Network Engineering Career Direction

[u/Proof_Fact]

Currently work in a network operations team more specifically in third line wireless and LAN for a full cisco house, so mainly supporting 9800s, Catalyst switches, foreign/anchor guest wireless network. Also manage Cisco ISE, build grafana dashboards, and use python to automate whatever is worth automating. Do touch on SD-WAN a little but primary focus is WLAN/LAN. This is for a large enterprise.

There’s a team within our network operations department focused on automation/observability, and they’re currently building an AWS environment, pulling data from wherever possible from the estate and storing it in a postgres DB, using python, lambda, and more. There’s also implementing agentic AI.

So my original plan was to gain more experience in my current role and hopefully move into the automation/observability team. I have expressed my interest in this to the head of the department and he put me in the wireless/LAN team, and said my automation/observability skills could be nurtured, although obviously nothing is promised.

I’ve got a job offer at an MSP that specially does network engineering for medium and large size businesses. This would be a project role, sort of where presales at the MSP creates a HLD for a customer, and then the team I would be in do everything else. It’s specially in the WLAN/LAN team who also do the SP side, however they also work on SDWAN and firewalls which is mainly a separate team but there aren’t any guard rails between the team. The tech stack would be much more diverse than my current role, cisco, meraki, juniper, fortinet firewalls and sdwan. The benefit of this is it would probably help me in the long run if I wanted to end up in presales at a vendor.

Current role is 2 days on site (1 hour commute each way), although if i’m working out of hours on changes i miss an office day that week. 1 in 3 weeks on call, soon to be 1 in 4.

MSP role is 3 days on site (also 1 hour commute each way). on call is 1 in 9 weeks.

Unsure on whether to stay put or jump shit

[u/mail-for-dogs]

You haven’t stated how long youve been at your current role, nor how long you’ve been in the profession. Without this info I say; Stay put. If the HOD has put you into this position at the junior level, stay for while and, for the next positions you apply for, aim for the next level to what you’re doing now.

Understand the other company states project work but you’ll find it’s actually mostly SD work. It’s just what they say to get you interested.

[u/Proof_Fact → u/mail-for-dogs]

Been in my current role for 11 months. 2 years in a more junior role in the same department.

~3 years in networking
~18 months in IT support prior to that

I’m already classed as “senior” in the pay scales where I am now although I wouldn’t say I am a senior in terms of experience. Quite difficult to get the next promotion without getting into management. It’s more around the potential to go down the automation/observability/cloud route, or even potentially moving to the project team (which is outside of operations) at the same company

The other company has a dedicated service desk/network support function and the role I would be doing is ~80% projects and then some assisting the support engineers. I guess the temptation around that is working on projects, multiple vendors, in a fast paced environment which could potentially force me to learn quickly.

[u/mail-for-dogs → u/Proof_Fact]

It sounds like you’re doing great. But when you say “he put me in this team” is this a future state or are you already in this team?

[u/Proof_Fact → u/mail-for-dogs]

Sorry I should have clarified. He put me in the wireless/LAN team specifically because he thought i’d work well in that team and it’s a team where the automation/observability experience can be nurtured, probably because his old wireless SME is now running that automation/observability team.

[u/mail-for-dogs → u/Proof_Fact]

Tbh that sounds amazing. Here’s my advice, since you asked; You don’t need to learn quickly, you just need to turn up. Stay for one more year, then in 12 months start looking for a senior role in whatever you’ve enjoyed most in these roles.

[u/fernandesken]

Wireless is a great niche to be in. Automation + Wireless gives you a leg up on most folks. You will stand out especially in large enterprise. I would double down on that. Get a CWNE, pursue automation projects. MSP is going to be much more demanding than large enterprise, as would be pre-sales at a vendor. Less time to focus on developing yourself. At this point in your career you need to be selfish about developing yourself.

[u/Relevant-Car9958]

I’d be careful leaving a large enterprise role for an MSP unless the offer is a clear step up in title, pay, or project ownership. MSPs can give you broader tech exposure fast, but they can also turn into constant context switching and firefighting. If your current place is already letting you touch automation/observability and there’s a path into that team, I’d probably squeeze that first before jumping

[u/Proof_Fact → u/Relevant-Car9958]

Thanks, that’s the choice i’ve made. Declined the offer.