From: "Griffith
Date: Sun Jun 05 2005 - 10:46:48 GMT-3
FWIW, I recently faced that same decision. I'm pursuing my security lab
but everything else was pretty much the same. Everything about the other
job interested me - money, location, travel... And the DWDM(hey, I've always
been attracted to pretty colored lights) but my decision was to stay on my
current path.
1) DWDM is layer 1 (or 2, depending on who you talk to) and I find layer 3
and above to be much more interesting.
2). Depending on the vendor and specific implementation, it's either very
intense or something you never really mess with once it's in. Been there,
done that with ATM.
I decided it was a personality choice and that my personality (temperment)
was best suited for exactly what I'm doing now. In other words, do what
you like doing (and the money will follow...)
More specifically, I've heard from some Nortel guys that those even
intermediate certificatios are much more expensive to obtain and maintain
(than Cisco) - so will the new company pay for them?
And one last comment, how vested is your friend in his CCIE? If he's at the
beginning of his journey or he's already tested several times, it may be
something to consider. On the other hand, if he's been working on this for
a while but hasn't tested yet - maybe he should take the lab at least once
or twice before deciding to change course.
Darlene
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-----Original Message-----
From: David Duncon <david_ccie@hotmail.com>
To: ccielab@groupstudy.com <ccielab@groupstudy.com>
Sent: Sun Jun 05 08:37:49 2005
Subject: Optical Networking scope
Hi Group,
I was wondering if any one can give some guidance on the following career
transition issue.
A friend of mine ( who apparently is preparing for his CCIE R & S Lab exam )
got an opportunity to work as a Network Engineer with an Optical Network
vendor who manufactures and install WDM (Wave Division Multiplexers) and
FDMs ( Frequency division Multiplexers) with in Carrier exchange
environment.
As he was totally confused about the offer because half of the interview
panel was not aware ( or less keen should I say) on what the CCIE
certification is all about as they are all hard core Carrier back ground
people with more focus on Optical Networking , Juniper gear and CLNS stack
(ISIS) and with much lesser focus on IP Data Comms as such. So my friend was
not sure whether it is a career limiting option or career enhancing option ?
Any feed back on following information is much appreciated.
1) Is this moving (from purely IP based Data Comms role to Optical
networking Engineer role) a completely side step with limited future
opportunities ( i.e. less employers in the field) or it is moving up the
food chain kind of process with in to a complex Telco or Carrier arena ?
2) What kind of career certifications are available with in Optical
Networking & which ones are valuable/useful to have ( on WDMs , FDMs and
related products) 3) What kind of employers in the market employ these
Optical Networking skill sets ?
Thanks in advance...
Cheers
David.
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