Years of software engineering, some networking, and some system and database administration. Windows, Linux, and UNIX. My entire resume and the rest of this web site are about computer skills.
Everything I've done professionally has been understanding and solving the customer's technical problems—both building new software and fixing existing software. A few times, I've fixed a small network, and I've done a number of hardware repairs. I've always talked to the customer directly. Much of this experience generalizes to faster-paced network problems: for example, the path of software execution could be described as a network—a flow of process control from one part of the code to another, just like data flowing through network nodes. In both software and networks, I follow the process or packets until I identify where the data doesn't do what it should or go where it should.
At Indus International, I worked in the customer service department. Customers would call in system outages, and I would wear all of the "hats" in the process—take their calls, understand the problem, and find a solution. I fixed many dozens of systems problems over almost two years. This software ran at power plants, mines, and oil refineries. At many of my jobs, I was the only one from my company at the client site, so it was my job to understand and solve problems—I have proven communication skills.
I want to work as late in the day or into the night as possible, whenever possible, so I started thinking about 24/7 operations. Given that I was at my computer in the middle of the night connected through a networking device while thinking about this, network companies came to mind.
I've been smitten with this job description ever since I laid eyes on it months ago. As I thought about it, I realized that I had several reasons to make a slight career shift from software engineering to networks:
I can think of other reasons along these lines, but I won't write a book. :)
The system should work as the customer specifies. With very few exceptions, I've met the specifications. Sometimes, I come up with a solution that improves upon the customer's original idea.
BS in Computer Science
Software Support Professionals Association Certification
I'm aware that the job description (at some companies) calls for an associate's degree and one year of experience. I have a bachelor's degree, and, depending on your interpretation of my relevant experience, I have several years experience. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to make software engineer pay with this job title. The benefits of learning something new and working later in the day are worth the tradeoff in the short-to-medium term.
I had a great interview with one of the networking companies on August 24, 2010—"great" from my perspective in that I have a warm fuzzy feeling about the job, and I'll very likely take it if offered. As of September 15, they're still interviewing, though, so it's up in the air. I have to pursue other jobs in the meantime. I wrote this text for the company I interviewed with. I posted this text when I applied to another networking company on September 18.