I apologize ahead of time if this isn't the correct place for this type of post, this isn't early career advice so I believe this fits in. I think I could be doing better and I'm considering a change of scenery. I'd wholly appreciate some career advice from people within the same realm.
My Background:
* BS Computer Science
* No Certs (I'd probably get my NP to boost my resume before going on market)
* Official Job Title: Backbone Engineer
* With the company for 11 years on and off
* Started as a Tier-1 helpdesk rep, worked up through the ranks and have done internships through college
* Interned with: Tier-2 helpdesk, Ops Techs (in-field), Sales Engineering
* Landed full time position with the top core engineering group after college
* 5 years in current position
Company Background:
* Medium-sized Tier-2 regional service provider
* 400K Total Customers
* Provide dedicated services to commercial entities, upstream services to cable providers
* $25-50M revenue a year
* 200 Employees
* Comparable Market: Akron, OH
* Median market income: 60K
Team Background:
* My group is the highest-level (non-management) technology department in the company
* I am one of four engineers
* Cisco shop
* Standard Salaried 8-5, Rotate On-call shifts, Twice weekly overnight change windows as needed
* Off-hours availability expected
Day-to-day:
* Design and deploy new network segments, augment existing ones
* Upgrade legacy equipment
* Co-ordinate our ops team in the field for deplyoments
* Research and development
* Deploy and configure active DWDM equipment and deploy waves for internal and customer use
* Configure and deploy core and PE equipment (Core Routers, PE Routers, PE Metro Ethernet Switches)
* Work heavily with IOS-XR/IOS-XE/IOS
* Work with vendors frequently
* Manage IGP operations, route reflection, and core traffic manipulation
* Manage peering at IX borders (Transit/PNI/IX Mesh) and analyze netflow for ingress traffic manipulation
* Configure and troubleshoot customer-facing services (DIA/BGP/L2VPN/L3VPN/Wave) for sales engineers
* Stood up/configured/deployed/manage our core DDoS mitigation system
* Design and manage management networks
* Be an escalation point for our Tier-2 helpdesk and troubleshoot issues
* Work with servers/unix systems/vms occasionally, being fluent is a requirement
* Work with Software Engineers on NMS and automation
Personal Accolades:
* Favorable quarterly and annual reviews
* Unofficially considered the "lead engineer" of our team by management
* Go-to guy for anything BGP-related (I love BGP)
My Salary: Just shy of 55k/year
Our environment is very sales-driven. Sales people in our company are typically driving the direction my department takes and what projects we work on. I'd like to move far and away from that, I'd probably look toward enterprise. My real passion is management, I love working with my co-workers and generally helping other people. I feel like I have a lot of ideas from a management perspective and I've been told it's something I should pursue. Unfortunately, a management position in this company wouldn't open for another 10-15 years. I would love to hear any thoughts on my current situation and suggestions moving forward!
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