Applying for a Junior Network Administrator position...

[Jeff7181]

I'm applying for a position as a Junior Network Administrator at the company I'm currently in. There's plenty of competition for the job and one of the biggest parts will be a practical demonstration of our knowledge. Their current network engineers will be asking me to do things, and I'll need to be able to do it, or at least have some idea of what needs to be done.

Some information about the network:

There are over 1000 sites in the corporation with a Cisco 2800 series or 800 series router at each site. About half of them are equipped with 3-5 Cisco 2960 switches.
Over half the WAN connections are MPLS PIP connections. The rest are business class DSL. (we finally got rid of the ISDN and dial backup connections)
ACL's are used heavily on the routers at each site. There's lots of network segmentation at each site now to bring them up to PCI standards (it's a retail chain) including about 5 VLANs configured at each site.

So basically I'm putting together a list of things I need to brush up on so I can demonstrate what I know when I'm required to...

So far I've accounted for basics like checking the status of an interface, enabling or disabling an interface, moving between modes in IOS, configuring port speeds and such on switches, configuring some basic routing protocols like RIP and EIGRP and BGP, setting up ACL's to filter specific protocols or network addresses.

What else should I know?

 

[TechBoyJK]

you should be able to demonstrate that you can plug cables into the cisco stuff

no really, i dont know.

 

[her209]

Posting in the correct forum would be a start.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: her209
Posting in the correct forum would be a start.

Because he is asking about networking it should be in the networking subforum? Interesting.

 

[child of wonder]

Configuring VLANs, switchport security (if they use it), port mirroring, connecting to a Cisco device with a serial connection, TACACS+.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: her209
Posting in the correct forum would be a start.

I didn't consider career advice that happens to be in the networking field to really belong in the networking forum based on the description...

"From WAN to LAN, discuss it here. Having trouble setting up your own network? Is server configuration a pain? DSL or Cable Modem giving you fits? Get your questions answered and your topics discussed in the AnandTech Networking Forum."

I guess maybe we should move the "Networking Support thread for the unemployed: Fall 2008" thread to the networking forum too by that logic. :roll:

 

[takeru]

i got asked this during my interview, its funny but most people fail at it:
give an example of a broadcast domain. give an example of a collision domain.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: takeru
i got asked this during my interview, its funny but most people fail at it:
give an example of a broadcast domain. give an example of a collision domain.

Thanks for the tip... I hadn't considered anything like that. Easy enough to answer though when not caught off guard.

 

[TechBoyJK]

Originally posted by: takeru
i got asked this during my interview, its funny but most people fail at it:
give an example of a broadcast domain. give an example of a collision domain.

broadcast is logical and dependant on your subnet? collision is physical and dependant on your physical segment?