| So this is an interesting discussion. I come from the other side. Came into a Telecom company in 1999 with data experience and started learning telecom. Then got into the Cisco stuff right when CallManager was bought up from Selsius Systems.
I gotta say that I did not know my color code either until 4 years ago when the networking guy who was an Electrical Engineer by training, quized me on my first day of putting in his IP tel system. Honestly, slate?! who knew!
But the blend is tricky. I would guess that most of you see Hybrid systems a lot and still have to deal with cable issues. For me it's not that hard. Slap in some Cat5/6 everywhere and if everything is configured correctly then bring out the cable tester. It really ONLY gets hard in a hybrid enviornment when you hit all the legacy cable.
So the rub is this. The data guys are in an everchanging developing enviornment. The telecom guys know their stuff solid, but it's not changing either. If we do an interation between a CM with certain routers and an old Fujitsu then the data and telecom guys will both learn something, but the next time we do the same integration, our stuff will have changed and the Fujitsu will have not changed.
I'm affraid that when it comes to which is harder to learn the data stuff wins out soley because it is still changing.
On the job seach front, I have a similar issue "that guy doesn't exist" in posting for guys who know MCSE, MCP, CallManager, IPCC scripting (ICM) have a CCIE or CCNP and 10 years telecom experience.
You can put 10 CCIE's in a room wth CallManager and they may get it up and running. Same to be said for 10 MSCE's. THe killer is that being either of them does not qualify you to make a server or router do phone stuff.
ICND is a good start, as is CCNA. But unless your getting trained on the particular servers and applications that are replacing the PBX's then your not really replenishing your skills. KNowing which pair to punch down does you no good when 300 phones are WiFi and the messaging system is XML or Exchange
Don't make the mistake of lumping "the Cisco guys" together Just like an Avaya PBX cert won't help you program the Avaya networking equipment.
Cisco IP Tel guys with 5+ years of experience are getting $85k+/year Specializations in WiFi, IDS, or Security will get you over $100k because it proves you can also take care of more than just the routers and switches.
In the end getting the phones up is the easy part, getting them to do something besides dial-tone is hard. __________________
Deus ex machina |