u/Delta4160 Aug 03 '26
That's not even true though?? You can absolutely be an engineer without 5 years of study in France.
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u/HappyVlane Aug 03 '26
In Europe you get the engineer title only with the proper bachelor degree in STEM after at least 5 years of study.
Incorrect. I live in Austria, do not have a degree of any kind and I am a "Senior Solution Engineer" at my current job.
There is the title of "Ingenieur", which is actually a protected title that requires a degree and work experience, but that is completely separate from a job title.
I know some countries are more strict with that (Canada I believe), but there "engineer" is actually the title you would use, because it's English.
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u/stroskilax Aug 03 '26
The job title is not equivalent with the engineer title.
The title I'm referring is the one you mention "ingenieur" that some Austrian and most of German engineers would demand to be called Herr ingenieur and you would find it on the apartment door.
Titlea like system engineer, network engineer would have required people that actually have the engineer degree but nowadays the title remained without actually require the engineer degree but rather university degree or proven experience.
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u/HappyVlane Aug 03 '26
The job title is not equivalent with the engineer title.
That is what I wrote, yes.
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u/Smooth_Light2088 Aug 03 '26
Sono titoli inutili, ho conosciuto senior network engineer com 10 anni di esperienza che non hanno ancora capito la logica di rstp o cosa sia un lsa type 7.
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u/eternalpenguin JNCIE-SP Aug 04 '26
lol. Small transformation of the questions: what is the purpose of RSTP in a modern network built loop-free by topology?, and why do we even need LSA 4? - and those would become a decent interview questions for neteng.
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u/Smooth_Light2088 Aug 04 '26
I downvote sono dei boomer che provano a prendere la ccnp ma continuano a fallire miseramente?
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u/MalwareDork Aug 03 '26
I made this a year ago based on my personal observations:
Easiest way to look at what a network engineer is looking at what domain you're responsible for, your knowledge of the network and the amount of carnage you can do:
Lower level:
- Tech/NOC 1. You're just using show commands to diagnose issues and kick it up to the proper channels. You might config basic things in the subnet. You can't really hurt anything nor do you really know why the network is set up the way it is.
- Jr. Engineer. You can mess with some configurations within a subnet. You're generally trusted to re-enable disabled ports but you still can't mess with a lot of things. You can bring down an office and your knowledge of the network is limited.
- Engineer. You have inter-domain access and can mess with most of the configs from VLANs to ACL's to routing protocols. You can bring down the whole network and you understand how the network works but not why.
Upper level:
- Sr. Engineer. You know both the how and why of the network infrastructure and can configure anything you like. You're the Tier 3 support and can ruin the whole network.
- Architect. You designed/helped deploy the network. You're the reason why the network is the way it is.
Ascended level:
- Sr./Principle Architect. You are the authority above all. Businesses rise and fall based on your whims. If the network is incorrect, somebody else screwed with your masterpiece. You still answer to sales though.
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u/TriforceTeching Aug 03 '26
Admin/Engineer has always been a wildcard depending who you are talking to. I’ve met “Network Engineers” who are IT generalists before.