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Network Administrator

Keep the data moving — the routers, switches, firewalls, and Wi-Fi that connect everything.

Read this before you tick anything

This is a plan, not a qualification. Nobody completes it in order, plenty of people get hired halfway down it, and some finish the whole thing and still have a hard search. It tracks how much of this plan you have worked through — nothing more, and specifically not how employable you are. There is no score, no streak, and nothing here is a deadline.

The roadmap

Written as an order because the earlier stages genuinely make the later ones easier — not because skipping one is forbidden.

  1. Stage 1

    Learn the fundamentals

    TCP/IP, subnetting, switching, VLANs — free via Professor Messer / Cisco Networking Academy. Build a home lab in Packet Tracer.

    Study guide: CompTIA Network+ →

  2. Stage 2

    Prove networking fundamentals

    Earn CompTIA Network+ to get past resume filters for NOC and network support roles.

    Study guide: CompTIA Network+ →

  3. Stage 3

    Go hands-on with real gear

    Study Cisco CCNA — routing, OSPF, ACLs, WAN — and lab everything. This is where you become employable as a network engineer.

    Study guide: Cisco CCNA →

  4. Stage 4

    Specialize and go professional

    Pick a direction — network security, cloud networking, or automation (Python/Ansible) — then formalize it with CCNP Enterprise (ENCOR + a concentration) when senior roles are the target.

    Study guide: CCNP Enterprise →

Skills this path is built on

Tick what you can already do. Most people arrive with more of these than they expect — especially the foundational ones, which are the part everyone skips and then has to come back for.

Certifications

Evidence for a direction you have already chosen, in the order they stop being premature. You do not need all of them, and buying the next one is rarely the answer to a stalled search.

First rung (optional)

Cisco CCST Networking

The $125 confidence checkpoint with free official training — for students and budget starts; committed adults can go straight to Network+/CCNA.

Start here

CompTIA Network+

Vendor-neutral proof of networking fundamentals — the recognized entry signal.

Level up

Cisco CCNA

The strong hands-on networking cert; opens more doors and pay once you have the fundamentals.

Level up (alternative)

Juniper JNCIA-Junos

The Juniper-side equivalent of CCNA — free official training and deep-discount vouchers make it the cheapest legit routing & switching cert; strong in ISP and service-provider shops.

The professional tier

CCNP Enterprise

Where senior network roles start — ENCOR + a concentration, once CCNA-level work is second nature.

The automation direction

CCNP Automation

The NetDevOps professional tier — if the Python/Ansible direction from stage 4 becomes your lane, this is its credential.

Try the work

Worth doing before the first certification rather than after it. Finding out you dislike this is a genuinely useful result, and far cheaper here than after an exam voucher.

60–90 minutes · Free

See how packets actually travel and what a NOC watches all day, using commands already on your computer.

Built-in commands only; optional free Cisco Packet Tracer or Wireshark for a deeper follow-up.

More weekend trials →

Your data

Every tick is saved to this browser the moment you make it. Nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and progress on other paths is kept separately — switching plans never erases one.

All plans The full Network Administrator guide