John Handley, Senior Cisco Network Engineer

Q.How many years have you been in IT?    

14 years

Did you do a degree, if so, which type and where?

No, am currently in year 3 of a BsC Hons Degree in Software Systems

What was your 1^st job in IT?

Teaching programming on a part time basis.

Would you recommend grads to travel after college or get work experience first?

It depends on the area you want to work in. As regards basic IT support for example, you will start on a low level salary unless you have experience. It is usually easier to get more significant exposure to technology abroad as a graduate.

Have you worked abroad and if so, where and for how long?

In Germany for 3 months UAT testing software/hardware.

What was your biggest career break and why? 

Getting industry standard certification and leveraging that to get an ideal role.

Describe your current role in brief.

Contracting as a network engineer.

Title:  

Senior Network Engineer

Industry:

Communications

Size of company:

Varies on contract

Report to (title):

IT manager

Technologies / applications you use

Networking, Security

Are you currently on Permanent or Contract status?

Contract

Which do you prefer in general and why?

Contract, as I can have more flexibility with training and time off.

What trends do you see happening in the next 18 months - 3 years in your specific area of expertise?

IP Telephony on the up, home working using broadband on the increase. Mobile data hardware and software development increasing.

What advice would you give to grads / what would you have done differently if you could “reel back the years” career wise.

Get into Information Security earlier.

What areas of technology would you advise less experienced IT people to focus / get trained up in the coming years.

Helpdesk is always a good place to start for support. If you are a code cutting wizard get into a high profile software house. Once you get confident with the basics (from experience) you can move up a rung in the ladder.

Out of 10, are you happy in your choice of career in IT and if so why?

8, always a challenge ahead, technology is constantly evolving.

What is your favourite top 1-2 technical resource websites?

www.cisco.com

www.ntfaq.com

www.theregister.co.uk

Your feedback and comments are really appreciated.  We hope this will help Ireland’s younger up and coming IT professional’s to gain from your experience and give them more focus on their IT career’s.

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