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What major do network administrators usually have?

H

HardTech

Golden Member
I was going to go in a Computer Engineering major because I thought network adminisrators just setup networks..
however, my cousin told me that the majority of them have Computer Science majors. Which is it?

And also, how much money should I look forward to making fresh out of college (let's say Cornell) with no certifications and either degree as a network administrator? For time reference, I'm a senior in HS right now.

How much should I look forward to make if I had those certifications? Thanks!
 
CompEngineers have to know ALOT more then netadmins. They basically design the circuits and cpus of the hardware.
 
A couple friends of mine were going into Comp Engineering and dropped out of it after their first year cause it was so hard. They said it was A LOT of Math, Physics, etc. Their GPA in High School was between 3.8 and 4.0.
 
I don't think Network Admins need to be Computer Engineers. Maybe Computer Science but that's more toward programming as well. Both are a totally different fields. The few NA's I know don't even have degrees. They have experience and certifications instead. As far as I know there really isn't a degree for Computer Networking. However, some NA's have people under them so Management might be a good idea. I dunno, just my thoughts... 🙂

Rob
 
All you really need to become a network admin is a tech degree like MCSE or CCSE. Doesn't hurt to have a comp sci or comp engr degree when interviewing though.

ERJ
 
what would help me out the most, though?

How about this.. what's THE computer major to go in to get the largest amount of money and benefits? Or what has the highest demand right now?
 
I forgot... Like ERJ said, cert's are necessary. MCSE at least and Cisco is even better. The important thing is to be able to demonstrate your skills. Anyone can read Transcender tests and study Braindumps to memorize the questions and answers. There's tons of sites and sources available. However, if you can't apply it in a real world situation you're in trouble!

Rob

PS - I'm still studying (slowly) for MCSE so don't take me as an expert! 🙂
 
Highest demand? Just look in your local paper. Most likely it's programming. If you are a good programmer you'll always have a job opportunity. You'll have to keep up with the latest tech/language but that applies to any IT career.

Rob
 
I say go for the comp science. It is true that the industry certs are worth more, and the comp Engineering is overkill for what you want. My school offers IFSM (Information System Management) courses. These are most inline with Netadmin.
 
I feel I should know this...
I'm a junior in Cornell majoring in Electrical and Computer Engineering (Computer Engineering is a concentration in Electrical here, they recently changed the EE department to ECE so incoming freshman and applying high school students aren't so confused).
... but I don't know. 😛

I spoke to a Computer Science major on my floor about this (dragged on to a really long and boring discussion about computer hardware, ugh!) and he also didn't know what was right for Network Administrators. From what I know, if you go into telecommunications and/or networking in Electrical Engineering, then you'll be designing and making the components for networks rather than just managing them, though you will learn how they work. In Computer Science, you're likely to be creating the software that'll communicate over networks.

We just couldn't figure out what major dealt only with Network Administration. We felt that pure Network Administration is something that can be learned from a vocational school (like those advertised on TV).
 
Agreed, network admins don't really require a university level degree. Vocational schools usually do the trick, and a couple years in the field usually helps too.

There's an article at http://gamelan.earthweb.com/dlink.index-jhtml.72.1082.-.61.jhtml that gets updated every month showing the on-average per hour salaries for Java professionals. In San Francisco it's $99/hr (on average! you could get much higher if you are very good).

I think Possum nailed it however.

No one with a CS/CE/EE degree from any respectable university will be doing network admin stuff, it's simply too easy (relatively) of a job - there's not much problem solving, at least much less than a programmer's job. HardTech, your cousin has no idea what he's talking about.

 
On the job experience weighs the most. I know that a Telecomunications degree will probably be the closest, but thgeres alot of NA's with Comp Science as well. But, if your serious about just getting straight cash, dont do systems admin. Theres more high paying net admin jobs then anyting else, but the highest of high dollar jobs are NOT network admin positions. Usually they will be Network Engineer / Design, dealing with WANs. You want the most money? Learn routers, switches, transport protocols and get some Cisco certifications. If you have what it takes (no offense, I dont think any of us do) get a CCEI. Last I checked, there were less then 6,000 people in the world with one. If you get that, you write your own ticket. Period. With a CCIE, you make what you want and work where you want. I know Sprint starts CCIE's @ 125k, and they cant keep them because its not enough. I think average for that certification is around 150k to 175k. People will prolly disagree about not doin net admin, but find me a net admin position paying over 100k, let alone 150.......
 
sounds tempting.. what does CCIE stand for?

Well, Engineering doesn't seem too tempting for me, but neither does computer science. I wanted to be a network administrator because they seem to get lots of cash and don't work too hard. Oh well, I'll check back here after church
 
I'm not sure what it is, but my school offers a major called DIS which is (I think) Decision Information Systems. I think that might be networking and IT stuff. But definately computer engineering has nothing to do with managing networks.

-mosdef
 
NetAdmins generally have MCSE or another equivalent certification dependant upon the network setup. The best NetAdmins I have worked with still don't have their certs. They take the tests as they go along (when they have time) but they've been doing it for a long time so they know the tricks of the trade which I feel are not covered well enough in the certs. Just my opinion. Nice to have but you better have the experience to back it up even if it is just a home setup that you can install different packages on.
 
The more important question you should be asking yourself: What do you want to do for a living for the next 10 years? Who cares about money if you do not have time to spend it or you hate going to work to make it? Just makes your life miserible.
 
If you want to go into NA, then CompE is probably not the way to go. I have my BS in EE and getting my MS in CompE. I switched to CompE because they didn't offer any CompE degree at my school (UMR) when I entered in '95. Since there is a real explosion in the need for CompE in the coming years, I swithced to it. In some ways I like what I did because I now have more hardware experience through EE, but less programming, which is fine with me. One of my profs listed the most demanding jobs in the coming years in terms of % increase. CompE was first on the list basically doubling in size in the next 10 years. CompSci was up there too. I think anything in the computer industry will hold great promise. It just depends on how much work you want to put in it. Like someone said earlier CompE has a lot of math, physics, EE, and programming, so it is hard. The certifications would probably be the best for a NA position.
 
The more important question you should be asking yourself: What do you want to do for a living for the next 10 years? Who cares about money if you do not have time to spend it or you hate going to work to make it? Just makes your life miserible.


From my extremely limited view on NA, I have seen that they do just what their job title is.. setup, monitor, and fix networks. Seems like fun to me, since I've always had a hands-on approach to computers. If I do what I normally do and can get paid 150k+ for doing it, that in itself will be reward enough.

But yeah, I've always wondered what if later on down the road the paychecks start to mean nothing to me and I want to have some serious fun.. I could always go back to school, or use the current degree I have to go into another field.

What exactly do Electrical Engineer majors do? I've heard it involving anywhere from a mix of CE and CP to just soldering and welding stuff (an extreme gist, but just an idea)

what's the deal, yo?
 
150k a year for Network Admin? I don't think so - you'd be lucky if you got 50k a year, even with Novell and MCSE certs. I know the network admin at my school doesn't get 8x what the teachers get, cause he doesn't have that hard of a job
 
If you want to be a network admin what you need most is experience, certifications are great too, but employers look more highly on someone with 5 years experience and no certs over someone with 1 year experience and an mcse. I am currently goign to school for computer science as well as finishing up my mcse and hopefully moving on to cisco. The computer science is a backup in case i want to switch over to development, but you may want to look into MIS (Management information systems). I started off in comp engineering and although I like math and physics, i just didnt feel like i wanted to design hardware as a career. I plan on getting my cs degree with a math minor (in case i feel like getting back into engineering later) and getting a masters in MIS in afew years. This is more than a good network admin needs. My first admin job made me close to $40,000 a year and it was a travelling position on the west coast with an expense account and the works. The only education or certs i had were 19 credits in computer engineering and an A+. So it's up to you, i know a guy making $75,000 doing network design, he has an mcse, and his degree was in history or something. Hope this helps, but it will probably just make you more confused.
 
I think that was 150k a year for a ccie. Although mcse that do network design without ccie's make $75,000+ if they are good.
 
Electrical Engineering is a fairly broad field. It involves serveral areas of emphasis including: Computer Eng (now at some schools a separate degree), Communications, Power, Controls, Circuit Analysis, Optics, EMC (electromagnetic compatability), and electronics. Some EE's do know how to solder, but not all just because the industry is moving away from building circuits by hand (except possibly for prototypes). EE deals with solving problems and designing new devices/systems in these areas. The degree offers a lot of background theory and current stuff to help.

Just to give you an idea of what the degree entails, here are some classes we take:
First Year: Calculus, Chemistry, Physics, a few humanities
Second Year: More Calculus, Circuit Analysis, More Physics, humanities
Third Year: Linear Systems, Electromagnetics, Electronics, Power, statistics, humanties
Fourth Year: Emphasis classes from a select list (usually controls, communications, power, optics, or compE) and emphasis classes of your choosing. ALso a senior design project. There is enough math, that a minor in Math is very easy to obtain.

Of course this is based off UMR's (U. of MO-Rolla) schedule, which is fairly close to the norm of most other EE degrees.

Hope this helps!
 
so all you guys are saying that to be a NA hand-on experience is much more important overall? i am in a community college majoring Computer Information System which is a 2-year course.
will i be competitive after 2 yrs? or would you suggest that 4 years is MUCH better? or more certs? my goal is the same as HardTech, wanna deal with networking

thanks guys🙂
 
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