Networking experts in demand

Despite the deterioration of the high-tech job market,
networking professionals with training on cutting-edge
software and hardware are in high demand, experts say.

By Victor Godinez
The Dallas Morning News

"You continually need people to work on the hardware,
and also people to maintain the software end of it and add new users, to configure the network for
optimal performance," said Ray Shepard, regional vice president in Dallas for Robert Half
International (RHI), parent company of RHI Consulting. "So there are all different types of
networking professionals, and it is hot."

An RHI survey released early in January found that networking is the fastest-growing specialty in
information-technology departments, with 18 percent of chief information officers nationwide
saying they’re adding networking experts faster than any other type of worker.

"What we see from a networking perspective is the push of e-commerce," said David Mantica,
worldwide director of networking products for corporate IT training company Global Knowledge
Network.

During the boom years, companies looking to expand their e-commerce offerings were often
willing to splurge on more bandwidth to power their Web sites, the equivalent of building wider
roads rather than improving traffic flow.

Now companies are wanting to make their existing networks more efficient, and that requires hiring
and training networking pros, Mantica and others said.

Global Knowledge has seen more business recently from companies seeking to improve the
security of their e-commerce networks, said Ted Prescott, manager of the Global Knowledge
training center in Las Colinas, Texas.

"We’ve got a lot of demand in the security area," he said. "We currently have a Cisco (Systems)
security-specialist boot camp going this week, where they’re dealing specifically with security
relating to the networks."

Job seekers are also recognizing the value of network training because the demand from
companies often pushes their salaries significantly higher.

"We had a student in here about six months ago who went through one of the certification
programs," Prescott said. "He was very pleased once he passed all the tests and completed the
course because he got a $10,000 raise when he got back to work."

Lofty salary levels are not out of reach for network administrators willing to branch into more
specialized areas such as network security, Mantica said.

"That could raise their salary up from $50,000 to almost $60,000, $70,000 or $80,000 a year
depending on skill sets," he said.

Whether it’s a Microsoft SQL server platform, Oracle’s network software or any variety of network
hardware components, networking professionals need to constantly update their skills, Shepard
said.

"There is a good supply of networking professionals in the marketplace," he said. "So it’s important
for networking people who are looking for a job to continue to keep their skills current, to be
working on the most recent versions of the emerging technologies."

Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company

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