I’m the kind of guy who hates doing tedious and time-consuming work. It’s boring and makes the day drag on a lot longer than it really needs to. Many network engineers have experienced the less exciting parts of the job, including myself. What I’d like to talk about in this post is why I moved from network engineering to network automation engineering.
Starting out in Networking Engineering
My first job in networking was designing and deploying wireless networks for hotels. Unfortunately, much of this job was still done manually, including device configuration changes, making the job often tedious and time consuming. I learned firsthand the limitations of traditional network engineering because of this. Additionally, effective time management was impossible because the workloads were frequently uneven during and between deployments.
Every engineer and technician at this job commented at one point or another of being too busy and/or overworked.
My moment of clarity was when I was working on a deployment and the customer asked to add a new VLAN to 50 different network switches, and again shortly after the first VLAN was added. I knew there had to be a better way to manage configuration changes.
The First Steps of My Journey
Fortunately, I had recently learned about network automation and how it can help in scenarios like this. I decided to start digging to learn more about it. The more I learned the more I started to really like network automation.
It didn’t take long for me to decide to really start focusing my career on network automation. There were three primary factors influencing this decision:
- Network Automation combines networking and programming – I have a background in both but incorporating both into my career was challenging. I like the complexity involved in networking and the logic and problem solving of programming. Network automation combines both fields which became a very good fit for me.
- Network Automation will have major impacts in the networking industry – In fact, it already has. Many companies have already encountered the struggles of managing larger enterprise networks and sought innovative solutions through automation. This will become more prominent as more companies who have been hesitant start following the example.
- Network Automation has impressive job growth and outlook – The network automation industry is expected to be valued at $32.8 billion dollars by 2028 with a compound annual growth rate of 22.8%. The growth rate is more than double the growth rate of network engineering. Needless to say, there is some job security in network automation.
Preparing to Transition to Network Automation
Significant changes do not occur without action. In other words, I had a lot of work to do to successfully transition into network automation.
I already had a head start working as a network engineer and some additional college course in software development, but not enough to make the change. I identified two major milestones to achieve before I felt I was ready to move into a full network automation job.
Note: Your milestones would likely be different based on your own existing experience and goals.
- Finish a second degree in Software Development – My primary degree is in journalism, which doesn’t offer much foundation in technical jobs like programming. I took a few extra courses after graduation in programming and was only three courses away from an associate degree in software development. I quickly enrolled and finished in December 2021.
- Earn the Cisco DevNet Associate certification – Once my degree was completed, I started focusing on earning the associate level certification in Cisco’s new DevNet track. This new track is focused more on network automation and software development rather than pure networking. I completed the certification in February 2022.
I also had a third, quasi-milestone while working on the primary two: Learn Python and some basic network automation. To meet this, I started teaching myself Python and took two courses from Kirk Byers: Ansible Network Automation and Netmiko by Example.
(I highly recommend both courses for those looking to learn more about Network Automation if you afford it. Kirk Byers does a great job at explaining the content, provides the lab resources required to perform the course material, and is good at responding to questions on his Slack Channel.)
With all milestones completed, I was ready to move into a network automation job. Since there were no jobs available at my existing job, I had to look outward, but my search ended before it officially began.
I was contacted by a recruiter less than a month after finishing the DevNet Associate and while I was working with a resume writer to update my resume. In the end, my freshly updated and expensive resume only went to one employer who I now work with as a Network Automation Engineer.
Next Steps
Now that I’ve successfully found a job in network automation, I can start looking ahead. I do have a lot to learn in my current job so I’m not in a specific hurry, but it’s always good to continue learning and improving yourself.
I’m currently studying for the first exam of the Cisco DevNet Professional certification. After that will be the CCNP Enterprise (It shares a specialization exam with the DevNet professional). My goal is to have both of those completed within the next year or so.
Have you made a switch to network automation or thinking about it? Share your story in the comments below.
