full image - Repost: 10 years in - help decide mid career move (from Reddit.com, 10 years in - help decide mid career move)
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Need advice on where my next move should be. TLDR at bottom - background and options below -This year I will hit 10 years as being in IT/network engineer. I'm at my 4th position in the industry (3rd company). West coast/HCOL/mid 30s. I originally got into being a network engineer after my mentor who I met at my first help desk role said I should learn Cisco. I got the CCNA and switched to jr neteng role and I really liked it. After 2 moves, I now hold a sr network eng position for an electronics retailer. The position is nice, good pay, boss is laid back, its just me, my boss and 1 other guy on the network side. Have about 200 locations and 3 Colo POP/DCs. Got a few certs: sec+, CWNA, couple of CCNPs. I like the position but I feel I could get more pay and/or take on more challenging network projects, and after 5 years here might be time for a new role.The role I had before this was managed services at a large company who is a Tier 1 service provider (amongst other things) which was great as I gained a lot of experience about networking and routing and had some great projects. I left because it wasn't really like the "internet backbone" type network, the pay was pretty low along with some stressful situations (#MSP life). I sometimes miss though saying things like "I manage a few networks of thousands of routers and switches for X,Y,Z, customers" type thing and being able to say I work for well-known X tier 1 company.My current position is good but I'm not doing as advanced level things anymore now that we refreshed and redesigned everything. We had some large wireless projects last year so I got the CWNA as a part of that but I don't think I want wireless to be my primary role. I feel like when I say I work in the retail industry it doesn't really hold weight and gets looked at as ghetto IT. I probably got another 1-2 years here then I want to jump.When I originally got into networking my goals were like to work for service providers - wanted to be responsible for things on the internet or deal with like internet routing and big stuff like that. I felt then and still kind of feel now that there is some "prestige" aspects about those positions. I wanted to contribute to NANOG and the IETF and said I wanted my name on a RFC one day. I haven't really done much to get to those two goals but I feel like right now I am at an impasse to see where I should focus and what my next goals and career path should be. My Mentor says F all that BS and go for the money (he's about 25 years in).I've pretty much been with enterprise type networks (although I am familiar with SP stuff which interests me), however I found I do like design/architecture a lot and am capable in that dept. I have a few proven implementations that look nice on the resume. My automation skills on the operations side are low/novice but I have a little experience in that dept which I could focus on more with option 1. I would say I'm pretty knowledgeable on the core protocols. So here is where I see are my options.Option 1: Should I try to pursue my original goals and try to get in the door on the Service provider side and work more senior level engineering. (this could be Tier 1or regional/smaller, but just an ISP).Positive: I will gain more engineering type experience/knowledge where I might be able to contribute to the industry like I originally said I wanted to. Probably move to larger networks with larger teams (could be a con?).Negative: Pay might be lower (than current or future position), more siloed, and might have more operations stuff like on-call stress, SLAs etc.Option 2: Should I go deeper into design/architecture (where I probably excel most), and become more tuned on the business side. Likely a solutions or network architect, possibly work for a VAR or vendor. Probably would go for the CCDE here.Positive: Probably more money and likely chill hours, work with different customers/network designs.Negative: Likely in a worse position to contribute to the industry and will be doing less on the engineering side and working directly on networks, since I'd be going more to the business side. Probably more dealing with sales BS.option 3: give me an idea?TLDR: Does working for larger networks or an ISP really matter? Either from a general perspective or for someone who wants to contribute to the industry?Should I keep with my original goals and try to "be something" and stick to engineering or realize those are probably unrealistic and go for the money on the business/architecture side where I've been gravitating?Thanks for the help - let me know your thoughts and share what decisions you made mid-career, anyone ever been in similar situation or had these aspirations?
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