Salary Information You Should Know

Network Engineer Salary

When you choose to go into the field if network engineering, you’re making a great career move. As the world becomes more dependent on technology, there is always going to be a need for IT people of all types, and especially network engineers.
When you’re a network engineer, not only do you get to work on the latest technology and maintain the network infrastructure for whatever company you work for, but you also get to make a great network engineer salary. In fact, it’s usually the allure of the network engineer salary that makes most people want to enter this field in the first place.

What is a Network Engineer?

A network engineer is responsible for the design and maintenance of a company’s computer network, which involves both hardware and software. Network engineers are considered high level technicians who have a specialty in local area networks, or LANs, and also wide area networks, or WANs.

Education Requirements

If you aspire to become a network engineer, you’re going to need the proper education. Most colleges offer a degree program in Network Engineering that will give you the degree you need to get the job you want. You can get a good network engineering job with a bachelors degree, but you will effectively increase your value, and your salary range, by working towards and finishing your MBA.

How Much do They Make?

As stated before, the network engineering salary can be quite substantial. However, how much you actually make depends on your experience level, your education, as well as how good you are at negotiating when it comes time for you to do so. Generally speaking, however, you can expect to make around $50,000 per year straight out of college.

That’s a terrific beginning range for a recent graduate. Most graduates are lucky if they make thirty or forty thousand per year, so network engineer already has a step above most other careers because of the entry level salary potential.

Of course, as you get more experience, and you become better at what you do, it’s not unreasonable for you to make $80,000 or more. In fact, some network engineers make well over six figures. That will have to come with time, however, and you shouldn’t expect that much right out of the gates.

Becoming a Network Engineer

If you are straight out of college, a good idea is to intern for a specialty project with the network design or engineering field. This will give you the benefit of having education and experience, while most graduates only have their diploma to show their worth. However, if you can’t get an intern position and you are one of those with only an education and no experience to speak of, you can often get an entry level job that might not pay as well, but at least it will get your foot in the door.

Once you’re hired, you’ll be in a much better position to get promoted, to get raises, and also to show your bosses what you’re really made of so that the promotions and raises come frequently.

Finding Network Engineering Jobs

If you want to make that salary, you need to find a job. The internet is a great place to look for a job, especially if you’re in the IT field. There are general job sites and then there are those sites that offer job searches for only those that deal with IT. It’s recommended that you make use of as many job sites as you can find. By signing up with the various sites, and putting your resume on each one, you’ll drastically increase your chances of finding quality work, and quality pay.

There are many companies hiring network engineers these days. And, as technology gets more advanced, and businesses become even more reliant on it, the demand for good network engineers is only going to increase with time. Therefore, this is a great time to become a network engineer. There are no shortages of jobs, and many of the big named companies like Google, Yahoo and even Apple are always looking for good network engineers to join their teams. You never know when you might get lucky and make the big bucks with the first job you get.

First, however, you must get the proper education and then you must get your name out there so that people know you’re looking. That’s the only way to become a network engineer that makes a great network engineer salary.