I"ve been in the IT profession for 25+ years now...and to be frank, network people are a dime a dozen.The market for network engineers, network administrators, etc used to be incredibily lucrative and easy to find a job. But today, to get into the networking field takes more than Cisco certification and a degree. The IT market right now is totally saturated with networking people, server administrators, etc. In the 80"s and 90"s those of us in IT found ourselves in the position of being able to change jobs at ease and increase our income in the double digits percentile yearly. But as technology became more common place, our skill sets became less and less needed. Think of it this way...in the 80s and 90s, the personal computer required true IT knowledge to setup and maintain. Ports were not color coded; plug and play didn"t exist. But as technology improved, much of what IT did became common place to the extent that today, hardware and software is childs play. The same has happened in the networking field to a degree. Today when I"m asked by college students what area to focus on in IT, I suggest Web Development and/or SAP. Reality is, everything is becoming thin client and using JAVA and a host of web development tools, PCs of tomorrow will need simply a monitor, mouse and keyboard. SAP developers can practically name their salary....very specialized area. Sadly, when I"m asked by college students today as to what field they should pursue, I tell them to avoid IT. The market is full of unemployed IT people. It isn"t uncommon for when I have an open IT position that we have those with PHDs, Masters, certifications galore applying for an entry level tech position. So today, I tell students that if they want to starve, go into IT. But if they want to be gainfully employed, go into nursing or education. Best of luck to you.
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