Hi
I made a post a few days ago regarding Cisco Solutions providers in Sydney to which I received some helpful information. I just wanted to see if I could get some thoughts from those out there regarding what type of "environment" I should be looking to work in based on my goals and interests.
I have been working as a Consultant working primarily with Active Directory for the past few years (I am 29). I have started to increasingly lean more towards IP and Security and want to move much more in that direction. I am a CCNP, MCSA and am completing my Masters in Networking in November. I also have experience with PIX, Netscreen, ISA and Watchguard firewalls. I am also becoming increasingly motivated to obtain my CCIE but as the majority of my experience is in AD and will continue to be if I dont change roles, I realise I need to do some hard yards getting some more extensive and varied experience than what I have received so far and what the CCNP offers.
I have always worked for System Integrators which I find good due to the range of different technologies and sites I work on so am leaning towards finding another SI who works primarily in the IP and Cisco space though.
I wanted to get some thoughts though on whether or not this may be the best option in order to get suitable practical hands on experience to move towards my CCIE. Would a Telco maybe be a better option as they may have more equipment, or potentially try and work in a large company that manages their own large internal an external networks? As I mentioned, I am leaning more towards Security so want to get as much exposure to this side of things with a variety of challenging tasks in such as area.
So can anyone provide any feedback as to what they have found to be good environments/industries/organisations to work for in order to build highly technical knowledge and experience in this area and maybe some of the bad points also?
Thanks in adance. VD